Podcasting

First up, watch this video:

The word podcast is used to refer to a non-musical audio or video broadcast that is distributed over the Internet. What differentiates a podcast from regular streaming audio or video is that the delivery method for podcasts is often done automatically through RSS.

In 2005, “podcast” was named the “word of the year” by New Oxford American Dictionary and with the growth of podcasting over the last 36 months, it’s easy to see why.

Podcasts take many forms, from short 1-10 minutes commentaries to much longer in person interviews or panel group discussions. There’s a podcast out there for just about every interest area and the best part about this technology is that you don’t have to have an iPod or a MP3 player to access them. Since podcasts use the MP3 file format, a popular compressed format for audio files, you really just need a PC (or portal device) with headphones or a speaker.

iTunes, the free downloadable application created by Apple is the directory finding service most associated with podcasts, but if you don’t have iTunes installed there are still plenty of options.

For this discovery exercise participants are asked to take a look at some popular podcast directory tools. Do some exploring on your own and locate a podcast that is of interest to you. Once found, you can easily pull the RSS feed into your aggregator or into iTunes as well, so that when new casts become available you’ll be automatically notified of their existence.

I use podcasts to stay up on technology and to pass the time when I drive back and forth between Illinois  and my home in Indiana. Some of my favorites?

GrammarGirl (Great for remembering grammar rules and tips)

MacBreak Weekly (I’m a Mac geek through and through, but check out all the tech offerings at TWIT)

Resources:

Things to Explore/Skim/Review:

Presentation:

This page is adapted from Learning 2.0 at SLJ. Learning 2.0 is a discovery learning program created by Helene Blowers. Content and style for School Library Learning 2.0 and Classroom Learning 2.0 have been borrowed and duplicated with permission, under a Creative Commons License. This work is licensed under aCreative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.