Podcasting and podcasts

I always like seeing a topic in the 23 things that has some familiarity to it!! Then I feel I do a better job in my explorations. I decided to try the directories and found I liked Podcast.com and  PodcastDirectory.com  because they were laid out in a way that was easy for me to use - I could definitely get to things I wanted to quickly. I plan to use some of the online story podcasts I found- my teachers have been asking for books on tape and while we have some, these podcasts may fill the gap. 

I have made digital "podcasts" with my students using Garage band and found them to be a fantastic way to engage students.  If I had more time, we would do ongoing podcasts but because they were "one-time" projects that I wanted parents to be able to see and hear, I played with the software so that all of our podcasts ended up on one page as entries and I blew away the "subscribe now" buttons before I posted them. The kids did an awesome job with their research and project creation.

I think it would be great to use podcasts so that students could review books for others; I may try to find a way to do that soon. Before I launch something like that, I want to make sure I have more ideas about management and time commitment in place.

Personally, I have found that podcasts are great for me when I miss an episode of a radio show I listen to, but I find that subscribing, unless it is for a show that is  5 minutes or less in length, is not  worth it for me as I rarely go back and listen to missed episodes. Great for road trips though!!