Podcast Subscriptions

Hi Folks,
Here I would like to introduce to you those podcasts - among the many to which I have subscribed - which I think are instructionally useful for online education.

I have decided upon my four criteria for evaluating a podcast with respect to its use in online education. Although earlier I had only three (see my blog 'Delphi' 25 April), I have realized I need a supra-arching first criterion, thus ;-
(1) be educationally useful, and effectively improve the quality of learning,
(2) use clear, concise, coherent English, and with vivid enthusiastic tone,
(3) short duration, within ten minutes (those at 30 minutes long became a drag on my time and attention), and
(4) have short theme music at the beginning and at the end, to help me recall the podcast topic context and related prior knowledge and schema in my mind.

Applying these criteria, I recommend the following podcasts. I have subscribed to many others, and also downloaded example episodes for evaluation purposes, and kept these individual episodes since they fulfill the above criteria, but I did not subscribe to the whole podcast and other episodes because they were irrelevant to me.

* * * * * Foreign Language Resource Center
Felix Kronenberg introducing educational technology for language learning, though he is German, his English is clear, and pleasant to listen to, and the six-minute podcasts are bi-weekly which suits my busy schedule just fine.
feed://flrc-old.pomona.edu/podcast/podcast.xml
from where you can download each episode, for example see the video podcast on how to use PulpMotion (for Mac only) at
flrc_podcast_episode1.mp4 (mp4, 14.5MB, 6min-16sec)
(His second episode is Photo Story for PC only.)

* * * * * Make Magazine
This podcast gives short instructional guides to new technologies which could be used in education.
http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/make_podcast/
feed://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/make_podcast/index.xml

* * * * * November Learning Communities
Alan November or a guest giving short instructional podcasts on using educational technology, with the podcast feed at his blog at
http://nlcommunities.com/communities/alannovember/
and websites at http://blog109.org
and at http://www.novemberlearning.com
for example listen to this episode in which Brian Mull talks with Seth Bowers
http://novemberlearning.com/podcasts/seth.mp3

* * * * Tech Tips 101
Charonda Cosey and Dawn Corley giving short instructional podcasts for teachers to introduce technology into the classroom (only four stars here by me, because their English is not so clear, and there is too much redundant speech – almost sounding like a radio talkshow).
http://media.switchpod.com/users/techchick101/feed.xml
for example listen how to use blogs globally
which by the way I had already thought of and had earlier set up for linking my students here in Japan with those in Germany (thanks Jane), with those in India (thanks Ramesh), with those in the Philippines and USA (thanks Charito), with Viet Nam (thanks Trang), and with those in South Africa (thanks Pam)
http://media.switchpod.com/users/techchick101/Febr23.mp3

* * * The French Pod Class ‘Sebastien – Let’s learn French the fun way’
http://www.frenchpodcast.com
feed://www.francewithsebastien.com/rss
feed://www.frenchpodclass.com/rss
for example listen to his mp3 at
http://cache.libsyn.com/frenchpodclass/FrenchPodClass78-04212007.mp3
Although this is in French, using an immersion approach, Sebastien speaks the instructions in simple easy-to-understand English. I chose this subscription since I teach French.

I should also like to mention here the following blog. Although it is not a podcast, nonetheless it is updated regularly with short educationally useful tips for improving learning ;
* * * * * How to Blog
http://dummies-guide-to-google-blogger.blogspot.com

All Best Wishes
Paul