06 May 2007

Review of a few podcasts

Hi Folks,
Thanks to Pam's blog, I could locate another two podcasts by WestGa members - Sandra and Diane.
Diane has three quite short episodes up in her podcast here. Diane usefully suggests that we should incorporate video into our podcasts, and also for our own students we should search out podcasts made by others to recommend to our students or use in our lessons - both excellent points.
Sandra has one episode up so far in her podcast here. Sandra uses Bloglines rather than Blogbridge as aggregator, which she recommends as easy to use, but then so again is Blogbridge, I think. Sandra also mentions that Bloglines can show you how many persons are subscribed to your podcast - useful if like me you wonder all the time if anyone is ever listening or reading this stuff. However Odeo in http-view mode also does this - see for instance mine at http://odeo.com/channel/411283/view. Since Sandra mentions Audacity again, I would guess she recommends recording the mp3 on Audacity and copying this over to Podomatic for podcasting.
We must note that Odeo no longer allows users to upload mp3 from a computer desktop to Odeo, but only record directly to Odeo or transfer audio from an URL. This echoes somewhat Pam's podcast here on online safety, where she includes Internet Service Providers as also responsible for content (in addition to you !, teachers, students, parents and the world governments). What offends one person however may not offend others, and it is a difficult call to make. I for instance find shabby grammar offensive.
Sue in particular in her podcast here has very good grammar and clear enunciation. Concerning which type of students - Sue ponders - might better suit podcasting and e-learning rather than regular face-to-face education, I think Sue would be interested to hear Doshisha University, Japan, announced the test results this week of last year's (April 2006- March 2007) students where the e-learning internet students showed better results than those in the classroom - and they attributed this to the capability of e-learning students to 're-play' as often as they needed those points they wanted to revisit in their lessons. Other studies generally report no significant difference - when such variables are factored in.

Well, all those four podcast feeds provide stimulating food for thought ;)

All Best Wishes
Paul

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