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

Commentary on Podcasting

Well Folks,
This has been a very busy week.
Here I would like to review my experience of podcasting and share my thoughts on using this media in education.
Yes, podcasting was / is challenging. I have gone a little further than following Odeo guidelines, by drawing my original graphics for publishing my podcast on iTunes - where you can now see my podcast in the iTunes Store. I have explored and uploaded my podcast to iMac, through iWeb, also through Podcast Maker by LemonzDream, and Podomatic.

I have listened to several podcasts. What strikes me is that these should be educational (thanks to Pam and Sue for getting their podcast feeds and three Episodes up online - I am subscribed ), but most are too conversational and not so rigorous in educational integrity. That these podcasts should be educational has been suggested three times by the Guys&Gals at WestGa ; - (1) in Module 4 Optional Readings guidelines, (2) in Module 4 Assignment 1 guidelines, and (3) in Module 4, Assignment 3 (point 4) guidelines. I would suggest podcasts could be improved by following these suggestions and the author's own proffered four criteria in Module 4, 5.1 Assignment 2, Discussion of what makes a good podcast. See my criteria which I have indeed followed ( blog 'Podcast Subscriptions' 29 April ) as follows ; -

(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.

I would also suggest that podcasters use a speaker of clear English if at all possible, and if they cannot ummm avoid aa the I mean aa other aaa speech mumbles, then try using a pre-written script. This podcast script will also help with Section-508 compliance and ISO Standards. Note I give my scripts as pdf for each podcast episode.

Moreover, my short fade-in / fade-out theme music was created by me, as were my graphics - both copyrighted by me.
All Best Wishes
Paul