Week 9 (Thing 18 & Thing 19)

Don't panic - you do not need an iPod!

Podcasts can be a wonderful tool for education. Everything from book reviews (see here - http://jhslmc.blogspot.com) to classroom notes could be turned into a podcast. There certainly are infinite possibilities and you will hopefully get an idea this week that can be used in your classroom.

A podcast is defined in various ways but essentially it is an audio file (video files too) that can be listened to on a computer or mp3 player.

For the purists out there, a Podcast is a published with an RSS feed. The subscriber (you) to that RSS feed gets an automatic update, downloads the podcast, and puts it on an mp3 player to listen to.

18) To begin with follow the instructions for how to subscribe to a podcast. Then start looking for your own and subscribe to them.

How to subscribe to podcasts:

This can be done via iTunes so if you are an iTunes member already then you can simply use what you are already familiar with.

But for those starting fresh, or looking for different options, we will use the free podcast receiver Juice.

a) Go to http://juicereceiver.sourceforge.net/ and download the appropriate software to your computer.

Install it.

b) Below I have provided the same information in two formats.
One is the text with screenshots style, the other is a series of three short videos to watch (and a bonus video!!).

Click the link and Read or Watch.

Screenshot Instructions & Video Tutorials

c) Find Some Podcasts. Take a look at the following links and subscribe to at least three podcasts that interest you (using the instructions above)

Podcast.com - http://podcast.com/

The Education Podcast Network - http://epnweb.org/

Notes:

Other popular podcast catchers include Ziepod (ziepod.com) and gPodder (gpodder.org/)

Here is a link to the many podcast catchers/recievers out there http://www.buzzmaven.com/podcast-software-list.html

Also, the other side to podcasting is creating your own and students creating their own. This will be covered in the 23 Things Part II.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

19) What did you think of the podcasts? Create a blog entry telling us what you liked, didn't like, how you might use it in the future, etc... Also be sure to tell us of any great podcasts you found.