Thing #21 Podcast

It is hard to believe that this is my last "Thing"!  I find the idea of a podcast interesting and see that it could be used in almost any educational setting.  However, I keep hearing our guest speaker discuss the idea that it is not a podcast if it is not updated regularly.  For this reason, I am not sure a podcast is something I would utilize in my Library.  I see myself using audio files instead of a formal podcast.

Having said that, I did explore several of the podcast directories and found some to be more helpful and user friendly than others.  The Educational Podcast site was difficult to navigate and I found most entries to be individual classes posting their projects.  While this is exciting for the creators, I am not sure it would be helpful for others.  I felt like I had to sift through a lot just to find anything of relevance.  Again, I think it is a terrific place for students and teachers to post items that would be useful for them, I am not sure an outsider would find a lot of that content relevant.

The Podcast.net site was much more user friendly.  However after searching a few school related topics (elementary library and children's literature) I am not sure I will subscribe to any pod casts at this time.  I would like more time to read through several entries before I add them to see if I find them to be a reliable source.  It seems to me that anyone can post an entry and much like the Internet, you must be somewhat skeptical of the author.  After reviewing some of these sites, I may decide to add them to my Google Reader in the future.

After reading a few other posts, the idea of TLA presenters (or any speaker) posting their sessions is quite interesting.  I am not sure they would do such a thing because it may prevent further engagements thus limiting their livelihood.  However the idea of being able to review a speakers presentation is exciting.