Podcast

Podcasts are an interesting tool, they are audio or video files usually in an mp3/mp4 format, which can be played from the web or downloaded to an mp3/mp4 player and played anytime/anywhere from there.

The main strengths in using podcasts in the educational sense are both as a teaching tool and as a learning tool for students.
As a teaching tool it can be used to deliver assignment tasks verbally as in a real world application or contain class reviews or concept reviews for student reflection.
Experts in the classes associated fields can deliver summaries of their work to engage the students and inspire them to research the field further.
The students can deliver assignments or set work via a podcast, this allows students to deliver their work orally but not take up a large amount of time in the class, as a teacher I can listen/watch the presentation at a later time, then provide advice feedback as required. There may even be an opportunity to pair better students with ones that are struggling in a collaborative effort on another task.
Due to the portable nature of mp3 players, they can be used outside the classroom to record the events of a field trip. With a clearly defined scaffold of learning objectives the students can record their findings, paired with a camera (either separate or on the mp3 player) the collaborative effort can be reported on and posted on the internet for a relate-create-donate exercise.


Below is my PMI for Podcasts

Plus:

• Easy to use (either online or on an mp3 player)
• easy to create and publish
• can be used as a tool for students learning and reflecting
• portable, being able to be copied to any mp3 player
• has video content ability (as an mp4 file format)

Minus:

• audio only podcasts are not good for visual learners
• ensuring content is engaging and pedagogically sound
• Legal issues with copyrighted material
• ethical concerns about posted material from students
• safety of students identity

Interesting:

• Podcasts should not really be used on their own too much, instead they should be a part of an overall ICT framework
• advantages for Sight impared/dyslexic students
• can be used in field trips, for recording events of the trip

http://djmpodcast1.podomatic.com/

above is the link to my first podcast, very simple podcast, only 10 seconds.