Podcast

A podcast is a series of digital media files, usually digital audio or video, that is made available for download via web syndication. These links can be very helpful whether it is for educational purposes or recreation, there are thousands of free podcasts just waiting to be heard (or seen).

http://www.learnoutloud.com/podcaststream/listen.php?url=http://feeds.feedburner.com/LitSummaryPodcast&all=1&title=24192

I listened to this podcast for awhile; it was simply a reading of “Great Expectations.” The purpose of this podcast is for people who can not or will not read the classic western books. The advantage of it is that you can listen to it while doing other things such as cleaning or cooking. The narrator is animated enough to captivate the listener’s attention as well, this is a great tool for students who are audio learners. However, some students are visual learners and this podcast would not suit those students because they would understand the text better reading it rather than hearing it.

http://frontrow.bc.edu/program/agresto/

This podcast about the value of democracy and questions whether or not our country has learned from its experiences with Iraq. The speaker has had real life experience in Iraq and is the author of a book about democracy. This is very advantageous for students who are looking for the perspective of an American who volunteered to go to Iraq to help them rebuild. It would be extremely difficult to obtain such an interview in real life, so this podcast provides an excellent account of John T. Agresto’s experiences in Iraq. The disadvantage is that students listening to his story cannot ask questions like those who attended the speech could.

http://www.cod.edu/multimedia/podcast/CODcast/English%202228/6560D23C-A8A6-11DA-9C02-000393BA0D94_files/01%20Lesson01.mp3

This lesson was from the College of DuPage and provides the Shakespeare class lectures via podcast. This is very valuable for online classes or even for students who were unable to attend an on campus session. However, it may allow students to miss class more often than otherwise because the podcast serves as a “back up plan.” It is convenient and certainly practical, but students must take care not to take advantage of this technology for these reasons as well as not being able to ask questions during the lesson.

http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/typo3conf/ext/naksci_podcast/xspf/player.php?track=Naked_Scientists_Show_09.03.08.mp3&podcast_type=Normal&playlist=/rss/xspf_playlist.xspf

The Naked Scientist Podcast series is very interesting and informative. It involves a cast of different scientists and researchers covering a variety of subjects from the solar system to smoking data. This is only an audio clip, which can be seen as disadvantageous because a lot of their evidence would be best supported with pictures and/or video clips.

http://education.podcast.com/show/5025/Learn-Spanish-Survival-Guide/
This is a podcast series of Spanish lessons. The greatest thing about it is that it is free, but it also comes with other features such as both Spanish and English speaking. This podcast is a listening quiz, taking advantage of the audio feature so that students can become accustomed to the language. Once again, you can not ask questions during the podcast so it loses the interactive edge of classroom learning.