Thing 18

I must admit, I have been interested in finding out more about podcasts and videocasts. I explored the NPR site, the Educational Podcast site, Podcast.com and even a few others when I tried a general search.

Throughout my search, I found it very difficult to find something I would deem appropriate for my middle school students. Most of the podcasts and vlogs I came across were very techie and not speaking at all to a young student audience. I did not find a single thing I liked on the new Windows 7. I thought I might use that as an intro with my students at the start of school, but I found nothing. I also searched for podcasts on video editing and Adobe Premiere, but came up short.

I did find a guy's podcast who gave some great computer demos of Microsoft Excel Shortcuts. I have a lot of students who are always looking for more shortcuts, rather than using the mouse. This might be a neat video podcast to show them:

http://technology.podcast.com/episode/57022896/17173/ - Excel Shortcuts Episode

#1209

For my personal use, having just purchased a new iMac last week, I was interested in some of the Mac podcasts. I found one on the in's and out's of customizing my Mac:

http://technology.podcast.com/show/68254/Ask-The-Techies-%28iPod-Smaller-Version%29/
ask the techies - Customizing your Mac OS

Finally, this podcast gave cool little tidbits of Apple History. It was a quick and easy way to remind us just how far we have come. http://technology.podcast.com/episode/61598951/11173/ -On this Day in Apple History

Overall, I was a little disappointed. I think I would be more likely to use podcasts if a friend or colleague directed me to a specific one that was worthy. I found the search process to be exhausting and unproductive. Perhaps this is just because of my topic choices. I can certainly see how creating my own podcasts for students might be helpful, but very few of the ones I searched seemed to fit my classroom needs.