The midden » podcasting http://sumdy.edublogs.org education, technology, change Tue, 20 Oct 2009 12:02:44 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.2 en hourly 1 Top 100 tools for learning http://sumdy.edublogs.org/2007/11/27/top-100-tools-for-learning/ http://sumdy.edublogs.org/2007/11/27/top-100-tools-for-learning/#comments Tue, 27 Nov 2007 11:25:44 +0000 Will Stewart http://sumdy.edublogs.org/2007/11/27/top-100-tools-for-learning/ Jane Hart, head of the Centre for Learning and Performance Technologies, has produced a useful list of the most popular tools used by learning professionals. The list is a mix of proprietary, open source and web-based tools. She has also grouped them by type, and given other suggestions of similar tools in each category.

]]> http://sumdy.edublogs.org/2007/11/27/top-100-tools-for-learning/feed/ 1 Is podcasting dead? http://sumdy.edublogs.org/2007/08/30/is-podcasting-dead/ http://sumdy.edublogs.org/2007/08/30/is-podcasting-dead/#comments Thu, 30 Aug 2007 09:45:37 +0000 Will Stewart http://sumdy.edublogs.org/2007/08/30/is-podcasting-dead/ Alex Iskold in a recent article in Read/Write Web suggests that podcasting has not really made it into our daily lives and that it is on the wane. The podcasting trend reached its peak in mid-2005, about 12 month after it first started to be popular, while podcasts themselves appear to have peaked around the end of 2005 and have plateaued out since then. Iskold cites a number of factors to explain these trends – competition from blogs and videos, the “professionalisation” of podcasting by big media such as TV and Radio stations, and the difficulty in making money from them.

However, one of the successes of podcasting has been that it has made us reconsider the whole idea of broadcasting – anyone can do it (user-generated content), you can decide what you listen to (user choice), and you can decide when you listen (on demand). I feel that it is these 3 characteristics still make podcasts  a valuable and relevant tool for educators.

The other point worth noting is that Iskold assumes that podcasting refers only to audio broadcasts, when in fact video podcasts (or vodcasts) are just as important. Certainly, video podcasts are probably just as easy to create as audio ones are, and can be used very effectively in pretty much all subject areas. A look at the education podcast directory on iTunes shows a wide and increasing number of both audio and video podcasts.

itunes podcast

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