On Pods, Vods, and Casts

I have been subscribing to podcasts for quite a few years. In particular, the inimitable Doctor Karl on triple j, and the Great Moments in Science podcasts. I had subscribed for a while to the amusing Rocketboom vodcast, but gave up on it because I didn’t have a good connection to the Internet at home at the time. It was also a bit pointless. But, there are a great number of very useful podcasts out there. The French École was one I used to learn a bit of French. I also currently listen to the 6 ACT Conversations podcast from RMIT University, particularly the 6 or so episodes on mindfulness.

I use iTunes to subscribe to podcasts. I think it is pretty much the only software I’ve used to do so. This is because I started listening to podcasts on an iPod, which must be used with iTunes. I like the software, and I think it has great library management features. It is easy to use and is unobtrusive.

In the classroom, I see a usefulness for pod- and vodcasts, I have often thought about getting my Year 8 science class to listen to some episodes of Dr Karl’s Great Moments in Science, because they are informative and are produced in such a way as to be easily accessible for young listeners. A transcript could be acquired and transformed into a cloze passage, which the students could fill in as they listen to the podcast. This I must try before the year is out. I just have to find an episode that I can link with the curriculum.