Interesting interview with Ewan mcIntosh about social media and how it can used In schools, you can listen to it here, and found more stuff on his blog!!!

Reasons why I think podcasting lectures is useful

1. Firstly reviewability if teachers want students to go to class to listen, surely with the price of a mp3 player, and cheap microphone, it’s a valuable resource for students

2. I have found that the content is so much more focussed with a podcast, for instance we recorded a 60 min podcast recently, where after editing getting rid of all the ahhs and emms, I reduced this to 25 mins, you can go straight the content and frame the lecture in key points with perhaps music breaks to emphasis key concepts, no time is wasted !!!!!

3. I found throughout my studies that some lectures were not concerned with updating there notes, and were just rehashing the same notes as the previous year. The nature of knowledge is that it changes all the time, and having last previous years lecture would ultimately demand reviewability from the teacher and student and hence more updating of the content.

4. Rss feeds are so easily consumed nowadays, and are generally supported in all the latest browsers. Students can easily synch content to be delivered to themselves effortlessly without having to navigate troublesome CMS or company intranets.

5. For thing like questions at the end of a lecture, where there maybe issues of hearing, all question can be reviewed and answered, also additional information can be added to supplement this answers

6. Everyone has a mp3 player

7. I believe all leading institutes have started. Universities who don’t not provide this facility will feel
A. Left behind
B. Not meeting the needs of there learners
C. Not advertising the real assets (teachers and lectures/ facilities etc) of there institute

8. For students who are not sure about taking a class, there is no better reference than listening to last years lectures to see if this topic would interest them

9. Podcasting in effect will only amplify the good or the bad. Podcasting in my opinion requires more planning, and more time, but delivers a far better one to one message. The content once released is under the scrutiny of everyone and managed properly this can provide the foundation for a effective collaborative work environment.

10. Through Skypecasting or Waxii the whole class can participate with an outside voice with lecturer moderating. I think listening to other voices is very important when learning something. They can offer a different voice, perspective, and expertise on the subject. The lessons I enjoyed most where often guest visits we had from professional working in that area. They gave insight on how what we where learning is applied in a professional context.

Free UC Berkeley Courses via Video and Podcast (Essential Classes)

UC Berkeley has made available courses streamed video, others by podcast that you can access for free. You'll find here many essential/core courses here



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Podcast Directories

Useful help on adding your podcast to the different directories,I would highly recommend this site as well for useful podcasting hints and tips



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Really good video on the copyright and music, with the world most important 6 sec drum loop.

LibriVox is a very interesting project I came across not unlike podiobooks in the last post. LibriVox records books in the public domain and releases the audio files back onto the net. There goal is to make all public domain books available as free audio books. They are a totally volunteer, open source, free public domain project. The recordings are available in a range of languages including English, German, French, Chinese and Portuguese (Brazilian)


There most recent addition of text is the mamooth ( the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection,By charles Darwin) which weighs in at a mere 24 hours of audio
.Now although this wouldn’t be my cup of tea, the project has lots of potential

You can read more over at a interview here

Librivox identifys the public domain books through Project Gutenberg (the first and largest single collection of free electronic books) to ensure public domain status of texts.

This made me consider would other publishers start offering there books as podcasts, I know if I had the choice to digest content I would much prefer do it through audio,

But even if its heavily encrypted with DRM, with limited plays my guess is that there would be plenty of other students who would also listen more often , then pick up a book to read, particularly if it’s a tough read,

LibriVox is always looking for new volunteers
“unless someone decides to take on the leadership of a new project, it probably won’t happen. We get all sorts of suggestions all the time, and we’re open to just about all of them, as long as someone is willing to spearhead the effort.”

Currently this guy is organising Ulysses, by James Joyce, check it out here, Any other ideas join the forum and get recording !!!!

Read this very good article how unsigned authors are utilizing podcasting and growing there readership/ listeners. Below is a quote from Mr Sigler who currently has 30,000 listeners

“A lot of no-name authors like me are getting massive grass-roots exposure, and some of us are going to percolate to the top and get on the best-seller list,”

You can find the book which comes in instalments over at Podiobooks. They suggest a donation of 10$ for new covers but frequently people pay over when they enjoy it

I came across this video via the excellent David Noble podcast at Booruch. This teacher Tim Ryland uses the game Myst to promote literacy in his class, In an age where they say literacy has dropped amongst average children this look like really good use of games and ICT in the classroom. The game helps provides the children with a visual immersive environment that provides a platform they can write about .Some of the sample videos look really impressive with the kids looking really into it ,You can find his blog over here

Barcamp is back and this time it in Dublin Horrahhh, I really enjoyed the last one, and would encourage everyone to head along to this, The wikki for it can be found here.

Have just listened to a really good talk about issues with podcasting from the creator of RSS Mr. Dave Winer. This is a very interesting talk not just about future development in podcasting, but also touches on publishing, community,and the role of the media. The podcast can be found over here

There is a really good podcast over at Conn Ó Muíneacháin Edgecast media winner of the recent digital media awards.This podcast is about using podcasting in the buisness setting and is really good example of how podcasting can increase the knowledge transfer within an organisation.The podcast is a conversation between Michael Byrne of QBC Ltd and conn and is fascinating insight into podcasting benefits within an organization.