Introduction

The term podcast burst on the scene early in 2004. In that short time it has begun to enter the mainstream, especially when a dedicated area in the iTunes Music Store was set up for them a few months ago. So, what's so special about podcasts? How do you know a good one when you hear it? In the space of 90 minutes, you're going to grapple with these questions and more.

The Task

To develop great podcasts, you need to develop a thorough understanding of the different possibilities open to you. One way for you to get there is to critically analyze a number of examples and discuss them from multiple perspectives. That's your task in this exercise.

By the end of this lesson, you will answer these questions:

1. Which example podcast listed below is the best ones? Why?
2. Which one is the worst? Why?
3. What do best and worst mean to you?

The Process

1. To answer the questions given above, you'll wear four hats to help you critique each podcast across several categories.
   
   

   The Efficiency Expert: You value time a great deal. You believe that too much time is wasted in today's classrooms on unfocused activity and learners not knowing what they should be doing at a given moment. To you, a good podcast is one that delivers the most learning bang for the buck. If it's a short, unambitious presentation that teaches a small thing well, then you like it. If it's a longer program, it had better deliver a deep understanding of the topic it covers, in your view.

   The Affiliator: To you, the best podcasts activities are those in which the personality of the voices comes through. You value the human qualities that make each podcast and podcaster unique. What matters to you is that you get a sense that you know the speaker and wish to know them better.

   The Altitudinist: Higher level thinking is everything to you. There's too much emphasis on factual recall in schools today. The only justification for bringing technology into schools is if it opens up the possibility that students will have to analyze information, synthesize multiple perspectives, and chew hard on complexity.

   The Technophile: You love this podcast thang. To you, the best podcast is one that makes the best use of the audio medium. If a podcast has bumper music, interesting background noise, sound effects, good quality audio, visual enhancements, you love it. If it's just barebones narration, you'd rather just read it.

   
   
2. Eamine each of the sites below and jot down some notes of your opinions of each from the perspective of all four roles you are playing. Don't spend more than 10 minutes on any one podcast. You can keep track of time using this clock:
   
   

   Time spent so far:

   
   Here are the sites you'll be analyzing:
   
   

   Podcast

   Middle East Geography & Travel

   Mr. Mayo.org - Podcast #6

   Online Literature Websites

   ACPS: This Day in History

   Is Fluoride Good for Us?

   Smart Solutions Episode 2 – First Impressions

   
   
3. You'll probably discover most podcasts are great in a couple categories and not so great in the others. Talk to the person who wore each hat (don't talk out loud unless you want people to think you're weird) and try to hammer out a consensus about what's best and worst. From your perspective, what do you think is best for the learner. We'll talk about your conclusions in class next time we meet.

Conclusion

Ideally, this exercise will provide you with a pool of ideas to work with as you hunt down podcasts to listen to personally or with your students. Maybe it will even help you develop your own podcast-making skills. The best podcast is yet to be produce. It might be yours!