I have been listening to the NPR: Car Talk Podcast for about two years. It is a VERY funny show where these guys take call-in questions about cars. They are funny and I have learned a great deal about cars.

I also subscribe to to Weird Week. News of the odd and stories that I don’t hear anywhere else.

I am an amateur astronomer and I subscribe and enjoy ‘What’s Up in Astronomy’. It is a weekly (sort of) podcast of what is going on up in the sky at night. A very interesting podcast.

My favorite podcast was the HTS, Crew Aids and Tools featuring the development of tools and equipment for NASA’s space exploration. Students in grades 4-12 would love this one!

I liked the enhanced and video podcasts the best because I am a visual learner. Audio podcasts, although interesting, are difficult for me to listen too for long periods of time. I lose interest and eventually just tune out.

1. HTS SM4: HTS Crew Aids and Tools
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
The Last Mission to Hubble: Vodcast
July 17, 2008

CATS- Crew Aids and ToolS
What an interesting podcast about the creation and development of power and hand tools for the astronauts. Although I never thought of it before now, the crew cannot exactly pick up their specialized tools at Home Depot or Lowe’s. Space environment is not friendly, it can be extremely cold or extremely hot and most of the time the astronauts work in a vacuum.

Tools and equipment must be easy to use by the crew while they are dressed in their spacesuits and heavy gloves, which create special problems. Consider their helmet, vision is limited and so is the ability to maneuver screwdrivers and instruments to drill a tiny screw into a tiny hole. The CATS crew creates instruments that allow astronauts to visualize and manipulate tiny objects.

When replacement parts are not available, crewmembers must rely on the ability to create a suitable alternative using the available tools on board the spacecraft.

Cool Tools…

2. Tim Learns about the Olympics
Storynory- Story for Kids
August 3, 2008

Natasha, an Australian storyteller, narrates the story. The story opens with Tim, who is a tadpole attending tadpole school. Tim is a really good swimmer and is second in his class in the backstroke event, but his silver star wouldn’t stick to Tim because he was too wet! Birdie, a large frog told Tim that only the fastest and strongest frogs can compete in the Olympics. Tim was ignorant and asked about the Olympics, so Birdie asked Natasha to tell them about the Olympics. Natasha didn’t know enough about the history of the Olympics, so she went to the library to look up the topic. Facts:
• Olympics started 2 ½ thousand years ago in ancient Greece
• When games were being played, there was a truce among all the enemies of the land
• First held in Olympia
• Held in honor of Zeus, the Greek god
• There were a total of three major games played, one each year for four years
• Once it was determined that only the Olympic games were to be played, they were held every four years
• Games were abolished by a Christian Roman King, because they were held in honor of a pagan god
• 1500 years later a Frenchman restarted the games as a sign of peace over war and politics
• The Olympics have always symbolized human achievement and peace
The story went on to tell about the many medals that have been won and the many world records that have been beaten over the history of the games. The many medal winners and those whose medals were taken away due to drug use and unfair practices.

3. Wired- Gadget Lab Episode #5 Hardware that Rocks!
Beats by Dr. DRE: Samsung SGH-U900 Magical Touch
August 8, 2008

This enhanced podcast shared the latest gadgets and high-tech consumer equipment including special features and cost. Although interesting, the featured equipment was not educationally based and was very pricey.

They featured Monster Cables’ newest quality sound headphones. They shared that the highs and lows were excellent, but the middle frequency tones were not good. They two speakers were impressed with the packaging, liking it to Apples’ extraordinary flare for packaging items in nice, fancy boxes.

The second item they featured was a Samsung SGHU900 Magical Touch cell phone. It includes a touch pad for an “elegant” display, but a set of confusing soft buttons. It carries an OLED display with a 5.0 mega pixel camera and a price tag of $500 US dollars.

Arizona’s IDEAL eLearning Platform had student-made video podcasts describing the neighborhood around their schools.

New Jersey’s Perth Amboy Public Schools had professional development type vodcasts that showed different language arts games. This is a great way to learn new things to try with your students. Rather than just reading how to do something you can see it all!

New Jersey’s Montclair Public Schools had a vodcast that was an interview with a PE teacher that had incorporated technology into his curriculum using Wii — this was interesting to me because I teach at a PE magnet school. I will share this one with the PE teachers at my site.

For my ELD class I thought I would look for a good English Language Development podcast. The first one I listened to was “The Word Nerds.” It was horrible. I listened through the first four minutes waiting for something interesting to happen. but nothing happened. I don’t think this episode belonged in the ELL category because none of it was on basic English.

I gave one more shot to another ELL podcast called “English as a Second Language Podcast.” The episode was called ‘Describing the Taste of Food.’ It was ok. It went through a dialogue of a dinner/lunch and the two characters have a discussion about the taste of food. “The food was spicy, but delicious…” It could be incorporated in my class, but the voices were so boring and sounded like robots. After the conversation, the main podcast voice dude breaks down the conversation and explains why certain words were used.

My new favorite podcast is PTI. One of my favorite shows is Pardon the Interruption on ESPN. Now that I know I can subscribe to it, I might never have to miss a show. Well, at least it will be on my computer waiting for me to listen to.

The podcasts that I listenedd to were through the EdTechTalk site. I cannot get iTunes to work on my PC due to a network error that I need to get fixed (yes Mac users, I hear you!)

I really enjoyed this podcast, which you can subscribe to and listen live to every Sunday morning. The women are a hoot, and the topics are very interesting. Here is the url without the http

edtechtalk.com/taxonomy/term/717

The second one is about Earth Day 2008. This is one that I was interested in listening to because we have been working a lot on setting up earth projects throughout the school year.

edtechtalk.com/earthcast08

This one is teachers teaching teachers about Wikis

edtechtalk.com/taxonomy/term/185

Finally, I found this site that lists university podcasts and what they are about. It’s great as a reference:

http://www.oculture.com/2006/10/university_podc.html

2) NPR: Sciene Friday. If you can’t catch this on the radio, then iTunes is the next best stop. This is a great podcast for science or math classes, or anyone with a driving sense of curiosity. I liked the “What Your Driving Habits Say About You:.

3) Stuff You Should Know. This podcast is brought to you by the handy site HowStuffWorks.com, so you know it’ll be good. The topics are things most of us have probably wondered up but have no answer for it. I recommend the “How Murphy’s Law Works” podcast.

It actually contains hundreds of video podcasts on very interesting subjects as it relates to Arts and Humanities, Childhood and Youth, Computing, Engineering and Technology, Environment, Languages, Law, Math, Science, and Social Science.

1.) My Favorite Podcast from Open U was called:
*Innovation Design. It explores new avenues of technology as it pertains to the environment, energy, and sustainability. The podcasts are done in a high quality documentary style like you might see on Discovery channel or TLC. I am excited about this one because it closely relates to the PBL I created in EdTec570. It will make a great student resource during my project called “Energy Quest”.

2.)Another good podcast series on iTunes is offered by Discovery News. Each podcast is between 1 to 5 minutes and covers “the latest developments in science news, including space exploration, technological breakthroughs, archaeological findings, animals, environmental research and more.” These would make a great intro and discussion piece for any class.

3.) CNN Student News is another good resource on iTunes you. It is “utilizes CNN’s worldwide resources to bring each day’s top news stories to middle and high school classrooms. The 10-minute, commercial-free program encourages student participation and provides classes with context for understanding current events.” That said, it could be a great tool to motivate students and spark classroom discussion.

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