Podcast potential

Educational podcasting has immense potential. This is now becomming evident in the range, scope and diversity of uses that podcasts from schools are put to. The home, school and college podcasts we have listed in our podcast directory at www.recap.ltd.uk/podcasting provide some good examples of podcasts:

• created and produced by children about their topics;
• performances and rehearsals of music;
• messages for parents and members of the local community;
• interviews with young people about their educational aspirations;
• information about key events in the academic calendar;
  
• interviews with key members of staff about their work;
• community notices about the upcoming events.

We look forward to future discovering future podcasts from schools and colleges.

Schools, Schools, Schools

This is the title of our latest podcast released today, 21 September 2005.

Schools are well into the new term and new podcasts are emerging. In this update to our Podcast Directory for Educators, we feature some samples of podcasts for you to enjoy, including work from a range of young as well as new podcasters:

• From Maine in the USA, a podcast from Room 208;
• Radio Sandaig from Glasgow in Scotland;
• For the young at heart, Fairy Tale Corner;
• work at Stanley Middle School Music Department in California, USA.

As usual, our theme tune is "Boogie for Jools" from logicalaudiomusic.com.

Podcast par excellence!

Every once in a while something quite extraordinary happens when auditioning podcasts for inclusion in our directory. This week we received some examples of outstanding practice in the field of educational podcasting. Two podcast channels in particular stood out:

• Bobby Bucket Podcasts
• Room 208

The "brains" behind both of these podcast channels is Bob Sprankle from Maine in the USA. Words cannot adequately capture the originality and creativity of the content and the quality of production. The podcasts are, quite simply, first class and an absolute must for you to hear for yourself! They are both different in their own ways. Enjoy.

Enhanced podcasts

Gradually, a small number of enhanced podcasts are beginning to appear on the Internet. Enhanced podcasts include multiple images and links to other websites. These enhancements can be bookmarked to appear at pre-determined times within the podcast. For educational and instructional purposes, such enhanced podcasts provide scope for much greater flexibility in teaching and learning.

Enhanced podcasts can readily be "played" in iTunes and downloaded onto any "graphics compatible" iPod. The enhanced file is an AAC encoded audio file (m4a or m4b, m4p) but is this format is not yet as widespread or as popular as the mp3 format used by the vast majority of podcasters. Some actually take the time to produce their podcasts in both these formats.

On our website (www.recap.ltd.uk/podcasting), we do indicate in the podcast description if the selected podcast is not in MP3 format.