Podcasting Thoughts

By previewing the NECC 2006 workshop sessions online the other day, it didn't take a rocket scientist to notice some distinct trends in presentation topics. Of course there are your standards like professional development, blogging and the like. But, one that really stuck out to me is podcasting. Yeah, big shocker... now this technology is not new by any means. But, the money/funding does seem to be flowing like the Mississippi River into the Gulf for research projects investigating the cost/benefit to implementing iPods into the curriculum. It is happening at the K-12 and Higher Education level. If you do any kind of surface level investigation, one can notice that everybody is for it, and nobody wants to be realistic and play the devil's advocate. So, I am ready to...

1. Podcasting is an awesome tool if used correctly. That means equipping end-users with some software client that subscribes to RSS feeds. The point being that the process needs to be simplified in a manner to be non-exclusionary by default for all technology skills.


2. Users need training. But, the process (see point 1) should contain no more steps that we have fingers on one hand.


1. Download and install a podcast client.


2. Subscribe to the RSS feed which syncs on a schedule.


3. Plug in the portable audio/video podcast player.


4. Sync the player with the software client.


5. Listen to the podcasts downloaded to the player.


3. Content creation, editing, and production needs to be an organized process. This is crucial. This tenet relates to all forms of media - print, TV, etc. I really think that this is where programs will fail.

Bottom line is this... Implementing a podcasting project of any scale takes a detailed, organized plan. Anything less will render the project into the bin of federal or state-funded projects that have good intentions but never meet project goals.