What makes the drive worthwhile
Travelling from the north-eastern to the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne each morning, I have a drive of anywhere between 40 minutes to an hour each way. Like many people out there, I use this time to listen to some of the many interesting podcasts on offer.
Below are some of the educational podcasts I listen to. They are listed in order of when I started listening to them.
Edpod is a fortnightly podcast from Radio National (ABC) and looks at a range of education issues. This podcast started off really well with interesting and relevant information on things such as school readiness, steiner streams in public schools and Schools for the 21st century. However, since the actual radio program behind the podcast was cut, I’ve found the stories have become less relevant.
While essentially not an education podcast, this one from the BBC has a lot of interesting information about what is going on in the world of technology. It is hosted by Gareth Mitchell and there is often three to four different stories in one episode. While hearing about the stories themselves is good, what is also great is the is the insights given by resident expert, Bill Thompson.
This is a fantastic podcast by Chris Betcher, looking at different aspects of technology in the classroom. There is normally one to two other people on the program with Chris and they change from episode to episode. The podcast contains a wealth of information and the guests are always interesting and engaging. There used to be a podcast about once a month up until the start of this year when they have been less regular. They are definitely worth a listen, and there are a couple which I’ve listened to a number of times (check out Episode 14- Questions are the answer).
This is a podcast that I stayed away from in the beginning, as we don’t use SMARTboards at our school, we have Promethean Activboards. Nevertheless, I downloaded a podcast after hearing Ben Hazzard speak on the Virtual Staffroom during one episode. What I quickly discovered was that this is not just a podcast for users of the SMARTboard. The podcasts are enjoyable to listen to, with engaging hosts Ben Hazzard & Joan Badger. Each episode contains a lesson on a different topic but it is not about what the SMARTboard can do, just examples of good teaching. Joan regularly gives good links to try out and what is refreshing is that they are not a mouthpiece for SMART. They often speak their mind about the board and its related products and are quite prepared to call it as they see it.
This is one I stumbled upon after reading a blog entry by Chris Betcher in which he mentioned he was a guest on one of their podcasts. This is also a good podcast looking at many different websites and web 2.0 tools on offer. The podcast is hosted by Tony Richards and The ICT Guy, Darrel Branson each week. They occasionally have guests on the program and have also conducted podcasts at conferences such as the ICTEV conference in May. I also listen to Darrel’s ICT Guy podcast which contains a link and blog post of the week.
This is a podcast I’ve been listening to fairly recently, created by Jeff Utecht. This is a podcast about shifting our schools, integrating technology into the classroom and the changing nature of learning. Jeff and his many of his guests are from the International School scene in various parts of Asia, and their conversations are always thought-provoking.
This is a podcast I’ve picked up only in the last couple of weeks. In this podcast, a group of people take it in turns to talk about different links or tools that they’ve discovered over the course of the week. The podcast contains a wealth of information, although it is difficult to take in every link that they mention while I’m driving. I’m finding I have to listen to these podcasts a couple of times to get maximum benefit.
These are many of the podcasts I listen to, if anyone knows of any other really good education podcasts, leave me a comment.
Hi Mark,
Thanks for the linking to the podcasts I’m involved in! Looks like we share a lot listening, I also subscribe to most of the above. Enjoy the holidays when they come
Kind Regards
Darrel
Thanks for linking to On Deck on the list. Glad we help make the ride more though provoking. We’ll be back in September with more shows. Taking the summer off and planning the next year. We’ll start up again when my shipment arrives in September sometime with all my podcasting gear.
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Hi Mark,
Thanks for the comments – I too listen whist in the car and find myself having some amazing conversations with myself. Hope you are having a good break – will be talking with you soon via the Ed Tech Crew.
Regards
Tony
I never thought of listening to Podcasts while driving. I usually listen to the radio. I’m going to start trying that although I only have a 15 minute drive (soon to be 5 minute). I can’t believe that I never thought of it seeing as I used to travel a lot across the Top End for work and used to listen to audio books etc while driving.