Thing 20

Include in your post the name of at least one podcast to which you subscribed. Describe your experience using the various search tools. Which do you prefer and why?

I subscribed to several NPR programs but one in particular I was very happy to find ... NPR's Fresh Air podcast. I used to listen to Fresh Air on my way home from work but schedule changes at our local Public Radio station makes it impossible for me to hear this program. So I was delighted to find it as a podcast!

I also subscribed to the podcast titled " Today's Middle Level Educator". Some of the individual podcast titles in this series that deal with technology include "Wikis in the Classroom" & "Bridge Building with Skype". The most current session is titled "Podcasts and the Science Classroom". This series is exciting because it presents real educators who are using technology but the series also deals with important issues in middle school such as advisory programs and new teacher tips. This is a really useful podcast for any middle school educator who can pick and choose those individual sessions that are most applicable to themselves.

I tried both The Education Podcast Network & Podcast Alley. I found both to be rather difficult to use and I ended up using iTunes instead. The Ed. Podcast Network had a lot of compelling listings, but four out of five of the individual podcasts I looked at were unavailable ... OR I just couldn't figure out how to access them. It was frustrating. Many of the others were also woefully out of date.

In comparison, iTunes was relatively easy to use to find podcasts on particular subjects. Plus, iTunes had some groupings like most popular podcasts of 2008 which was a good place to start browsing. All in all, iTunes just has the other search tools beat and the integrated interface allowing you to download and listen immediately AND save it as a listing in your iTunes is just incredibly convenient.