podcasts

Before starting my Internet for Educators course I had some experience with podcasts, well with one in particular: LibriVox. LibriVox is a project to make digital audio recordings of books in the public domain. I find books on tape/cd/mp3 are great for keeping me alert (a.k.a. engaged) while driving so I have a fair collection of LibriVox audiobooks in my collection, including Pride and Prejudice and The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock. If you are doing a novel study of a literary classic, check to see if it is in the public domain and then check to see if there is a LibriVox version of it. It's a great way to support students who struggle with reading.
All recordings are done by volunteers and in sections. Sometimes this leads to some discontinuity when the readers change throughout the course of a novel.

I also started exploring some other podcasts as part of I4Ed. Here's a science themed one to satisfy both sides of my nature.

Everyday Einstein's Quick and Dirty Tips for Making Sense of Science

• Audio only
• The majority fall between 4 and 6 minutes in length.
• Range of scientific topics
• What is density?
• Why do we yawn?
• The basics of pH
• Uses ordinary analogies to illuminate complex concepts.
• The Higgs field as a mall food court, with people handing out free samples. Particles are the mall patrons, the Higgs boson the free samples. Some particles take more free samples than others and thus are more massive than peckish particles.
• One downside is that there is an advertisement in every podcast and since they are already relatively short the ads quickly become frustrating.

I am going to keep investigating podcasts and will share any good ones I find.