Accessing Podcasts for Professional Development

Tech:  Listening to podcasts is a great way to sneak in professional development within your day.  First, identify what you want to view.  Next, you can use your computer to consume it if possible or download it to a mp3 device for your on-the-go listening pleasure.  Here's a video to get you started.



Podcasting in Plain English from leelefever on Vimeo.

Met Ed
I am a newbie at listening to podcasts for professional development.  About three years ago, I had one of my classes create podcasts, but until this summer I never realized how many quality podcasts are availabe for professional development purposes.  I have only been listening to them in this manner for about three weeks now. So far, I find it extremely beneficial and exciting.

Future posts will highlight favorite podcast and webcast episodes.  For now, here are some suggestions to get started:

• So far, Seedlings is my personal favorite.  It also highlights a variety of tech topics which are relevant to the classroom.  A big plus is that it offers links to most of the web 2.0 tools that are discussed within each episode via Bob Sprankle's blog called Bit by Bit.
• TED is a must see!  There are many dynamic speakers on this site.
• EdTechTalk has a variety of topics related to both tech and ed.   
• Edutopia offers some interesting vodcasts
• Colorin Colorado! is a site I send my TCE students to view webcasts on ESOL and bilingual ed. issues.  
• Reading Rockets is a related site with some broader literacy videos and podcasts. 

RSS + Reader: Bringing Info to You

Tech  Looking for an efficient way for new information from your favorite sites to come to you instead of you going to them?  RSS + a reader helps simplify life. 

Here's a snapshot of some of the education and technology blogs and podcasts I subscribe to using these tools.

Here are some tutorials to help you get started.



I use google reader, but there are other possibilities.



Met Ed (Applications)

Professional Development: See some of our recommendations in Networks and on the side of the blog. Most of these contain RSS feeds.  Viewing these feeds allows us to stay abreast topics in education, see examples of how technology is currently being implemented in classrooms, etc.

Job Searches: It may also serve a useful purpose if you are job searching. NAFSA career center uses RSS. I also noticed that some local school districts have this feature.

Get started by subscribing to When Tech Met Ed.

Look for the icon.

And the Story Begins

This particular story begins with two teachers from different backgrounds meeting and exchanging ideas about tech and ed:  Our names are Cheridy Aduviri and Kacey Kintscher.  Here's a brief overview of where our journey intersected and the formation of this blog began.

Kacey was my daughter's elementary teacher.  I noted some interesting, positive things happening in terms of my daughter's critical thinking skills and asked to volunteer in the class.  Kacey was gracious and opened the doors of her classroom.  Many problem solving, critical thinking, and networking ideas from an ESOL technology class that I teach at the university level were evident.  It turned out that this was not a coincidence.  She takes many concepts from her research in technology and education and applies them to her classroom in ways that have a positive impact on her students.