Podcasting

Well I finished my module on podcasting. I created three podcasts that talked about my trip to South America and if you are interested the link is located on my blog on the lower right corner. I enjoyed creating the podcasts. It was relatively easy to do on Odeo. If you listen to the podcasts it's easy to discern that they were "unscripted". I generally knew what I wanted to say but it is very conversational with some pauses and mistakes and corrections. I'm not sure that fits everyone's listening preference but it is my speaking style and preference. I've narrated online PowerPoints before and when I first began I scripted them. I and the students found them hard to listen to. After that I just used an outline to speak from and that worked out much better. It sounded much more natural. The podcasts I created were brief (all less than 10 minutes) but it's amazing how long that is and how much information you can convey in that short time. I've listened to several of my classmate's podcasts and am interested in the variety in our styles. I find it harder to listen to carefully scripted podcasts (as I'm sure some find it hard to listen to my unscripted one). I think that people's personalities come across in their podcasts. At least the audio on the podcast seemed to reflect the glimpses of personality one gets from written interaction. Of course I'm a counselor and pay attention to those kinds of things. It was a fun experience, easy to do, and I will be alert to the opportunities to use podcasts in my online teaching.