Even with podcasting being well over a year old, I am not subscribing to any particular feeds– I’ve not really found a source from where I want that much content. I had not even loaded any onto my Shuffle for the last 2-3 months. When I do listen, I am doing it the old fashioned way, downloading a select MP3 and moving it my pod manually (after hauling a sled of coal 5 miles through snow to get to my computer).
On my Sunday run, however, I took a break form tunes, and listened to two podcasts from EDUCAUSE’s coverage of their big annual conference/carnival:
- A Conversation with Brian Lamb, mainly because Brian is a colleague, friend, and always phrases things in a low-key but practical, slightly sarcastic manner. His interview even foreshadowed what I wrote about blog commenting, when he refered to the “intoxicating high” of a blogger’s change in getting their first comment or a link mention on someone else’s blog.
- Also on the pod Vidya and I join Gardner Campbell for a discussion about blogs, podcasts and screencasts. I’ve exchanged emails and mutual blog admiration with Gardner Campbell, but this was actually the first time I heard his voice. He too has a great enthusiasm for ed tech for how it can be used for education. And I had no idea he was a volunteer sound editor dude for ITConversations which means I’ve likely heard his work. I was surprised at what he spoke of as the next exciting thing he saw happening in ed tech (you will have to listen to the podcast yourself, no spoilers here)– I agree with the excitement of the project mentioned, but am not so sure it will take off on the same trajectory. That said, I had forgotten about this technology, and Gardner’s message triggered an idea that it is along the lines of the type of system a faculty member was asking me for a few months ago. Actually, I think screencasting is getting way under-utilized, and we ought to be aiming higher than just voice over “this is how you use software” types of apps.
I like what Matt and gang are doing with the EDUCAUSE podcasts; the 20 minute length is a god balance of having enough time to make good points, but not being so long that they require a major chunk of attention time. It’s loose enough that it feels conversational, but not so loose that it seems aimless. The audio quality is top notch, even with the background sounds of people opening and closing doors at the conference.
So each podcast got me through about 2 miles of running, or maybe I could log my training as 2.75 podcasts.
PS One pesky thing EDUCAUSE can do is to shorten their URLs– ugh, the one for Garnder’s interview is 5 miles longer than my run!
