EDL- Blog Post 2

Focus on Podcasting
We discussed tonight what makes a good podcast. What is your experience with podcasting (consumer and creator)? What’s the best podcast you’ve found. What makes it good to you? What do you want to remember as you think about creating your own podcast?

I enjoy listening to podcasts.  I am a big fan of the TED conferences (http://www.ted.com), and I also use podcasts to catch up on my favorite NPR programs.  One of my favorites  is “Splendid Table”, a culinary talk show.  Although it is purely auditory, the culinary experience is not diminished by the lack of visual representation.  The show’s hostess  engages the listener with vivid sensory descriptions.   I do appreciate that I can listen to the show on my time and when I am engaged in other activities. 

I have a friend who is a proponent of sustainable living and makes his living from sharing that interest and knowledge with the aide of technology.  His career began with a weekly podcast, and now he is sponsored by Purina and has been featured in Time magazine and the Wall Street Journal.  The internet has been largely responsible for his popularity and the development of his own Professional Learning Network.  I like to remember the role technology has played in his career as I embark on my own professional learning journey.

EDL- Blog Post 1

1.       What do you expect from your PLN journey this semester?  
I am looking forward to having the time to learn more about technology as an instructional and collaborative tool in my professional life.  In the past, I have focused on technology as an instructional and collaborative tool for my students. 

2.       How might it compare with and influence what you already do?

While I use technology to make my personal and professional life more efficient,  and I have used technology as a network to collaborate and grow through my hobbies and personal interests, I haven’t fully realized technology as a collaborative tool professionally.

3.        What concerns you?  
There are some technology tools in which I am simply uninterested, and many of them seem to create a guise of impersonality and anonymity that I think has the potential to breed misinformation and/or a lack of personal responsibility.  There are a lot of people behaving in ways that they wouldn’t in face-to-face social interactions.  Likewise, there is a lot of inaccurate and irresponsible information being disseminated.   

4.       What excites you?  
The prospect of learning about tools of which I was previously unaware.