More Amazing Podcasting

SmartBourd Challenge
This podcast is for educators on how to use their smart boards to their fullest potential. Ben and Joan (your hosts) talk about, explain, explore, and judge the pros and cons of links they've found. They even discuss lesson ideas to use their links. They even respond to e-mails educators have sent in and share links from other teachers. They also warn teachers about inappropriate links for students. These are two links they mentioned in episode 146.

whitebordchallange
wordle.com (to create word clouds)

They go through a lesson slide by slide and how to create the lesson. They incorporate charts, flash video, websites and how to use these to reach all different learning styles, and to make the lesson interactive by letting them place information on slides.
This podcast is designed to encourage educators to be creative with the tools available to them.

Geek!ed!
This podcast can be found on itunes under education, more education K-12,or at their web site. This podcast is some times student inclusive , even to the point of having students on the show (one cast included high school students talking to congressmen about a program to connect students in Africa and the US using technology) But mostly its for educators who are interested in technology.
There are four hosts ( they keep mentioning the table they're around) who are clearly computer nerds. They are based in Michigan. Mostly they discuss ways to incorporate technology in schools, both in the classroom and administration.
Some times they have guest geeks on such as in episode 101, were they were talking about school/SISCO collaboration.
Some times the jargon can be quite technical. Although any one can listen and keep up, it helps to be technology literate. Discuss lab tops, smart boards, and all manner of classroom technology. As well as funding issues, reliability of technology, effectiveness of collaboration and administrative issues.

Kidcast
Dan Shmit is our host. His cast is concerned solely with the classroom, teachers, and pod casting. Unlike the other casts his is extremely focused. He still however incorporates alot. He goes to a teacher technology retreat, he has guests to talk about interactive teacher communication podcast forums, mac-world conferences....every week he's doing some thing new exclusively with pod casting.
He discuses everything podcast ( getting started, using within the class, lessons) He has a fastening podcast about educating about citizenship, especially given issues such as politics, news, political ethics, voting. (episode 47) He wants students to gather information about an ethical/political question from 3,4, or 5 sources and respond in podcast about their findings to teach that their are not just two opinions (liberal vs. conservative) He also warns of the dangers of this project. ( name calling, preaching, teachers leading student toward an opinion...)

EdTechTalk
This cast is based in Main, but has guest over the phone from all over the world. (Australia) The guests share what they're doing and topics on incorporating technology in the schools. This cast is very teacher interactive. The cast is recorded during a live web cast .Educators can get on skype or the chat room to further discuss the show.
This is a great idea, as it connects teachers all over the world, but some times there are long periods of time were they cast the computer issues they're having with the show, such as loosing a connection with a guest.

MacBreak Weekly
The first thing that struck me about this cast is the advertisements in the beginning. This cast is alot more cooperate, and regulated.( Obviously ran by the Mac Company) This cast is focused not on education, but on Apple technology, even to the point of discussing the stocks of apple technology. They also include guests, talking about other tech podcasts. They are alot more tech literate than EdTechTalk, there is an audio and video portion to the show, however the information is not as pertinent to educational issues. But again they are a podcast produced by a company to update the listeners on their products, they are amusing though.

TWiP
This week in Photography has sponsors they advertise for in the beginning. They also mention competitions and workshops. Their cast (like the MacBreak) is designed to keep listeners updated. Which given how fast paced technology is, can be considered a necessity. They also offer the opportunity for fans to communicate and post they're photos through flickr.