Podcast Craze

It is definitely intriguing but I haven't checked it out yet. I just know it will be one more thing I will really like about educating at home (or wherever we might be). We're already overwhelmed with too much great stuff.

But surveying my family; 3 out of the 6 kids have some sort of IPod dealie and they love it. 5 out of the 8 of our family have been listening to the Teaching Company's Famous Romans series that we checked out of the library and loving it! (Those Romans were brutal but history does seem to repeat itself. We're thinking our current government could use a Cato the Younger to stay true blue in integrity. Maybe a whole gaggle of 'em.)

I digress. I know that Kim from Relaxed Homeskool uses podcasts. Podcasts are on my overwhelming list of more cool things to do or check out. From the Ipod Garage:

And it isn't just universities grammar schools are doing it too, like Musselburgh grammar school. It is used as a great teaching tool because the students have to work together to write and edit a script, and record and edit the podcast. They are learning incredibly useful, real world skills that way.

This is also a great thing for homeschoolers, Finding good material for homeschooling can be hard, but with the basics in place using university lectures can be very good for learning something or finding out what still needed to be filled in.

Now that video is a major part of the equation those classes where a demonstration is most effective you can do that too. It would be great to podcast a science course and show those old film loops from the '50s to get a point across. I remember film loops like where the Tacoma Narrows bridge oscillated in the wind and finally snapped or what happens when you drop Lithium, Sodium, Potassium and other first column elements into water or how waves act and interact.