The iTunes Store

I have downloaded and perused the iTunes Store website. I found it very interesting, especially the wide array of educational podcasts available. I was able to review SmartBoard Lesson 150 as well as KidCast, Teachers Teaching Teachers, EcoGeek, MacBreaK, and This Week in Photography. I also discovered that in the iTunes Store, one can download music as well as movies. My husband was very excited about this and said that he was glad at my discovery of the website.
First of all, I enjoyed the overall quality of the podcasts. For the most part, they were easy to download and understand. Many of thenm were very conversational especially in the beginning and took a while to get to the subject at hand. I also found that for some of the podcasts such as MacBreak and This Week in Photography, the scrub bar did not work and I had to listen to a lot of idle talk before I learned anything new. For the most part, though, I enjoyed the podcasts and can see their merits both to students and to teachers.
SmartBoard Lessons and Kidcast were relatively easy to find. I think that the SmartBoart hosts, Ben Hazzard and Joan Badger were a little too conversational diverging from the subject frequently and being a bit wordy. The KidCast was interesting. It was hosted by the students from Willowdale Elementary School. This particular podcast should appeal to children because it is presented by their peers. I found this to be quite refreshing. I also checked out EcoGeek. This podcast can be found under More Education, K-12 in the large middle section of podcasts. This "untamed science video" was my favorite. Its topics ranged from reptiles to fungi. The presentations are short and to the point. They were information packed, and this is what I liked about it the most. Children should appreciate this effect also. MasBreak was wordy but interesting, if you are technical minded and love computers. This Week In Photography was okay, but I would have liked to have seen the host, Alex Lindsay, get to his point more quicky.
Overall, I have developed somewhat of a feel for what podcasts are like. They are very informal, some taking place in the host's living room or den. Often, co-hosts are in different areas or cities. They are personal to an extent and conversational, much like chat among friends that we, the audience, just happen to b privy to. Some of these elements I will use in my own podcast. I want to put my audience at ease, but I think that the challenge will be to keep the audiences' attention throughout the audio. This strategy, I will contemplate.