"EdTechTalk is a community of educators interested in discussing and learning about the uses of educational technology. We webcast several live shows each week."The content of these podcasts includes just about all of the current issues involved in the edtech world, things like the latest web 2.0 sites, blogging trends, professional development and conferences for our field, webapps, etc. The first full podcast I listened to was last semester when doing research for my EDT5420 project regarding VoiceThread. This was an amazing resource for me as I was able to listen to an interview with the the creators of that application as they discussed how and why it was developed and how they were planning on serving educators. This is not something that I would have had access to without podcasting, and my research was greatly enriched because of it.
Some of the regular shows that they broadcast on EdTechTalk inlclude "Teachers Teaching Teachers", "Women of Web 2.0", and "Ed Tech Weekly". Along with a live streaming podcast of each episode, they are archived on the site to play back at any time. One feature that I have not yet utilized are the "chat" sessions that happen simultaneously with the podcast. The podcasters post links to the sites that they are discussing as well as respond to viewers on the web by interacting with them from the chat.
The podcast that I will share here is "It's Elementary #16: What is EdTechTalk?" Although the audio and quality of the podcast are not overly spectacular, this is a good place to start for Ed Tech Talk. Here, the authors share what Ed Tech Talk is for them and how they feel it can be utilized by teachers. They also discuss challenges that people may have with the site and some of their favorite things about Ed Tech Talk. They make some good points about how this type of communication and collaboration can benefit lifelong learning and professionalism in our field.
In my current work environment, fellow teachers could use podcasting to further their professional development and continued education much in the same way that I have. However, unless there are incentives offered for this type of PD, it is unlikely that many teachers will utilize such as site due mainly to the time it takes to listen to the podcasts and follow the related links. For this type of learning to happen, there needs to be a program in place where teachers can utilize these podcasts of interest toward required PD hours or as part of a program for continuing education credits. I look at the K12onlineconference as a trendsetter in that regard.
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