Sep 24 2008
Educational Podcasts
My sister bought me an ipod nano for my birthday earlier in the year, and ever since I’ve become a podcast junkie. I can’t get enough of them. They make podcasts on any subject you could imagine. It’s wonderful. So wonderful.
First, I want to dispel some possible misconceptions about itunes. Things I didn’t understand before I got my ipod. First, itunes is free to download, and all of the podcasts I’ve seen so far are also free to download. More importantly, you don’t need an ipod to get or listen to podcasts from itunes. You can just listen right on your computer. It’s great. Now, I love my ipod, and it’s nice to be able to listen without being tied to a computer, but if I’d known how many cool radio programs and podcasts were available to me for free, I would have been listening far before I ever had my ipod.
Most of what I listen to is very educational stuff. Nothing that would be useful to my kindergartener, but much of it could be useful to older students; certainly high schoolers could really get into this stuff. I don’t know how to link to a podcast on itunes, so I’m just going to throw out a few names and if you’re interested, just use the search bar on itunes to find the podcast. I have to say, I’m not a fan of the navigation inside the podcast area of itunes, and so I’ve mostly stumbled on a lot of these as I was looking for something else.
One of my favorites is “Grammar Girl”. These are short little podcasts, usually about 5 min or less that are entertaining and clearly explain some confusing points about grammar.
For kids who are into space, NASA puts out news podcasts about what they’re up to, and video podcasts about the space shuttle, and there’s one called Hubblecast that is a video podcast about what the Hubble telescope is up to. Really, there is just so much there.
For that matter, any science interest your child may have, there is probably a podcast about it. I listen to pet health podcasts, natural history podcasts, and Scientific American has several very interesting podcasts they produce. My favorite of the S.A. Ones are the “60 second science” and “60 second psych.” These are quick and interesting podcasts about recent studies or discoveries in science or psychology.
For the younger set, I do have two podcasts I’ve subscribed to for my daughter. Both are video podcasts, and I really only keep them in order to have something for those emergency situation when we’re stuck someplace dull and I need a few moments of entertainment. One is Sesame Street’s “Word on the Street” that introduces some larger vocabulary words to kids. The other is “They Might Be Giants” because I was a fan of that band back before they started making music for kids.
