Podcasting

After reading these two articles concerning "podcasts" i was surprised at the depth podcasting has expanded. I previously thought podcasts where mostly recorded radio shows which you could save and listen to at any point. I had no idea that you could download virtual tours of museums and zoo's as well as download lessons on how to speak another language. I have never created a podcast, however I have listened to a few and as I said before they seemed to be recorded radio shows and had no educatonal or virtual aspects to them. I would rather not listen to radio talk shows or educational material for that matter while I could be listening to my own selection of music, however I do see the benefits students as well as teachers can reap from podcasting. The article mentions an Austrailian proffesor who, instead of confiscating ipods, chose to incorporate history lessons in the form of podcasts so students could listen to lessons instead of music. I'm not quite sure of the effectiviness of this technique which could backfire easly and give students a way to listen to more music in class but the teacher is being innovative in trying to adapt to the new technologies which now rule our world. I could see the benefit of incorporating podcasts in Fort Lewis by maybe making proffesors lectures available for listening if a student misses the lecture or if they just want to review the lesson. I could see the relationship between podcasting and radio shows because that is the only type of podcast I have experienced however educational or virtual tour podcasts would probably have a different tone than the radio podcasts with maybe more informational content than musical.