Pots, Pans, and Podcasting

Last night, while I was scrubbing the pots and pans, I listened to a podcast by Storynory.  The episode, Portia's Puzzle, is based on William Shakespeare's play, The Merchant of Venice.  It's been a while since I've "read" anything for pleasure and I absolutely loved it!  It was the typical happily-ever-after storyline, but it also tried to leave the reader hanging: "But, of course, life isn't as simple as a fairytale or this story and things did not work out so well so quickly for Portia and Bassanio. But if you want to know the full story then, one day, you should go to see Sheakespeare's play, The Merchant of Venice."  Keep in mind that I was in the mood for something light and fluffy!

When I began subscribing to podcasts about a month ago, I was really focused on podcasts for professional development. I searched the Education Podcast Network to find education-related shows.  Although I enjoyed the audio format, I didn't particularly like any of the podcasts I had subscribed to.    So, I decided to look elsewhere.  This time, I followed Will Richardson's (2009) recommendations:

1. Go to the iTuness store homepage;
2. Click on the "podcasts" link at the top;
3. Under categories, select "Education"; and
4. In the "More Education" box, click on K-12 (p. 112).

This is when I discovered Storynory, which was fun for me and will be fun for my students.  I never enjoyed washing dishes as much as I did last night.  I was completely absorbed in the story as I scrubbed.  It motivated me to listen the next podcast I had subscribed to, News Hour Poetry Series (PBS).  I hit the treadmill with Transtromer, Swedish Poet With 'Tinge of Modernism, Surrealism,' Wins Nobel  and I now feel connected to the literary world again.  I probably have to listen to quite a few more before that's really true!

I'm starting to enjoy this new media.  I like the fact that I can multitask while I listen!  I've subscribed to 15 podcasts, but I'm on the hunt for more.  In the end, though, I'd like to narrow the list down.  I'm not sure what the ideal number is, but I'd be happy with solid top 5 list.

I'm going to check out the following sites recommended by Puckett (2010):

1. Escape Pod - Science fiction
2. PodCastle - Fantasy
3. Pseudopod - Horror
4. Cory Doctorow - Science fiction & non-fiction (e.g. technology, copyright, information access, libraries)
5. The Murverse - Fantasy

Puckett (2010) also recommends Podiobooks, a great repository of the above and other works (p. 5).

This should keep me busy until I'm brave enough to produce my own!

References

Puckett, J. (2010). A peek inside the personal library of a librarian. Georgia Library Quarterly.  47(1), 4-5. Retrieved from http://gla.georgialibraries.org/glq.htm 


Richardson, W. (2009). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.