Pod Data

Highlights from Pew Internet and American Life Project (April 2005):
• 29 percent of Americans over the age of 18 with iPods or other MP3 players have listened to podcasts
• over 22 million American adults own an MP3 or iPod player, and more than 6 million of these owners have listened to podcasts.
•The study surveyed 2,201 people, 208 of whom were MP3 or iPod owners. Pew did not survey anyone under age 18
• there's a direct relationship between blogging and podcasting.
• Podcasting is fuelled partly because it is easy, partly because it allows people to publish material that in the days before podcasting wouldn't have been possible for them to publish.
• Only 20 percent of MP3/iPod owners over the age of 29 have downloaded a podcast

Highlights from Solutions Research Group (July 2006)
• Ownership of digital music players has more than tripled, from 8% in 2005 to 27% in 2006
• The number of men owning digital music players has jumped from 18% to 28% in the last year
• The number of female iPod users has tripled from 2005 to 2006

Highlights from Nielson/Net Ratings (July 2006)
• StarTrek.com is the most visited content site among video podcast downloaders.
• 6.6 percent of adults said they had downloaded audio podcasts within the last 30 days, and 4 percent had downloaded video podcasts
• 18-to-24 age group are twice as likely to download audio podcasts than the average online adult
• When it comes to video podcasts, however, the 25-to-34 age group downloads the most, and follow a close second for audio downloads
• The majority of people who download audio or video podcasts use Safari,Firefox came in second overall. Internet Explorer came in a distant third among audio podcast downloaders, and AOL was third among video podcast downloaders

Literature Search

As I investigate the use of podcasts I come across lots of other emergent and 'been around for a while' technologies that we could be using to possibly enhance our work. I read about how other educators are making use of these technologies. They are all being used to support and enhance delivery and follow-up. So I developed a little matrix to clearly see on one page what is available, a description and pros and cons. Something to clarify why a podcast would be better than one of the other technologies. After sharing my matrix with some colleagues I was asked "could this con be considered a pro?" Hmmm. Looks like the pros and cons are just descriptors - one person's con is another one's pro. I'll have to redo the matrix to reflect this. I suspect the one page will grow as I find more evidence from other entities and as we discover more in our own work.

Synergy

Interesting how a loosely organized LC surrounding a gadget became a community of bloggers, occasionally meeting on E-Bolt, taking classes at night in Garage Band and iMovie to learn and to do something differently than how we’ve done it before. As I read everyone's AR questions and thoughts it is clear that we are apprehensive but know this is a good thing to do. Is this professional learning? Can we keep the momentum?

If you did not see Diana's post in CAB she advised taking a look at his site...it is worth it
http://www.apple.com/education/profiles/wisconsin-madison/
Doug, I thought of you because of your interest in audio. Of course lots of Universities are now involved in podcasting, which should be worth looking at because we, at HRD, work with an adult population and University settings are geared for ...well...kind of an adult population. Anyway, adult enough for us to look at what they have learned. I plan to spend some time checking out iTunes U.

My Question

How will the use of podcasting technology increase knowledge of quality professional development?

Everything we do in my particular unit is geared to promoting quality professional development so I am hoping that this technology will contribute in a significant way. My ultimate audience is broad but I hope first to affect those who design and deliver professional development. My goal is to ensure that this audience recognizes and can eventually create professional development that is of the highest quality to impact positively on students. My quest is to determine how this technology can contribute.