Podcasting

Podcasting is very beneficial in all professional settings.

In a school setting, podcasting can be a great tool to promote school activities. For example, students as well as their family members can enjoy guest speakers, school concerts and sporting events – even after they have long been completed. School board meetings, PTA meetings, school news, daily news, weather reports, school closings, press announcements or any other piece of news the school wishes to share with its student and parent body can be broadcasted in either audio or visual format through the use of a podcast. Families can stay connected to the school and students can keep up with their lessons if they must be away from school for an extended period of time. In addition, podcasting can be a great aid to teachers. Teachers can use podcasts to summarize lessons or teach new material to students. Teachers can also make a directory of podcasts related to the subject they are teaching and post them so their students can acquire more knowledge. Students can add to the podcast directory as well – although this may need to be monitored by a teacher or another responsible adult. Podcasting can also be used to share poetry or creative writing – or any other subject matter. It can also be used to debate issues and discuss a variety of viewpoints, review literature and apply topics and concepts to real world events. As an online student, podcasting can be especially beneficial as teachers can post complete lessons and students can listen to them on their own time. Although online education cannot replace a teacher sitting in a classroom teaching the subject at hand and answering the students’ questions, it is one step closer to making an online classroom resemble a traditional classroom!

As a student studying business, I believe that podcasting can be extremely useful in companies as well. Business people need to keep up with a variety of research and information to enable them to make sound business decisions and to compete in today’s business world. Podcasting allows business people to gather this information “on the go”. Information and research findings can be shared between colleagues or different companies. Managers can post lectures on pertinent business subjects so their subordinates can listen to them on their own time. Colleagues who must miss an important meeting can catch up through the use of a podcast. This enables them to ensure that they have not missed any aspect of the business meeting, even the little nuances which may not be repeated by colleagues but may turn out to be important in the long run. It is even possible to record business conversations – something that can be very useful to people in professions that require exactness and attention to detail such as investigators or lawyers. In today’s highly competitive business world, when knowledge is power and we have all become mobile learners, podcasts are gems!

My personal experience with podcasts began today, when I went on the Internet to find information about podcasts and to subscribe to several podcasts.

First of all, I discovered that I needed to install iTunes, Juice or use an RSS feeder. I chose to install iTunes. Then, I found several podcasts that were interesting to a business student and subscribed to them. It is important to note that, as iTunes is installed in my computer, I had to go back to the sites to post a link to my blog and to the discussion forum.

As a business student, I subscribed to five podcasts that were related to the business field.

The first podcast I subscribed to is a CNN podcast. In this podcast, one of the editors of Fortune Magazine, Geoff Colvin, interviews NRG, a wholesale provider of energy, to discuss the next big trends in the business, such as clean coal (which basically amounts to carbon taken out of coal so it is not let up into the environment). The link to this podcast is http://podcasts.cnn.net/cnn/services/podcasting/csuite/video/2008/05/29/fortune.csuite.nrg.coal.fortune.m4v.

The second podcast I subscribed to was from the Financial Times. This podcast discusses how to prevent cyber attacks. Peter Whitehead interviews Edward Amoroso, the chief security officer at AT&T. They discuss the things that companies can do to protect themselves from cyber attacks. They also discuss what countries can do on a global level to prevent themselves from cyber attacks. In addition, Stephen Pritchard interviews Stephen Brost, chief technology officer at Teradata, about the things that firms can do about with all the data they collect over time. The link to the podcast is http://podcast.ft.com/index.php?pid=815.

The third podcast I subscribed to was called Business of the Green. It is also a CNN podcast. In this podcast, Olivia Zaleski, one of the editors of Fortune Magazine, interviews Bill Ford, executive chairman of Ford. They discuss new ideas that new entrepreneurs are coming up with for the auto industry, specifically the hybrid, plug-in hybrids and American batteries. The link to the podcast is http://ht.cdn.turner.com/money/big/podcasts/bizgreen/video/2009/07/07/f-bg-ford-batteries-hybrid.fortune.m4v.

The fourth podcast I subscribed to was about innovation and risk management. Companies are always trying to be innovative and creative. However, when one is innovative and creative, there is generally a bigger chance at his or her ideas failing. This podcast discusses how to keep the innovation and creativity alive while dealing with the risk of an original or out-of-the-box idea, whatever it may be, failing miserably. The link to this podcast is http://www.podcastsforbusiness.ca/extras/3_innovation_and_risk/index.php.

The fifth podcast I subscribed to discussed strategic entrepreneurism. While every new business owner wants to be “the next big thing”, most new businesses fail. Strategic entrepreneurism shows business owners how to run and manage a new company and how to design a company for the end result of selling that company to a larger company. Jon Fisher, one of the authors of the book Strategic Entrepreneurism, was interviewed. The link to this podcast is http://www.smallbusinesspodcast.com/programs/permalinks/SBP_2009-05-11_Strategic-Entrepreneurs.htm.

Some of the information in this post has been taken for Exploring Web 2.0 by Ann Bell.