Wow. Guess what I did? Something new for me. I know I know, I like to hear myself talk, and I do it all day long everyday of my life, but now I have another way to talk to people. I am podcasting! Now, you may say, "Devon, why are you adding one more thing to your schedule?" Or "Are you crazy? No one cares." And while the second comment may be true, the first I can address. At my community college job I’ve joined a faculty professional learning community that addresses the use of new and emerging technologies in education. Right up my alley! At our last meeting the facilitators challenged us all to choose a new medium with which are not comfortable to play with this year. I’ve been thinking of podcasting since summer time, and I’ve always listened to podcast but I’ve always been afraid of committing to publishing my own. Maybe because I sound like Kermit the Frog when I talk, or because I know if I start one I cannot just drop it. Well I finally did it. I bit the big one. Borrowed what may turn out to be a decent mic (great to know the IT people!) and recorded the other night. Now I am use to listening to podcasts between 25-45 minutes, and I figured 15 minutes would be a good goal. I wrote an outline first of talking points, and I sat down and began. I recorded about 18 minutes worth and then began editing. I worked for about 45 minutes taking out "um"s and pauses, and I still wasn’t finished when it was time to go to sleep. I will finish editing the podcast this weekend (thank God for fall breaks!) and I’ll post it on iTunes University where we’ll have a space through the community college. My colleague also began podcasting but she uses a service called gabcast, which records a phone call to an 800 number as the podcast then publishes it online for you. They are shorter, including the "um"s and are a little less clear, but it’s great to have these tools to use to get your thoughts down quickly and easily. Look for me on iTunes, and I will share my feed when I am ready!