No shortage of ideas on podcasting...

I don't know who said it first, but it's certainly true that teachers are ideas rich and time poor.



I came across two emails today that were discussing ideas for podcasts - there are so many opportunities out there to develop, and I have my own ideas for podcasts that haven't made it out of my head yet...



I thought I'd share these with you, in case anyone is out there and tempted to podcast but looking for a theme:



Robert, the prolific EFL podcaster behind the Daily Idiom and EnglishCaster
sent an email with show ideas originating from requests he has received from students visiting
englishcaster.com.



1) The "daily grammar". A short podcast about grammatical items. No long
explanations, just a short post combined with some examples, similar to the Daily Idiom.



2) A podcast about acronyms such as "BTW" or "ASAP" aimed at low level learners.



So, does anyone feel like taking up one of those challenges?




I also received an email from Charles Kelly, behind the Learn a Song podcast asking me when I'm going to post the second Barcelona Young Learners podcast, and saying that it's been a month now.



I've got one in the pipeline Charles, and hope to have it ready very soon. I've definitely been one of those time poor teachers recently, with end of term exams, reports, etc, and all sorts of other things on my plate, but that's coming to an end and I'll have more time to podcast now.



Charles suggested putting up shorter podcasts and keeping them more frequent, and he's absolutely right that frequency is an important factor, especially if people are downloading from your blog or website and have not subscribed (and this seems to be the trend with all podcasts - I keep hearing different people saying this all the time). It's like blogging - you need to keep posting regularly or your audience feels let down, and you'll lose them.



Charles also had a few suggestions that are worth taking note of:



a) "Perhaps you could start a series in which you interview people you know:



- What's you name?

- How old are you?

- Where are you from?

- What kind of things do you do in your free time?




Simple questions that young learners know.

Even if the answers get more involved, students might still be interested in
listening."



I like this idea a lot, Charles, In fact, I've been thinking along those lines too, as in a "Meet the Teachers" podcast, asking the teachers of the centre some questions about themselves - this may well be one to pursue.



I will have to get going now and put my money where my mouth is (hey, Robert, there's another idiom for you, if you haven't done it already!)