The Higher Ed Podcast

I launched The Higher Ed Podcast (HEP) is week. Ever since the Podcast and Portable Media Expo last October I've been contemplating the conception of this podcast. There seems to be tons of material for K-12 teachers but very little for higher education instructors. Maybe it's because college professors seem to be reluctant to embrace new technologies?
I hope with this podcast to make it a little easier for instructors to use these new tools to reach their students and possible new audiences.
If you're a teacher, or know a teacher then this may be the podcast for you.

Podshow and Sirius Part Ways

As of May 1st Sirius satellite radio will no longer be broadcasting Podshow content, officially ending there contract. Their is much speculation and confusion among podcasters as why this may be happening. Many of the Podshow podcasters were not informed of the split until days after the decision was made.

Desperate Husbands 11 is Out!

After a long and hard battle with the Libsyn servers I was finally victorious and was able to upload the most recent episode of Desperate Husbands. I've really like Libsyn as a web host but for some reason they were having trouble yesterday accepting files.
In this episode of DH I talk about the Easter Break visit of my in-laws and some tips in working with extended family members. Doug from Geek Acres also stops by the studio (via voicemail) and updates us about his flower scheme and how will it worked. Next Doug will be plotting to take over the Pod-o-sphere.
The next episode will be a Mothers Day Special.

To listen to Desperate Husbands from this site, click here.

Being PAID for something you love

I'm getting tired of the worn out debate over monetizing podcast. There will always be podcasts who want to get paid for podcasting and podcasters who podcast as a hobby. Undoubtedly the hobbyist will always out-number the paid professionals. Below is my two cents on this debate. I originally posted this at Mark Blevis' blog in response to some negative comments he received over an excellent posting about "How to Make Money Podcasting." Feel free to agree or disagree with me, I don't care, but I do think it's time we hang up this old argument for good.

If you get paid for something you love, something that you would do anyway (and I'm not talking about podcasting now) would it still be "just a job?"
In my essence I am a teacher, I will always be a teacher, no matter what my current job is. It doesn't matter if I'm being paid or not, I have to teach. Some part of me is not fulfilled if I'm not teaching. With that said, and boy was it whiny, shouldn't I be "allow" to be paid for something I'm good at? Should loving something you do or doing something that starts as a hobby, automatically exclude you from being paid?
I don't hear debates about monetizing teaching, or auto mechanics. Something that starts as a hobby can become a part-time or full-time job or even a career.
What makes a "job" a "job" isn't that you are getting paid, it's a profession that you don't love or even like. It's just something to pay the bills. A career or calling is something that you love that you would do even if you were not paid for it. If there are podcasters out there who can make money at this why penalize them if they choose to monetize? Again, we don't expect teachers to teach for free or computer programmers to write code for free, so why do we expect podcasters to podcast for free?!?!?

Tag! You're It!

I made it, I'm now part of the in-crowd; I've been tagged. Tagged? You say, like with a dart?!? Blogging tag is a "game" where a blogger will come up with a question and write about it and then encourage others to write about the same topic by "tagging" them in their blog entry.
The newest game to hit the blogging community, at least for the blogs I read, is to name your 7 favorite songs. After a few of my favorite blogs started playing this game, one of them being Bob Goyetche, I started to feel a little left out. Then out of the blue Karen of Mrs. B's Patriot World Podcast twittered me to check out her personal blog and there I found my golden ticket, my invite to play!!!!

Being the analytical person I am (yeah, right) I pulled up iTunes and looked at the play count index. After throwing out the songs my kids listen to, like "Jumpin'" and Tim McGraw's "My Little Girl" I came up with my list of favorite songs. Most are podsafe and family friendly:

Good Morning Bubble Gum by The Harvey Girls
Runaway by The Adam Woodall Band
In My Life by Allison Crowe
Bring Me Down by Jupiter and Teardrop
At the laundr-O-mat by Samantha Murphy
A Little Bit More by Uncle Seth
Overflow by the shapes


Now, I have the honor of tagging three people to play. At first I mischievously thought about tagging colleague and newbie blogger Sharon Burton, but thought better of it. She needs to get her feet wet first. Though do surf over to her blog and leave a comment. Let her know that Charlie sent you. ;)
After much thought (seriously) I have tagged Mark Blevis, Shelly Brisbin and Kat.
And to do my part in keeping this chain alive I'm listing the tag chain and you should too:  Aidan Hatch, Chris Brogan , Chris Penn and Karen Cardoza.

Did I leave anything out? Let me know. Now go out a tag people......

American Idol and iTunes as a Learning Tool

One of my family's guilty pleasures is watching American Idol. I'm not sure why we watch it besides that watching it helps us keep up with the workplace conversions. Though the wife and I do enjoying hearing older tunes and songs that we grew up with and Idol does tend to focus on this type of music. Kids enjoy hearing the singing.
This weekend after some pleading, the kids and I spent some time on iTunes listening to 30 second segments of Diana Ross songs. The kids where so energetic about it, wanting to buy most of Ross's music. After I gave in and purchased several songs the house, and neighborhood, was filled with singing from those two. I think I heard "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" several hundred times.
Say what you will, but without sources like Idol and iTunes my children would have missed out on being exposed to some really great older music and I would have never thought of going through iTunes with the two of them. We're on iTunes all the time but not focusing on older music. If they had not asked me look up Diana Ross I would have never thought to use iTunes to expose them to wonderful and under played music.
Next weekend we will dive into Bob Dylan. Bob and AJ 81 gave me that one. We'll see how it goes...

Podcasters Across Borders

I signed up this week for the Podcasters Across Borders conference and Podcamp. Why would a Texan want to attend a conference in Kingston, Ontario? Why not?!? I get a chance to increase my podcasting knowledge, meet lots of great people, promote my podcasts and best of all I'm speaking on a panel too. At PAB I will have the unique opportunity to network with podcasters from both sides of the fence and hopefully gain something from their different perspectives. If you're free the weekend of June 23rd and 24th why don't you attend?