Dr. Kathy King really understands the role of podcasting in the educational environment. She just gets it and her enthuasiasm about podcasting for education is just infectious. At the International Podcasting Expo, Dr. King shared some of these insights:

• Education just isn’t relegated to the classroom. Lifelong learning comes through the changes we go through in life. Dr. King said that this is called transformative learning and she wrote a book on it. These changes and how we deal with them can be great content for a podcast.
• Podcasts in education is professional development on demand (PODcast). Yet another variation on what podcast means.
• The value of podcasting in the educational context is the content, allowing teachers to reach further than what the classroom could offer.
• An excellent point – Not every situation warrants a podcast. Dr. King said that teachers may want to record their students and fear putting up the audio online because it will be accessible by everyone. Dr. King suggested that if teachers want to make the audio content private, don’t attach it to an RSS feed. Simple. Private content is not suitable as a podcast.
• Plan, Design, Track and Revise. If you’re not listening to your audience, they will vote with the click of the mouse and you’ll lose a listener who will never return.
• Break down the barriers. Not everyone understands what it means to subscribe to a podcast. Provide some tips, provide tutorials and make it easy for your listeners to listen and then subscribe to your podcast.