If you're like me you're a visual learner, so you can understand why podcasts and vodcasts are great teaching and learning tools.
The ability to simply search a website such as Youtube or Teacher tube and find a video that shows the students what you are trying to convey is an extremely valuable tool. Have resources 'ready made' can free up the teacher to concentrate on the business of teaching and less on resource creating, enabling teachers to concentrate on higher order skills, looking at big questions etc.
iTunesU is, again, a great resource for teachers who are looking for educational material. I found it easy to use and I like the fact that iTunes helps to keep the podcasts and vodcasts from iTunesU and other sources organised. I find the navigation and search features of iTunes very user friendly.
I have found podcasts very valuable when trying to track down segments that you hear on the radio especially with regards to current affairs.
Being able to find clips on topics a much more valuable resource to start student exploration and discussion as opposed to watching a video/DVD for an entire lesson.
I would however suggest that students are not given open access to YouTube across the school as it would definitely lead to band width issues. One alternative that we have employed is for staff to download clips to a dedicated driver on the school network. This allows students to access the same video at their own pace without chewing up the bandwidth. Often I will download a youtube video I want the students to view and show it to the class via the classroom data projector, keeping everyone engaged in the lesson and on task.
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