I’ll be honest when I say that I have never previously considered the use of podcasts in the classroom…either for teaching purposes or for professional development purposes from a teacher’s standpoint. However, there are many benefits of embedding podcasts into education! First you need to take the time to find a good podcast, supportive of what you are looking for. I searched the Education Podcast Network, which contains a wide range of podcasts useful for teachers. 
A podcast I found (but is actually a screencast because there is audio between two teachers and screenshot videos of them working on the Smartboard) is called Teaching with SMARTboard – Episode 30 – Algebra Tiles . The Podcast, despite the fact that it may seem very long due to some “chatter” between the two teachers and from the notion of moving things around on the Smartboard applets while talking at the same time, is very informative on a professional development standpoint. The screencast focuses on a Smartboard applet that has been created, and is available to download on the Teaching With Smartboards website page in which I found this screencast. The application consists of Algebra tiles in which can be generated on the Smartboard screen, in which would help students to easily visualize numbers and variables (both positive and negative: green for positive and red for negative), which would hopefully build a better understanding due to the visual representation. The algebra tiles can be moved around in order to help simplify the expression into lowest terms. I think the application would be a great asset for a teacher to gain access to, and the screencast nicely walks teachers through how to use the application, and even the Smartboard in general.
Many teachers today having access to Smartboards unfortunately are not educated well enough about how to effectively integrate the use of the Smartboard into their classroom. One of the reasons this may be true could be due to a lack of professional development, in which schools can not afford to bring to their teachers. Therefore, podcasts/screencasts such as this one can provide a wonderful source of professional development – free of charge! The video aspect of this particular podcast may be even more effective than by taking a course of professional development where an instructor would use the Smartboard to walk through certain things, because this way, you will always have access to the video for future reference, and you can pause and restart the screencast as you please. Therefore, teachers can’t go wrong with getting in the habit of looking for such podcasts and screencasts and using them to their full advantage! Thanks to such educators in the field who take the time to create such informative podcasts & screencasts and wish to share them with the educational community!
