Ok, the “exclusive” part is a joke…as far as we know, this is the first podcast interview with the founders of TeacherTube.

Late this afternoon–after the 5:00 PM bell rang–I found myself sitting across the table from Jodie and Jason Smith, two of the three founders of TeacherTube. What a delightful chat! They wanted to chat about some ideas I’d shared earlier in this blog, and get some feedback on a wild idea–a walled garden TeacherTube version for school districts (My district has dibs, ok?)! What astonished me was that Jodie and Jason are both Texas educators. Jodie is a Humanities Coordinator for Melissa ISD, while Jason Smith is the Superintendent for Melissa ISD. Wow! I was shocked that a superintendent was doing all these exciting things and was the lead administrator.

When I heard Jodie and Jason were coming to San Antonio, Tx, I began to hope that my curiousity as to who was behind the innovative TeacherTube–or as I like to explain it, “YouTube for teachers and education”–would be satisfied. I wasn’t disappointed.

Although this conversation was to be about TeacherTube, it ranged widely, including a discussion about online literature circles, Web 2.0, Moodle, and more. I loved the story about Moodle use in the classroom and OUT of the classroom. Second, Jason has some points that every superintendent needs to hear, especially in regards to one to one computer initiatives (“ultra-mobile PCs”) and Moodle.

TeacherTube excites me because it’s a place for teachers, a place to post digital stories, and video. But, one NEW thing that Jason and Jodie let slip as they walked out the door, is something that is bound to make podcast hosting services quake in their boots…not only are they hosting video on TeacherTube, they will also host audio! Think about the possibilities…no longer would educators have to use the Internet Archive with its complex uploading issues–and the uploader fails for me, consistently!–or use Podomatic for 500 megs then have to pay for more space (great service, that aside!). They also want to stick with an “open source” approach, avoid advertisements like YouTube/MySpace have, and instead, share their business model.

Listen in to our conversation at 5:00 PM on Wednesday, April 25, 2007 (8.3 megs).

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