Episode 9 is on its way!

Sorry for the delay with the episode, but I think you'll agree it was worth it once you hear it. I had a lot of fun interviewing the Smelly Monkeys (Gareth, Trevor and Simon). I'll have to admit that this strays a bit from our usual teaching-related topics, but its a wonderful example of a parent-child project that utilizes technology. As Gareth told me, there are many benefits to the child with a project like this.

"These include:
* The ability to synthesize ideas and communicate to an audience
* Family bonding
* Interaction (through me) with an international audience
* Timing and presentation, and
* Role playing & humor (Simon surprised me in show #44 when describing how it works for his brother to play the serious role against his obnoxious role)"

As I said in a previous post, why not consider doing something like this with your kids?

5/17 ADDITION: I should also say that listening to this show may have some benefits to parents. Gareth does a wonderful job of managing these two rambunctious boys. Listen to the calm, affectionate way he keeps them on track throughout the episodes. When one of them begins to get too wild, he distracts them instead of getting angry or punitive. Anyway, I was impressed, and I think some parents out there could improve their relationships with their kids by using his interactions with the boys as a model. END OF ADDITION

I'm finishing up the editing right now. Unfortunately, due to time constraints, I had to edit out most of the questions that the boys fired at me (my answers weren't all that interesting anyway, though if someone really wants to know my favorite beer and baseball team, just email me). Due to Audio Hijack's only recording their side of the conversation, I also have had to rerecord all my questions. Hopefully, that won't be too obvious in the end product. The combination of iChat and Garageband really makes these online interviews easy, but I have yet to have an interviewee that is on a Mac and therefore has iChat, and I've had intermittent problems with using AOL Instant Messenger, which is compatible with iChat but for some reason some Windows people have problems with the invitations to chat--they can't find them or don't get them or something. I think the audio with Skype is better than with iChat, but this having it only get half of the conversation is annoying and makes more work for me. :(

Episode 9 may be online as soon as later today... Watch this space....

Chris