Thanks for Listening and an Update on the Future of This Podcast

In the 200th episode of the #CSK8 Podcast I want to take a moment to thank everyone for listening over the years and to share some thoughts around the content I’m creating and the future of this podcast.

This is episode number 200 of the csk8
podcast and honestly I didn't know how
far this podcast would go when I first
started creating episodes almost four
years ago apparently most podcasts only
last about three episodes before the
host realized this is a ton of work and
it's not worth it and I don't have like
a bajillion followers right now but
interestingly enough I actually recorded
and edited the first 18 episodes of the
podcast in the first month most of which
was done on the weekends and today we
now have about twenty thousand RSS
subscribers which I think is an inflated
number but that's the number that my
website gives me so that's the metrics
that I'm going with which is pretty cool
quite frankly I'm honored that people
would be willing to listen and share
these podcast episodes as well as the
free content that I create on my website
as I'm trying to create this content to
help people out to learn how to become
computer science Educators or in the
scratch content that I create just learn
how to create scratch now because this
is kind of like a special episode in
terms of the 200th episode I just wanted
to share where the podcast has been the
last few months what I've been working
on to give you a little behind the
scenes explanation of the things I've
been attempting to experiment with and
where I'm planning on going in the
future so you can probably noticed over
the last several months I have been
intentionally not doing many interviews
I've only done a couple in the 2023 so
far and the reason why is because I
wanted to focus specifically on refining
these solo episodes to improve them I
noticed there's a lot of fluff at the
beginning of the unpacking scholarship
episodes where it might take a minute or
two before I'd actually get into what we
can learn from this scholarship so
hopefully you've noticed and appreciated
those changes that I've been making I
also started adding in some professional
development episodes where I kind of
unpack pedagogy in practice that I
actually used in the classroom like how
did I set up my computer lab and how
have I seen other people set up their
computer labs I've had the privilege of
working with every single grade
kindergarten through doctoral student
and spoken with and visited many
Educators across the country so I've
seen a lot of different computer labs in
different spaces and figured I'd share
here's what I've seen in different areas
that I think work well and why and these
little professional development podcasts
have kind of developed out of other
educators are simply asking me questions
whether it's at like csta's conference
or in the comments section like in last
week's episode so if you've got some
more questions for myself that you'd
like to ask just make sure you add into
a comment on a video like this one then
I can answer in a future episode another
thing that I started to do was to
actually talk about some more current
events like how legislation is impacting
CS education and problematizing
corporate discourse I know these can get
a little bit more political than some
Educators might want but I think it's
important that we talk about it which is
why I started adding in some episodes on
that outside of all the podcast episodes
I've also been releasing a new scratch
video every single day on my YouTube
channel and website if you just go to
jaredolary.com scratch you can find over
different tips and whatnot and I plan to
release at least 20 more and then I'm
going to start working on some longer
scratch projects that show you how to
create a project from the beginning now
with all these changes I've been making
the podcast I don't honestly know what
you think about them so I'm curious what
do you like about the changes what could
I continue to improve or refine I get a
ton of feedback on the gaming and
drumming content that I create I get a
lot of questions like how do you do this
drumming technique how do you do that
and I like to demonstrate it and kind of
explain it I could do the same thing
with this podcast if you have questions
about pedagogy or research or practice
or whatever as long as it's somewhat
related to Computer Science Education
I'm happy to turn this into an episode
because instead of just answering an
individual and providing that kind of
feedback I could spawned on the podcast
and make it so that hundreds if not
thousands of people can also learn from
it if I get some questions like that
that'd be wonderful most of the feedback
that I get is actually when I share a
highlight of an episode or a little
short on like YouTube or Tick Tock or
whatever and if it's related to equity
related or if I'm wearing one of my
merch shirts that mentions that I'm in
the queer or trans communities then I
just get a bunch of hate speech so a
bunch of racist homophobic transphobic
comments Etc so it'd be nice to actually
get some feedback from Educators who
actually listen to the content and
actually enjoy it and to learn how I
might continue to refine the podcast now
my plan for the future is I'm going to
continue to release some episodes I may
or may not add in some more interviews
we'll kind of see how that goes in terms
of my time because I'm creating a bunch
of gaming and drumming and computer
science content outside of the podcast
but the main thing that I'm working on
behind the scenes is going through all
of the prior episodes and adding in
timestamps for the different topics and
questions that were discussed in each
one of the episodes I then turned many
of those into little highlight reels
that I then share on different social
media platforms like LinkedIn Twitter
Youtube Etc I've got about 100 more
episodes to go through which might take
me multiple months and my plan between
now and then as I'm actually going to
think about do I want to continue the
podcast and if so in what capacity so
some of the things that I've been
thinking about is that the computer
science education Niche is very small
compared to a broader podcast that might
be on education in general or even just
a podcast that's outside of Education
just talking to people that are doing
things and learning things that I think
are interesting and since I'm now trying
to make a living off of creating free
content which I know is a bit of an
oxymoron I do need to actually think
about the market share in terms of who I
can reach and whether or not I can make
some money through the AdSense Etc like
on YouTube so that way I can continue to
provide free content for you at the
moment the gaming and drumming stuff is
doing great like I've got this drumming
merch that I'm wearing on the YouTube
video which is an inside joke for
percussionists book it and back to the
podcast one of the things I'm thinking
about is do I want to add in another
podcast so like alternate every week one
week will be on Computer Science
Education which is very narrow very
Niche maybe another podcast just on
education which is broader and can reach
more teachers or do I just want to focus
on doing the other content that I'm
creating like all the gaming and
drumming stuff and like the scratch
content I thoroughly enjoy all the
content I create but it takes a lot of
time to create content in three very
distinct areas so I'm having to make
some difficult decisions about what kind
of content do I want to continue to
create when it comes to the gaming and
dropping stuff I get a lot of feedback
and engagement and whatnot but when it
comes to the computer science stuff even
though the RSS says there's 20 000
people most of the comments that I get
are from people who don't actually
listen to the content and just see that
there's something Equity related in the
title and just respond with racist
transphobic homophobic content Etc so
all one of the goals with this podcast
was to try and like have an impact on
the discourse the things that we talk
about in the field I don't know if I've
reached that goal to be honest because
while people will mention to me in
person or like in the email about hey I
really enjoyed this episode Etc it's
kind of few and far between and that's
not to complain it's just to say hey it
feels like I'm talking and I don't know
if people are actually listening so if
you are let me know what you think what
do you like about this podcast and what
could I improve that's a question that I
like to ask myself whenever I finish a
stream whether it's drumming or gaming
and even after I finish like a round in
fortnite like when I finish it what did
I do that worked really well and what
could I improve to make it so that next
time when I play it's a little bit
better so if you have ideas on topics
that I might be able to discuss in the
future or if you have some suggestions
on things that that I can improve or
things that are working really well for
you as an individual just let me know
you can find all my social media
Accounts at jaredleary.com up in the
socials tab or you can just simply
respond to this video on YouTube or
wherever you're listening to this now
just to clarify I'm not sharing this
information to complain I'm just sharing
to explain my thought processes well I
enjoy creating this content I don't know
if you do especially after all the
changes that I made over the last
several months but if you enjoy any of
the free content that I create on my
website whether it's the computer
science education stuff the drumming
stuff the gaming stuff whatever all I
ask is that you share it just helps more
people find the content thank you so
much for listening to this episode it's
pretty cool to get to episode number
continue the podcast but I'm enjoying it
at the moment I just don't know if you
are stay tuned next week for another
episode until then I hope you're staying
safe and are having a wonderful week