Podcasts- Introducing the TC (target culture) and TL (target language)

I chose to share a podcast from http://kids.learnoutloud.com/.  This site offers podcasts for sale (this one below would be just $1.00. I chose a podcast about travel to Mexico. I teach a chapter on Mexico in my Spanish 1 course, where the students have not yet been exposed to much Spanish yet, but are just learning to appreciate the culture and geography of Spanish speaking countries. 

The use of a podcast on my blog would be beneficial in this introductory learning activity to Mexico, and could be spiraled up to the higher language classes by simply uploading the podcast in the target language (Spanish) rather than the audio being in English.
.Some things covered in this 5 minute podcast include:

• Which country separates the United States of America from Central America? 
• Where, on average, do people eat half a kilo of tortillas every day? 
• Where is home to the cactus and the Chihuahua? Mexico, of course!
• Mexico, or the United States of Mexico, is a federation of thirty-one sovereign states. 
• Mexico's land mass is almost three times that of Texas, which it borders.
• Mexico is the world’s fourteenth largest nation

This podcast is an excellent way to engage the young language learner.  I would like to include a podcast from each country that we study in level one Spanish. Each would simply be assigned to the students as homework for listening practice/knowledge. A blog question/answer prompt could be added for testing comprehension.

http://kids.learnoutloud.com/

Khan Academy Founder Salman Khan on Liberating the Classroom for Creativity

I decided to search the words "creativity, technology, education" in YouTube this morning. I stumbled upon this video. It is the founder of the Khan Academy, Salman Khan, which of whom I know little to nothing about.
Watch this 10:32 video.
"Class has so much potential..."
"...the magic happens when people talk to each other"

I am pleasantly surprised, challenged, and motivated by this school of thought. I like the idea that the Khan Academy promotes developing thought- the founder suggests using class time to talk to our students and create meaningful projects. For example, use class time to talk about what probability in math is-rather than lecturing about it. Use real life examples and have a conversation about it with those invaluable 43 minutes of high school math a day.

As educators, the problem that teachers have is "there's no time for this", but if the videos at home were able to teach the core principles and help students to develop and learn at home in a sequential and effective way, then the role of the teacher in the classroom would change dramatically. There would be time to communicate and teach and foster thinking- rather than lecturing principles and concepts and shoving them out the door.
I strongly believe that common sense these days is more of a "super power" rather than something many of us share.  Our children are going through the motions, not really learning much, while their home days fly by. I love the idea of using the classroom to talk to kids, and be more open to learning together.

Thoughts? Can we implement this style of teaching on our own through pod casts, YouTube, blogs, facebook, etc?
Can we take teaching to the next level using the ideas of the Khan Academy?
I feel inspired and have an amazing drive to implement this style of teaching in my high school Spanish classroom.