Week 2 - Podcasting

#1 - What is a Podcast? What is a Blog?


What is a "podcast"?This question can be answered in several ways. When I am asked that question I usually explain that is sort of like a radio show that can be heard thorugh the Internet or downloaded to your MP3 player and you can listen to a podcast when you select to listen to it.The wikipedia describes Podcasting as: the method of distributing multimedia files, such as audio programs or music videos, over the Internet using either the RSS or Atom syndication formats, for playback on mobile devices and personal computers.



A person that produces a podcast is usually called a "podcaster".The word itself is a combination of "i-Pod" and "broadcasting" but you do not need an i-Pod to listen to a podcast or record a podcast.A "blog" is a web site which typically places new content at the top of the page and can contain pictures, links and audio content.Many blogs are very easy to create and there is no need to have knowledge of HTML code or complicated web design.Blogs and podcasts are often work together as a podcast can be placed inside a blog.

#2 - Examples of Educational Podcasts


In the past year, many teachers have found a variey of ways to use podcasts for educationa purposes - student created, collaborative, instructional and content based. Here are some examples of educational podcasts available:

Speaking of History - by Eric Langhorst, 8th grade American History teacher discussing education, technology and history

Room 208 - by Bob Sprankle, a 3rd/4th grade teacher in Maine that has a student created podcast

Connect Learning - by David Warlick, an educational technology presenter from North Carolina who speaks at workshops and conferences around the world

Teach 42 - by Steve Dembo, an educational specialist for the Discovery Educator Network

Bud the Teacher - by Bud Hunt, a language arts teacher in Colorado

Adventures in Podcasting - by Shawn Wheeler, a technology specialist for the Peoria, Arizona school district

Educational Podcast Network - a collection of links to educational podcasts maintained by David Warlick, contains all grade levels and subject areas.

#3 - Creating Your Podcast

The application we will be using today to capture and edit sound is a software application named "Audacity".Audacity is a free program that can be used with both a Mac or a PC. Using Audacity you can record directly to the computer using an inexpensive microphone and you can then edit and layer your sound tracks.

The free download for Audacity can be found here

If you have questions later on using Audacity you can check out these online tutorials for additional help and tips: Audacity Tutorials

Your finished product using Audacity will be a WAV sound file. A WAV sound file takes up much more memory than an MP3 file so we want to convert the file to MP3. The program we will use to convert the file from a WAV to an MP3 is a free program from River Past. This program is free and very simple to use.


Download for River Past MP3 Convert - allows you to convert a WAV to a MP3 file


#4 - Distributing Your Podcast and Blogging

Once your audio file is in MP3 format you can upload it to a school server or a site that allows free hosting for audio files like Our Media. This will allow anyone to listen to your audio file through the Internet.To officially make your audio file a podcast you will need to add something called RSS.

RSS is web language which allows people to subscribe to your podcast so that everytime you upload a new audio file it will automatically be sent to them. The easiest way to do this is to create a blog using a free service like "Blogger" and then registering your podcast with an RSS creater like "Feedburner". These programs will work together to easily create an RSS feed for your blog. Both of these services are free.Once you have your RSS feed created then someone can subscribe it it using a program like "Bloglines". This is also a free.

#5 - Finding and Listening to Podcasts

There are several places you can go to find educational podcasts. One of the best is the above mentioned Educational Podcast Network with a pre-reviewed list of podcasts in various educational categories.You can also do to a podcast directory such as Podcast Alley, Podcast Pickle, Podcast.net.
These have hundreds of podcasts listed under the "education" category but please preview any podcasts before playing for students as some definitions of "education" may differ from what is acceptable in the classroom setting.When you find some podcasts you enjoy listening to you may want to subscribe so that you will be notified each time a new episode is published. To do this you will set up a registration with an aggregator.

A popular aggregator is Bloglines - which is free. The advantage of an aggregator is that the content is delivered to you - you do not have to check each day for new content.

# 6 - Podcasting Resources

Here are some additional links that you may find helpful in exploring the world of podcasting:

Mr. Langhorst's Podcast and StudyCast Links - links to study reviews for 8th grade American History class

Making Your First Podcast - some tips from Podcasting News on starting a podcast

i-Tunes - the Apple site which allows you to subscribe to podcasts


Podcasting Tutorial - from Tony Vincent of Learning in Hand


Podcasting in Education - comprehensive site from Shaun Else, a 5th grade teacher in Canada