WMWP Technology Workshop

Casting Your Voice to the World: Podcasting 101

Audiocasting in the Classroom

What is podcasting?

A podcast is a digital audio file, or a series of such files, that is distributed over the Internet using syndication feeds, for playback on portable media players and personal computers – Wikipedia

All over the world, people are creating podcasts on subjects ranging from movies, to technology, to music, to politics and whatever else you can think of. This is new original content made by passionate people who want to share their creativity with the world. — http://www.how-to-podcast-tutorial.com/what-is-a-podcast.htm

What are some classroom application of podcasting?

• Students read and review literature books
• Students write and record poetry/plays/short stories/essays
• Students post and respond to questions of other students in the world
• Students create current event analysis podcasts
• Students podcast a “virtual” audio tour of their school/community
• – from http://chatt.hdsb.ca/~magps/boylit/Podcasting%20in%20Education

What tools do you need to Podcast?

1) A computer with an internet connection.

2) A microphone. Many laptops come with built in microphones, but the sound quality is low. As the authors of “Podcast Solutions: a complete guide to podcasting” suggest, “Many would argue- and rightfully so- that the microphone is the single most important piece of equipment piece of hardware.”

3) Handheld Digital voice recorders are now out that record voices very well, and convert the voice into files your computer can read (MP3). There are also many MP3 players that have voice recording options and attachments. All you need to do is to transfer your recordings onto the computer you’ll be editing your sound with.

4) Audacity is a piece of sound editing software that is used by many if not most Podcasters. Audacity is a free, easy to use, software-based audio recorder and editor. With Audacity, you will be able to record live audio using your computer’s sound input and then do some simple editing to the recording and then export it as an MP3 file so that it can be placed on a web server…” Audacity is available at http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ .

• Adapted from http://chatt.hdsb.ca/~magps/boylit/Podcasting%20in%20Education

Some examples of educational use of Podcasting:

• Youth Radio: http://youthradio.wordpress.com/
• Long Elementary School: http://long.dearbornschools.org/podcast/Long%20Elementary/HOME.html
• Willow Web: http://www.mpsomaha.org/willow/radio/podcasts.html
• Chatham Middle School: http://chathammiddle.blogspot.com/index.htm
• Read it-Write it-Say it Student Podcasts: http://visitmyclass.com/blogs/rws/default.aspx
• Portable Radio (from Ottawa, Canada): http://portableradio.edublogs.org/
  

Podcasting 101: Some Online Resources:

Some great overviews of Podcasting:

• http://teachdigital.pbwiki.com/podcasting
• http://www.how-to-podcast-tutorial.com/22-free-podcast-hosting.htm
• http://www.learninginhand.com/podcasting/
• http://www.atomiclearning.com/podcasting

Video and Powerpoint Tutorials on Podcasting: http://podcastingvideos.blogspot.com/

How to podcast with (free) Edublog site: http://edublogs.org/2006/02/23/how-do-you-post-a-podcast-with-edublogsorg/

Create your own free Edublog: http://edublogs.org/

 Even better, use PodcastPeople — a free podcasting site that does all the hosting for you. All you need is a microphone — http://podcastpeople.com/tour

---

AND SOME BONUS MATERIAL:Have you ever wondered how people follow all those blogs in the world? The answer is something called RSS, or real simple syndication. Every blog has an RSS feed and if you set up an RSS aggregator, it will collect all of the posts from those Weblogs into one site for you to read or ignore.The easiest one to set up is Bloglines.

• First, you can view my Bloglines account here: http://www.bloglines.com/public/Dogtrax
• Now, let’s set up your own Bloglines account. Go here to begin that process.
• Add the web addresses of our new Weblogs by using the add button.
• Experiment and view some of Bloglines’ recommended feeds.
• Read and venture forth into the world of Weblogs.

Remember: PATIENCE IS THE KEY TO TECHNOLOGY!

 

Invalid Forum Code