Podcasting in Education

Donna EyestoneCity College of San Francisco

Broadcast Electronic Media Arts

deyestone@mac.com

A combination of iPod and broadcasting.Some say “pod” = portable on-demand

You can selectively subscribe to audio content over the Internet. It can then be automatically added to a mobile device, like an iPod or other MP3 player.

It can also be used to distribute video or other media-rich content for iPod (aka vodcasting, enhanced podcasts, PDFs, etc.).

What is Podcasting

A little more detail

A Podcast is RSS content that you’ve

subscribed to, and is delivered via the Internet, then captured by a program known as a “podcatcher” or a

content aggregator, such as iTunes or Juice.

It’s a little like TiVo

Podcasting lets your students listen to or view your course content whenever they like, and on the go with a mobile device, like an iPod or other MP3 player.

And it’s popularGoogle hits on “podcast”

Aug. 1, 2006 379,000,000

Nov. 7, 2005 101,000,000

Sept. 20, 2005 60,200,000

June 28, 2005 10,000,000

Oct. 18, 2004 100,000

Oct. 3, 2004 2,750

Sept. 30, 2004 526

Sept. 28, 2004 28

What Podcasting isn’t

•Not web-based downloads

•There’s no “casting” or automated delivery when your students need to manually download your media. It doesn’t make the content less useful, just less convenient to get.

Enables new ways to learn

Lectures and other audio content are easily made available

Portable access to course material (coursecasting)

Guest lectures, speaker or concert series

Include rich media material to complement written text (pdf)

Review for midterms, finals, missed classes

Enables new ways to learnAssists auditory learners

Eases learner anxiety about “missing” key information

Assists non-native speakers of English

Great to immerse foreign language learners

Provide feedback to learners

Enables instructors to review their own teaching

Let’s check it out!

That’s great for individual faculty - but what about

your entire college?

Use on campus

Admissions/Departments Self Guided TourIntroductions to a department or student groupsInterviews with faculty and current studentsCapture the interest of potential students

Marketing/CommunitySpeaker seriesConcert seriesCollege newspapers and radio stationsKeep alumni and donors engaged/connected

iTunes U

Rather than each faculty member at a campus creating their own podcasting presence, a college can sign up to be an iTunes U campus and create a unified environment for their students.

Scalable - so you can grow into it

Easy - to - use and administer - no XML needed!

Apple hosts your files

You control who can access specific content

It’s FREE

Get Ready

Let’s make an audio podcast!

Overview

Planning, Preproduction, StoryboardsWrite Script / Prepare OutlineTest Recording EquipmentRecord AudioEdit AudioCompress AudioGenerate XML for RSS feedUpload files to Web Server

Step 1 : Planning

Select appropriate content narrow focus, not a lot of facts and figures

Determine your instructional goalprovide motivation, integrate concepts, overviews, supplemental material, etc.

Design your contentcase studies, personal stories, dialogs with opposing views, etc.

Step 2 : Recording & Editing

Use Audacity (or other) audio editing application to record.http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Record your podcast.be yourself, talk naturally, express your passion.

Incorporate your podcast into your course.is it required, optional, value-added or review, etc.

A USB headset mic works great for recording spoken word.can use internal mic on laptops if needed. Compact flash recording devices for higher quality. Can even use the audio from a DV video camera.

If desired, edit your audio file to remove mistakes or long pauses.can add extra audio here for stings, intros, background music.

Step 3 : Compression

MP3 provides excellent audio quality at low file sizes.

MP3 files are “generic” and can be played anywhere

Use the LAME MP3 encoder to export your .WAV or .AIFF file from Audacity as an MP3 file.

Can also use iTunes to convert files to MP3 format.

Step 4 : Write XML

You wrap your media files in an RSS feed to create a podcast.

You can either write your own XML (start from a template) or use an online RSS feed generator.

You have one channel, and each new MP3 file is a new episode. You just add a new <ITEM> to your one .xml file each episode.

http://www.apple.com/itunes/store/podcaststechspecs.html

Step 5 : Upload files

Using a FTP program, like Fetch or SmartFTP upload your .MP3 and .XML files to a regular-ole webserver. You do not need a streaming server to make a podcast. Any computer server that is connected to the Internet and is capable of serving up web pages is capable of being your podcasting server.

The MP3 files you create can be used both as a subscription-based podcast and individually downloadable from your CMS.

Step 5.5 Accessibility

Provide a transcript of your audio in PDF format or embed it right in your MP3 metadata

You can either put a link to the PDF on a website, or as its own podcast episode

You can type it yourself after the fact, or use your script

Use an online service and pay for transcription

Try out a “speech - to - text” application, like Dragon Naturally Speaking

Seek assistance for ideas and resources from your college

Step 6 : Subscribe

Once your files are on a web server, try out your channel by subscribing to your feed using a content aggregator, such as iTunes or Juice.

If you want, you can “register” your feed with iTunes (or others), so it’s easily “findable”.

You can use links (URLs) that send people right from your web page (course) to iTunes and your specific podcast.

Step 7 : Repeat

Be consistent! Release new episodes regularly so listeners don’t forget about you!

Try to make episodes that are about the same duration, in the same tone of voice, etc.

Usually better to release 5 mins weekly rather than 60 mins every other month.

Need more?

Podcast Solutions: The Complete Guide to Audio and Video Podcasting

M.W. Geoghegan, D Klass

QuickTime™ and a decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Get Podcasting!

Donna EyestoneCity College of San FranciscoBroadcast Electronic Media Arts Departmentdeyestone@mac.comhttp://homepage.mac.com/deyestone/meet/code.xmlor search “Donna Eyestone” in iTunes for “how-to” podcasting movies written just for educators