Podcasting 101 Transcript

Introduction

Podcasts have excellent potential as an educational tool. There are many ways to use podcasts in your classroom, including using video or audio podcasts as authentic material for your students. You can find just about any content in a podcast, some that you will find helpful and some that you might not want to expose your students to, so it is important to browse your options and know the podcast well before you use it with your class. Two examples of podcasts that I have used in my classroom can be found at http://minnesota.publicradio.org/radio/podcasts/grammar_grater/ and http://www.ted.com/talks/browse. The first one is an audio podcast and the second is a video. There are also a range of educational podcasts, both audio and video, available on iTunes. To find podcasts on iTunes, go to the iTunes Store, click on Browse, Podcasts, Educational, and K-12. Another option is to search for specific content using the search tool in the upper right hand corner.
Since making your own podcast can be slightly intimidating, however, I would like to focus on how to do that. As a teacher, you might want to produce podcasts to make video-taped lesson material available for your students, to give individualized instruction or practice material, or simply to communicate with parents. After you've mastered the art of podcasting, or at least gained basic skills, you might also decide to use podcasting as student activity or assessment.
A Warning
Before I go into the details of how to record and publish your podcast, there is one important thing to discuss. Depending on where you host and how you publish your podcast, it will likely be available to anyone with internet access. Obviously, this can be a wonderful thing, because it gives you and your students access to a wide range of audiences. On the other hand, you will need to ensure that the content is acceptable in your school community, and get permission from parents or your school if what you publish has student images or names in it.

Materials

In order to make a podcast you will need some hardware such as a computer, a microphone and a video camera. Apple computers are easier to use than PCs, so this tutorial will focus on Apples, but you can get the job done with any computer. For the microphone and video camera, I recommend purchasing external ones for higher quality. You have the option of using a separate microphone and video camera or a standard digital video camera with a built in microphone.
You will also need software for recording your audio or video files. On an Apple computer I recommend using Garage Band for audio recording and iMovie HD for video files. Both of these programs generally come free with the most recent operating systems. You could invest in professional software, but for classroom use, free is fine.
Of course, you cannot create a podcast without the internet. A high bandwidth connection is preferable because it limits the amount of time it will take to upload your files.

Making Your Podcast

The first thing when making a podcast is to sketch out and possibly write a script for what you want to say (and do for a video podcast). Once you know what you want, you can practice and record it. Using iMovie makes it easy to add pictures and edit audio.
After recording something that you are happy with, you will need to compress the files. In Garage Band you have the option of recording as a podcast and files are automatically saved in the format used by iTunes (AAC). When you've finished recording and mixing, click on Share and Send podcast to iTunes. To compress the files in iMovie HD simply click on File, Export, and choose Quicktime for a cross platform media file (one that could be opened in any music player) or export directly to iTunes by clicking on the iPod icon.
Once your file has been compressed, you'll need to upload it to a server. If your school has it's own server, you might be able to ask for some space. Alternatively, try a free media hosting site such as http://www.ourmedia.org. You will have to sign up, but you can upload and store your files for free. There are many advantages to using a file hosting website, but it does make your media files public, so it might not be the best option for everybody. There are also some paid hosting sites that can cost $3 and up per month, but if you are only creating the occasional podcast, it is not worth the money.
To use Ourmedia.org for file hosting, you will need to log on and click on Upload in the upper right hand corner. Choose the type of file you will upload and fill out the necessary information. Click on Choose file and select the clip you would like to upload. At the bottom of the page, read the rules and click Submit.
Now that your file is compressed and uploaded to a server, all you need to do is make it accessible for your audience. Copy the link to your uploaded file and paste it in a weblog or wiki for others to access.
If you are going to create a regular podcast, you will probably want to have a feed. A feed basically allows your audience to subscribe to your podcast, so that they get new episodes when they are available. To do this, you will need to sign up for a Feedburner account. It is free. Once you have signed up, you simply go to www.feedburner.com and type the address of your blog or other site where you have published your podcast. Check the box that says “I am a podcaster” and click Next. Then Feedburner will offer you one or more feed possibilities. Choose the RSS option. Once Feedburner has verified your podcast, it will ask you to sign in to activate your feed. Finally, it will give you an address to subscribe to the feed. Now, anybody can subscribe to your podcast. If you want to go further, you can make your podcast available on iTunes as well by following the Feedburner instructions.
As you can see, publishing a podcast is not easy, but it can be worth the effort. Using this technology in class has the potential to make your lessons more interactive and extend learning beyond the classroom. It also goes without saying that multimedia communication is now an important skill. So, learning to podcast will benefit you and your students.

Podcasting 101

Podcasting for educational purposes.

Why?
What you can do?
And how?

Produced for EDCI 519 on July 14, 2008.