Podcasting

Slide 1: Robert Heinrich A non-geeky description of how this technologies works

Slide 2: Podcasting – What is it? • A podcast is a media file that is distributed by subscription over the Internet using syndication feeds, for playback on mobile devices and personal computers.

Slide 4: Learn by Listening • Music • Lectures • Audio Textbook • Student Projects • Tours on Campus • Enhanced Podcasts – Pictures – Lecture Notes – Speaker Notes • Distributing Commencement Addresses

Slide 5: How to Listen • Students can access content directly from where the links to the files are posted on the web – Course Web Page – WebBoard – WebCT • Podcast Software (clients) let you subscribe to and manage podcasts. – http://www.podcastingnews.com/topics/Podcast_S

Slide 6: Common Misconceptions • A podcast can only be listened to on an iPod • A podcast can only be listed to through iTunes • You need a MAC to create a Podcast

Slide 7: With iTunes, Students Do have Some Advantages • Create Playlists from Audio in library • Organize playlists in convenient folders • Setup Smart Playlists • Add Podcasts: Subsribe, Sync, and Go

Slide 8: Additional iTunes Advantages • Chapters • Bookmarking – Pick up where you left off – Time Syncs with your iPod + iTunes – Adjust playback speed on iPod • Faster, Normal, Slower

Slide 9: Questions You Are Probably Asking Yourself… • How does podcasting or vodcasting challenge the current "talking head" model of classroom lectures ? If all lectures are available via video and audio, do students need to go to class? How often? Why? How can they be kept in class? • Who owns the content, the school, the instructor, the user? Can this content be used outside of the university community? How is it protected or secured to the owner or subscriber? • Who's going to edit the content? What are the guidelines for editing? What's real - what's not? • How is copyrighted material tracked and/or verified?

Slide 10: Speech to text? • Acrobat allows for text to speech • Podzinger – Search engine for podcasts and video, is created through the use of speech recognition software. It allows searching either audio or video or both. – Results are displayed with brief sections of the transcript, which can be played using the player displayed on the left of each entry or by clicking a word in the transcript.

Slide 11: Examples of Podcasting at Stockton • Microcomputers and Applications Fall 06 – http://caxton.stockton.edu/csis118000706f/ • Kinsella’s Medieval Ireland Class Weblog – http://caxton.stockton.edu/irelandpodcasts/ • Tompkins’ Grail Class Weblog – http://caxton.stockton.edu/grail • Podcasts and Pedagogy – http://caxton.stockton.edu/podped/

Slide 12: Capturing Content • Digital Personal Audio Recorder • PC Software and Microphone • Integrated Smart Classroom Recording System

Slide 13: Software for publishing podcasts and editing Content • Audacity – Cross Platform – Open Source - Free • Adobe Audition – Windows Only – Expensive • Garage Band (part of iLife 06) – Only available for MAC OS • Additional Resources

Slide 14: How to Post a Podcast • Making it available via the Web – Posting your file(s) on a server with a publicly accessible URL. • Post to a WebBlog • Create an RSS feed. • To accomplish this, you must post your MP3 file in a web folder on a web server. Then create the feed. FeedBurner is one free tool you can use. • Making it available via iTunes – Submitting the URL for your RSS feed to iTunes

Slide 15: Posting to a Blog • Your podcast is basically just a blog with audio. Podcasting uses the same feed technology as many blogs. Your audience receives the audio file through the feed in addition to the text. • Usually each blog entry/post is one episode of your podcast. The post consists of your show notes (an outline of the episode’s contents), links to any related information or sources and probably a link to the MP3 file for the episode. The feed from your blog tells the subscriber’s podcatcher where to download the audio file.

Slide 16: RSS • One of the great things about listening to podcasts is that you can subscribe to what’s called an RSS feed. Once you’re subscribed, your podcatcher will check the feed regularly for new episodes. When a new episode is posted, the podcatcher will automatically download the audio file for you to listen to. • An RSS feed is nothing more than a specially formatted text file. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. • You don’t need to worry about understanding RSS or writing out the feed file by hand. There are ways to create it automatically.

Slide 17: Further Questions For more information please address all correspondence to: Robert R. Heinrich The Richard Stockton College of NJ PO Box 195, Pomona, NJ 08240 609-626-6039 Email: robert.heinrich@stockton.edu