Podcasting

In its most popular form, podcasting is a way for people to subscribe to audio / video content over the Internet. This audio content can be automatically downloaded to a computer or mobile device, like iPod. Think of it as a radio show that you can listen to whenever and wherever you want — only it’s much more than that.

The word "podcast" is a concatenation of the words "iPod" and broadcast.  The underlying technologyused for podcasts, called RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is capable of containing any type of media, including audio, video, graphics and more.

Podcasting is a further development of a blog, allowing individuals a way of publishing audio podcasts to the web, and allowing people to subscribe to these podcasts to receive new "episodes" automatically, through an RSS feed.  Podcasting consists of publishing XML files which contain references to media (now video clips are included among the types of RSS "enclosures") to a website.  Podcast aggregators, often called "Podcatchers" read these XML files and download all the linked enclosures.

Unlike broadcasts, listeners are in control of where and when they hear their favorite programming The episodes are automatically downloaded so they are readily available to the listener.

How Does iTunes Support Podcasting?

iTunes 4.9 and later, allow people to subscribe to podcasts and automatically download new apisodes when they are available (Note: iTunes 4.9 for Windows does not support the creation of Podcasts.) .  The iTunes Music Store features a directory of podcasts. People can browse through thousands of podcasts, by category, search, preview podcast episodes, get specific episodes, or subscribe to future updateswithin the iTunes Music Store.  All these podcasts on the iTunes Music Store are free. 

Taking Podcasting to School

With more and more educational content being developed for and delivered through podcasting, educators and students have on-the-go access to audio ranging from curriculum-related content to professional development shows.

Podcasting is also a way for teachers and students to publish and distribute content.
Imagine a science instructor posting daily assignments and recorded lectures from class to a website that provides an RSS feed. Students can subscribe to the feed from home and have their class assignments and content sync with their iPods, taking them wherever they go.

 

Key Podcasting Website Resources:

www.podcastalley.com

www.ipodder.com

www.podcastingnews.com

www.podscope.com

Podcasting Resources: Check out these websites for podcasting resources

Profcast Web site

iPodder.org

Podcast Alley

The Podcast Bunker

Podcast Central

PodcastExpert.com

Podcasting Tools

The-real-beginners-guide-to-podcasting

RSS

Berkman Center for Internet and Society

 

Audacity, The Free, Cross-Platform Sound Editor
a free, easy-to-use audio editor and recorder for Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems. You can use Audacity to:

  • Record live audio.
  • Convert tapes and records into digital recordings or CDs.
  • Edit Ogg Vorbis, MP3, and WAV sound files.
  • Cut, copy, splice, and mix sounds together.
  • Change the speed or pitch of a recording.
  • And more! See the complete list of features.

http://www.podcastingnews.com- Excellent podcast resource website including podcast news, forums and feeds

http://macs.about.com - Tools and information to help you create and publish your podcasts

http://www.podcasting-tools.com - Comprehensive website covering practically everything you need to know about podcasting

Dennis Haarsager's WSU Weblog summary Academic Impression's WebEx conference.

Skype + Podcast Recorder = SkypeCasters
http://www.henshall.com/blog/archives/001056.html

Educational podcasting for teaching and learning
http://recap.ltd.uk/podcasting/index.php

Podcasting in Education
http://www.apple.com/education/solutions/podcasting/

Derek Bruff's collection of Educational Podcasts for Education, Vanderbilt Center for Teaching:

1. Chronicle of Higher Education - interviews with people in the higher ed community http://chronicle.com/multimedia/podcasts/

2. Insider Higher Ed - interviews with people in the higher ed community http://www.insidehighered.com/podcast

3. Education Podcast with John Merrow from PBS
http://www.pbs.org/merrow/podcast/

4. Digital Campus discussions among three
humanities scholars and bloggers (Dan Cohen, Mills Kelly, and Tom Scheinfeldt) about the impact of digital media and technology on learning,
teaching, and scholarship http://digitalcampus.tv/ -

5. Around the Academy: commentary on higher ed news articles by Julie-Ann McFann of New Professor Mentor Coaching http://aroundtheacademypodcast.libsyn.com/

6. Northern Kentucky University PODcast upcoming events at NKU's Professional & Organizational Development Center and video podcasts of outside speakers
http://pod.nku.edu/podcasts.asp -

7. James Madison University's Center for Instructional Technology Faculty Spotlight interviews with
campus faculty members teaching with technology http://cit.jmu.edu/cit/announcement.asp?id=437

8. Portland State University's Center for Academic Excellence Podcasts - audio from recent workshops and speakers [audio files on web site, not syndicated]
http://www.pdx.edu/cae/podcast.html

9. The LearningTimes Green Room - discussions
and interviews about teaching and learning in K-12, higher ed, and online settings by Dan Balzer and Susan Manning of LearningTimes.org
http://www.ltgreenroom.org/

See also iTunes' directory of higher education podcasts. However, most of
these appear to feature academics discussing topics in their own discipline and are not about higher education.

... a way for people to selectively subscribe to audio content over the Internet.

Listen to Podcasts:

Common Browsers and Their Support for MP3 links (Safari on MAC OSX can't be beat for ease of use.). Firefox plays the MP3 right in the browser using your default audio player, such as the QuickTime player. If you don't want to play the audio on the browser, you can copy the MP3's URL by right clicking and selecting "Copy Link Location" from the context menu.  Then paste the link into streaming audio applications such as QuckTime Player, Windows Media Player, Real Audio, Sinique, and WinAmp.

What you will need to get started:

1) A way to make an MP3 ( your podcast). The MP3 format is necessary because CD quality audio files are extremely large, to large for most mp3 players. The MP refers to the MPEG compression technique which was established in 1988 to set standards for digital encoding. Perfected in the mid-90s, the MP3 format which stands for MPEG Audio Layer III, because the standard for digital audio compression worldwide. A typical song on a CD might be a 30 to 40 MB of information, which can be compressed to 3.5 - 4 MB using MP3 with little quality loss. Mac Users can use QuickTime Pro viewer or GrageBand.  All Windows users can use Audacity which has risen to a prominent place among the podcasting community.

2) Some web space

3) There are many pieces of aggregators, i.e. software for capturing podcasts, but for the beginner Mac users I recommend "iTunes", GarageBand 3, or "iPodder"  and for Windows users "HappyFish" or "iPodder.NET" though Microsoft .Net Framework 1.1 should be installed before you load iPodder or HappyFish..

How to create the podcast:

1) Connect equipment (preamp, microphone, etc):

Create an MP3 of what you want to broadcast (bear in mind that unless it's 100% original you could be liable for breaking copyright law, so choose what you record carefully!). If you don't know how to create an MP3 then browse Google for some advice. Alternatively you could install GarageBand from i'Life '06, or could download and try some free software such as Audacity.

2) Configurethe application and the OS with the microphone, etc.

3) Record your podcast:

4) Edit your vocal recording (GarageBand or Audacity) to improve quality, add music from iTunes and can drag any MP3 or AAC file from the desktop into GarageBand.

5) Export the podcast to MP3 format....

6) Using the amazing podcast XML source code creator below, enter the relevant information for your podcast then click 'Create XML Source Code!' On the next page just cut and paste the source code into your favourite HTML/text editor (not Word please, it screws up the format) and save the file as 'filename.xml'. If you don't have something like Dreamweaver then I recommend using Notepad.

4) Upload your XML file to your website (e.g. www.somewebsite.com/mypodcasts/filename.xml)

5) The link to the XML file on your website is now the active link to your podcast. Go on, give it a go! You can view an example XML file here that was created with the podcast XML source code creator. You can even link to it in your favourite podcast player such as iTunes or iPodder and listen to me (please note this Podcast is purely for demonstration purposes and is unlikely to ever be updated).

6) Once you've got your active Podcast link, you need to let people know it exists. If you want to get your Podcast published to a wider audience, then I recommend using the free Podcast submission service at www.podcastalley.com

7) If you find this site useful then please consider donating some money to help keep it online for others. Alternatively you could mention my website URL in your podcast. Hopefully you'll do both! :)

What you will need:

1) An MP3 of your podcast

2) Some web space (if you need some web space then I recommend using One & One or UK-Cheapest)

 

Background articles from The Chronicle: