R EADY, S ET PODCAST! July 2008

W HAT IS A P ODCAST ? Podcasting was the 2005 Word of the Year by the New Oxford American Dictionary, which defines podcasting as a “ digital recording of a radio broadcast or similar program, made available on the Internet for downloading to a personal audio player.”

W HY DO I WANT TO CREATE PODCASTS ? We live in a digital world with digital learners. The world is different today. Podcasting engages students! Students will think more globally. Improves quality of work if there is a broader audience. It is creative! Produces pride in work. Help to introduce students to the global world. It is fun and cool!

W HAT DO I NEED TO PODCAST ? Computer Microphone ( USB or built-in on computer) Audacity – free program that may be downloaded at – Lame lib – downloaded for free at

W HAT ARE WAYS TO USE PODCASTING THE CLASSROOM ? Elementary Biographies Flash cards Reading fluency Digital book reports Timelines Unit review Class or school news Secondary Classroom lectures General information Pre-lab Projects Digital book reports (make a “movie” trailer) Timelines Foreign language Unit review

D O I HAVE TO PUBLISH ? There are two schools of thought. Some feel that it is not a podcast if it is not heard by others and subscribed to via RSS. Other say NO! Either way is great. First, examine your goal for podcasting. Why are you (and/or students) creating the podcast? The choice is yours!

F OOD FOR THOUGHT Start small Write a script before you begin Multiple voices make the podcast more interesting Create for information students need to hear over and over and over again. Example: working with negative numbers, order of operations for math, troublesome words, homophones, local history, etc. Have Fun!

Podcasting Rules* Below are the rules for the podcasting in this course. They are in addition to the school rules and policies. 1) Appropriate Language—no profanity or obscenities in the most general sense of the terms will be allowed in any format in this course—in projects or in communication with other students or the instructor. 2) Safety for Self and Others—you are not to mention personally identifying information on any audio broadcast or accompanying document that is intended for use outside of the course—this includes last names, screen names, school name, home address, or any other unique information about yourself or others. 3) Respect for Others—you should communicate with other students in the course with courtesy and respect. Disagreements are allowed, but must be communicated in respectful language. 4) Respect for Intellectual Property—you may not use the intellectual property (audio, text, video, images, etc.) of another person without permission. 5) Consent—You need to get the permission of any person you intend to record and put on a podcast. This person should be informed that the recording is for the public and for your podcast. You cannot use deception or record a person before you get his or her permission. 6) Reciprocity--You should also expect others—inside and outside of this course—to treat you according to these rules. It’s not just about being nice—most of these rules correlated with state, federal, and international laws. For example, no one should take your original material without your permission. For more information see the Podcasting Legal Guide at Creative Commons ( *From Chris Shamburg’s presentation at NECC 2008

C ITING S OURCES Although you have more permissions with these Creative Commons audio files than you do with standard copyrighted music, you need to cite the sources. At the end of the audio play you need to record the credits for the files that you have used. You can get this information from the Appendix. You should credit your sources by recording the following at the end of your project: Music The music for this project came from the Creative Commons Mixter > with a >. Sound Effects The Sound Effects for this project came from the Free Sounds Project >. All sound effects have a Creative Commons Sampling 1.0 Plus license.

W HAT IS A UDACITY ? Free, user friendly, audio recorder and editor Multi-tracks which means Narration Music Sound effects

G ETTING STARTED Open audacity. If you can work a cassette tape player, you are in lucky! These are the same skills you need to get started. Skip to start Play Record Pause Stop Skip to end

R ECOMMENDATION : C OMPLETE A S AVE A S FROM GETTING STARTED TO NAME THE PROJECT. Give a unique name

M ORE TOOLS TO KNOW Selector Tool Shift tool – moves tracks on the track to desired position Envelop Tool - allows editing the volume of any section of the wave by putting in points on the wave and a logarithmic volume increase/decrease between the points

R ECORD A TRACK Press record and say a few words. From the Project drop-down menu, import an audio file. (.mp3 files will be easiest to work with!) Notice: Now you have 2 tracks. The second one will be your audio file. voice

Audio file Press Play and listen to what you have.

Import a sound effect – a third track Next, use the shift tool to move the tracks to that they are not overlapping. Play your project

C HANGING VOLUME amplitu de The voice is too loud when played back (notice the amplitude is greater than music). To reduce the volume, use the selector tool and highlight the voice track. From the Effect drop-down menu, select amplify and turn the volume down by moving the slider to the left. Volume could be increased by doing the opposite. Note: When working with multiple tracks, Click the mute button all tracks, except the track being worked with (This will “gray- out” the track. Before exporting be sure to uncheck the mute button.

Before After Play again, and the volume will be lower on the voice. There are many other effects that may be added to the track. This can be used if one word is too quiet or too loud instead of doing the narration again. A passage or sound can also be eliminated.

U SING THE E NVELOP TOOL TO ADJUST VOLUME An alternate method to adjust volume is the envelop tool. This is best when along portion of the wave needs to be increased/decreased. When the envelop tool is selected a “gray envelop” surrounds the wave, by clicking and dragging the mouse the volume is increased or decrease. Each click creates a reference point. There are 4 reference points above.

F ADE IN AND FADE OUT Volume builds Volume fades Highlight the first few seconds of audio file and select FADE IN, highlight the last few seconds of audio file and select FADE OUT.

R ESOURCES Audacity – How to Podcast Tutorial Podcasting Graphics Itunes Gcast FeedBurner