Using Podcasting for Teaching: Part 1 - Find & Use Online Content

Podcasting Defined A combination of the words iPod and broadcasting. In its most popular form, it is a way for people to selectively subscribe to audio content over the Internet. This audio content can then be automatically added to a mobile device, like an iPod. It can also be used to distribute video or other media-rich content for iPod (aka vodcasting, enhanced podcasts).

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..

It’s like TiVo Podcasting has been likened to TiVo because it empowers the learner to listen or view their selected podcasts whenever they like, and on the go with a mobile device, like an iPod or other MP3 player.

Google hits on “Podcasts” Aug. 1, ,000,000 Nov. 7, ,000,000 Sept. 20, ,200,000 June 28, ,000,000 Oct. 18, ,000 Oct. 3, ,750 Sept. 30, Sept. 28,

What Podcasting Isn’t NOT Web based downloads. Websites that have links to download media sometimes labeled as “download podcast” on a web page. There is no “casting” or automated delivery when the user manually downloads media. It doesn’t make the content less useful, just less convenient without the automated delivery.

Enabling New Ways to Learn Lectures and other audio content are easily made available Portable access to course material Guest lectures, speaker or concert series Include rich media material to complement written text Review for midterms, finals, missed classes

Enabling New Ways to Learn Assists 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

Case Study - Duke University Pilot program for iPods in the classroom - and now podcasting. Content dissemination Classroom recording Field recording Study aid

Duke University Music Students: listen to professional performances of Bach chorales, then remove one vocal line from MIDI files, sang the missing part and re-recorded the chorales with their voice.

Duke University Education Students: recorded tutoring sessions to review and evaluate strategies they used.

Duke University Economics Professor: made course lectures available to students for review before exams.

Duke University German Literature: Students record interviews with Americans to see how key events in Berlin’s history are perceived in U.S. and included audio clips in presentations.

Duke University Electrical Engineering: Students studied digital signal processing concepts by recording pulse rates during physical activities as well as environmental sounds.

Duke University Spanish: Instructors recorded Spanish novellas and vocabulary for student download. Students submitted their recorded audio exercises to instructor.

Duke University Theatre: Students analyzed digital recordings of early radio shows then shared radio plays they created through course podcast.

Duke University Science & Information Studies: Students transfer multimedia files from assignments. They also discussed intellectual property policies and the ethics of new forms of information gathering, processing and transmission.

Duke University Engineering: Students brought MP3 files to the lab to analyze waveforms, compression, sample rate and other parameters.

Designing Podcasts that Teach Select appropriate content narrow focus, not lots of facts and figures Determine your instructional goal provide motivation, integrate concepts, overviews, etc. Design your content case studies, personal stories, dialogs with opposing views, etc. Produce your podcast be yourself, talk naturally, express your passion Incorporate your podcast into your course is it required, optional, value-added or review, etc.

Use on campus Admissions/Departments Self Guided Tour Introductions to a department Interviews with faculty and current students throughout semester Marketing/Community Speaker series Concert series College newspapers and radio stations

iTunes U Rather than each faculty member at a campus creating their own podcasting presence, a college can sign up to be an iTunesU campus and create a unified environment for their students. Scalable Easy - to - use and administer You can host the content or have Apple host your files You control who can access what content It’s FREE

Using Podcasting for Teaching: Part 2 - Creating & Syndicating

Overview of the Production Process Planning, Preproduction, Storyboards Write Script/Outline Test Recording Equipment and setup Record Audio Edit Audio Compress Audio Generate XML RSS feed Upload to web server

Step 1 - Planning Select appropriate content narrow focus, not lots of facts and figures Determine your instructional goal provide motivation, integrate concepts, overviews, etc. Design your content case studies, personal stories, dialogs with opposing views, etc.

Step 2 - Recording & Editing Produce 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. Use Audacity (or other) audio editing application to record If desired, edit your audio file to remove mistakes or long pauses. Can add extra audio here for stings, intros, background music.

Step 3 - Compress Audio Use the LAME MP3 encoder to export your.WAV or.AIFF file from Audacity as an MP3 file. MP3 provides excellent audio quality at low file sizes. Can also use iTunes to convert files to MP3 format.

Step 4 - Create RSS feed 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 to your one.xml file each show.

Step 5 - Upload files Using a FTP program, like Fetch or WS_FTP 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 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 ADA Compliance Provide a transcript of your audio in PDF format 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. If you want, you can “register” your feed with iTunes (or others) so it’s “findable” by others. You can use links (URLs) that send people right from your web page (course) to iTunes and your specific podcast.

Step 7 - Repeat Make your channel have consistency - release new episodes regularly so that listeners don’t forget about you! Try to make episodes fairly consistent - in length, in tone of voice, in scope. Usually better to release 5 mins weekly than 60 mins bi-monthly.

Using Podcasting for Teaching