Podcasting

Mon, 22 Jan 2007 06:11:05 GMT

Scott Thompson is on the move, talking to educators across the United States. This dispatch is from the field.

Create your own Education Podcast today using XP or Vista

Have student participation you want to feature? Need to add instructional technology to your lessons? Want to broadcast your classroom norms, key concepts, or project criteria? Creating a mediacast is for you. You can create a mediacast with ease using your Windows XP or Windows Vista machine. Mediacasts are simply audio files that are posted to a website. Districts may want to syndicate the podcast using RSS (more on RSS in a later blog)—however districts should consider using SharePoint as it is a truly enterprise collaborative tool and has RSS built in.

Getting Started

So if an audio mediacast (aka podcast) is a simple audio file, getting started is a breeze. Simply capture your voice using the audio recorder. It will create a file and you are basically done. Upload your audio file to the website.

Extra Credit: If you would like to add music or bumper music to your podcast, use Windows MovieMaker. I especially like the refinements found in Vista. You can really tweak the bit rate for an AM, FM and other settings for ever increasing quality. By the way, free music is available on the microsoft.com/office website. Under the media search look for music. There are also sound effects and more for the taking.

If you desire, you can convert the audio file to a MP3 format using free or for purchase utilities that are easy to use. Many can be found at sites such as www.download.com (search for MP3 converter).

Syndicate the Content

So you are now ready to syndicate your content. This is done using RSS. RSS or Really Simple Syndication is essentially XML that is on a website that indicates that there is content available for subscription, or if you will, consumption (subscription implies a cost, which there is none unless you charge for access- and most podcasts are free so we are just talking about making it ready for the taking). If you have a RSS aggregator you can capture the updated content on your desktop. What is very cool is that Vista, Outlook 2007, and IE7 are shine with RSS capabilities. IT Pros will like the fact that the new Microsoft SharePoint has RSS built in. So using SharePoint, syndication is a breeze and is handled for you.

Add Photos, Movies and Effects

Now that you have gotten your feet wet with MovieMaker to create your auido mediacast, you can get extra points if you use MovieMaker to feature photos or videos of student work, say from the class field trip. These mediacasts allow teachers to create powerful content and impact student learning.

Student Use, Acceptable Use, and Governance

Check with your district regarding policies specific to student work on the internet, the use of personal information on the Internet, and any release forms that may need to be completed. Districts use student voices on the Internet, but some districts prefer not to have students identify themselves nor provide identifiable information in the podcast. Here, policy, common sense and prudent judgment rule. Also, CIOs may want to consider where the content is residing, so that the district can maintain proper governance over the content.

A Work-Life Balance: Multimedia

Podcasting