Podcasting Blog #12

Gabcast! Podcasting Blog #12

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Podcasting Blog #11

Gabcast! Podcasting Blog #11

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Podcasting Blog #10

Gabcast! Podcasting Blog #10

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Podcasting Blog #9

Gabcast! Podcasting Blog #9

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Podcasting Blog #4 – Sloan-C Workshop Reflection

Gabcast! Podcasting Blog #4 – Sloan-C Workshop Reflection

What would be the most challenging part of your course to adapt to learning or what would be the easiest?

Join Me at PodCampAZ Nov. 1st & 2nd

I can still remember last year when I first heard about PodCampAZ. I was so excited only to discover that I had missed it. I was so bummed. But I’m not going to miss it this year, and I’m not going to let you miss it either. So mark your calendars for November 1st and 2nd at UAT in Tempe. VIEW MAP

This year is sure to be another successful podcamp. People still talk about it being one of, if not, the best one. So what is it anyway? Well, it’s not all about podcasting, as the web concedes, but if that is your interest, you’re sure to find plenty of podcasters abound.

PodCamp is a FREE BarCamp-style community UnConference for podcasters and listeners, bloggers and readers, and anyone interested in New Media. It was held for the first time from September 8-10 in Boston, Massachusetts and is now spreading across the world. (PodCampAZ.com)

Yes, it says free, and it is unlike any conference you may have attended before. That’s why you just have to come out and experience it.

Shelley Rodrigo and I, along with ASU professor, Time Barrow, will be presenting on the use of Web 2.0 tools in education. There are many exciting presenters, so you’re sure to find something of interest to you. Take a look at the line up: Look Who Is Speaking At PodCamp AZ and I’ll see you on November 1st and/or 2nd at PodCampAZ.

PodCampAZ Promo

Drop.io as a Podcasting Tool?

Probably not, but it is a cool idea, and it could be used for a short podcasting messaging system for a class. Drop.io advertises itself as simple private exchange.

Drop.io enables you to create simple private exchange points called “drops.” The service has no email signup and no “accounts.” Each drop is private, and only as accessible as you choose to deliberately make it. Create multiple drops, add any type of media, and share or subscribe as you want.

And I would have to agree. The site is very clean and simple, so much in fact, that I didn’t really understand how I could use the site until I actually played with it. Drop.io allows for you to make drops.

A drop is a ‘discrete’ chunk of space you can use to store and share anything (pictures, video, audio, docs, etc) privately, without accounts, personal registration, or email addresses.

The first thing that caught my attention was the “no personal registration, or email addresses.” I’m not so concerned about myself signing up for yet another Web 2.0 site on the web, but more so that if I had my students use it they wouldn’t have to sign up or register for anything.

Now how does this relate to podcasting? A drop can be audio, and with the subscription capabilities, you can easily create a podcast. But with only 100mb of space, these podcasts would have to be short. There is an option to upgrade for $10 to get 1gb of space. Most drops are meant to be temporary, lasting 1 day, 1 week, 1 month, or 1 year. You get to choose the length of time your drop will last.

With these constraints, I’m thinking drop.io could only be useful as a podcasting tool if you need a place to leave short class update podcasts for students. Here’s the scenario: You teach a class that has an online component, a CMS or blog, where students frequently visit to get information about the course. Usually you post announcements or blog posts for students. With Drop.io you could call a special number assigned to your drop and leave a voice comment for students. Once you hang up the mp3 file appears on the drop page. Because your drop is subscription capable you can feed that to your CMS or blog. Also students can sign up for email updates or subscribe using their own aggregator.

And if you find a need to add a file, photo, video or a link, you can do that as well. Here’s a snapshot of my drop.

If you’re worried about privacy, drop.io has that covered as well. You can password protect any drop, so visitors would need the password to see the content. I’ll post more about drop.io’s features unrelated to podcasting on my sister blog: The Maricopa Experience, where I blog about teaching with technology.

Another Great Podcasting Resource

When I was in San Antonio, TX a few weeks ago for the ELI Annual Meeting, we had a very enthusiastic participant in our audience during our presentation: Your 2.0 Life: Models and Methods to Meet Learners’ Needs in a Technological Age (Innovative Practice). I was discussing how students in an online course commented that podcasting was one of the things that was helping them to learn in the course. You can see our slides here: http://drcoop.pbwiki.com/ELI2008.

We ended up having a brief discussion about podcasting, and afterwards Brian Yuhnke from Denver shared with me his podcasting website: Podcast FAQ.

“PodcastFAQ.com [is] a website committed to providing everything you need to know about podcasting. This site aims to contain the most up-to-date information for podcast creators, consumers and businesses. The content on podcastFAQ.com is intended to be easy to find, to the point, and without clutter.”

I would agree; the site is very well organized and easy to view, and there is plenty of good information for those interesting in podcasting to help them get started. You won’t find any step by step instructions on how to podcast, but you will find “everything about podcasting.” Stop by and take a look. Tell Brian I sent you.

Created a Slidecast of Podcasting Presentation

I presented the first of four podcasting presentation today at GateWay Community College. Today’s presentation was an informational session/discussion about the theory and practice of podcasting in education. I shared the information I have presented on the wiki and lead a brief discussion. Hopefully, participants left with a better understanding of what podcasting is, how it can be and is used in education, and what are the implications for teaching and learning. If you would like to view a shortened version of the presentation, click the play button below.

This Slidecast was created on Slideshare.net, and it was made by mashing up my podcast with my Keynote slides. I had to export from Keynote to pdf in order to upload the slides to Slideshare. I tried using a PowerPoint file at first, but the export messed up the slides, so I went with pdf. I’m happy with the results.

Embedding Audio in Your CMS or Website

Most faculty don’t really consider how their podcasts are received by students. I’m not talking about whether students like the podcast or not. I’m talking about the process a student goes through to listen to the podcast. Does she have to subscribe to the podcast to listen to them? Does she have to download a file and open it in a media player? There are many different scenarios for listening to a podcast. My philosophy is make it as easy as possible, especially if it’s students you want to listen.

iTunes U and RSS feeds from a blog are great for podcasting, but I’m finding it difficult to explain to students the power of RSS and subscribing to content so it shows up automatically in their media player. They are all over the place in terms of what media player they use, if they use it on a regular basis, or whether or not they even have speakers or headphones for their computers. To solve the problem, I just require a cheap pair of headphones and embed the audio podcast in the places I know they will visit daily: Course blog and Blackboard, the course management system.

A while back I used to use Odeo Sudio for my podcasting needs. I could upload my audio files and embed their nice flash players into the places that students would visit. Something happened along the way, and Odeo is not as reliable any longer, so I needed a substitute. Luckily a great article on Digital Inspiration appeared to save the day.

Amit posted a great article: “How to Embed MP3 Audio Files In Web Pages With Google or Yahoo! Flash Player” that had some great ideas about embedding audio that I never considered. If you just put a link to the audio on your webpage, a whole new window opens up and you will need Quicktime to listen to the file. With Amit’s tip, I can embed the player right in the page and the student never leaves the page. He can look around and read other content as he listens.

This is a great solution and the embedded players look great on my course blog and in Blackboard. My favorite is the Google player because there are no ads or branding. Read the article and give it try.