Basic Podcasting for the Classroom - Giving Your Ideas Voice

 

This wiki was created as a resource for a workshop given by Eric Langhorst - producer of the Speaking of History podcast

 

 

What is a podcast?

 

"A podcast is a series of digital-media files which are distributed over the Internet using syndication feeds for playback on portable media players and computers." - definition of a "podcast" from wikipedia - see full article

 

What Is Podcasting? - a Common Craft video describing podcasting

 

 

 

Finding educational podcasts

 

Educational Podcast Network - collection of educational podcasts screened by David Warlick

 

Zune Marketplace - collection of podcasts for easy download to Zune MP3 players - also works without a Zune

 

iTunes - collection of podcasts for easy download to i-Pods - also works without an i-Pod

 

Podcast Alley - huge collection of podcasts, please preview as some people define "educational" in different ways

 

Podcast Pickle - large collection of podcast, again - please preview content

 

Learn Out Loud - large collection of podcasts which promote learning and have been screened

 

 

 

Devices for collecting audio

 

iRiver MP3 players - portable with good internal microphones

 

H2 Zoom Handy Recorder - higher quality audio, records with 4 microphones, portable but not an MP3 player

 

Logitech Premium Notebook Headset - a USB microphone headset that I use and recommend

 

 

 

Software for editing audio to create a podcast

 

Audacity - free, commonly used audio editing software which works with Mac and PC

 

Podium - software which can be purchased to create podcasts, might be good solution for grade school students

 

 

 

WAV and MP3 audio formats

 

WAV and MP3 are different audio formats - MP3 files require less than 10% of the storage that WAV files require and the difference cannot be detected by the human ear - here is some additional information

 

 

 

Finding a host for your podcast

 

Podbean - free site to upload, organize and publish your podcast files

 

Our Media - free hosting service to give your audio files a "home on the Internet"

 

 

 

 

What is RSS and how do I set it up for my podcast

 

RSS in Plain English - a Common Craft video describing RSS

 

Blogger - free service to create a blog which can then be used to easily create RSS feeds

 

Feedburner - free service to help you create your RSS feed 

 

 

 

Helpful tools to make your podcast better

 

Levelator - free application which allows you to level out the audio levels on your audio

 

Wave @ MP3 - a free download which allows you to convert from MP3 to WAV and from WAV to MP3

 

Zamzar - free web based application which allows you to convert audio, video files, etc to various formats

 

Read the Words - free application which converts text to audio automatically and allows you to download it as an MP3 file

 

 

 

Adding sound to your podcast

 

Freeplay Music - awesome sound resources, can use in the classroom but if broadcast in any way must pay according to rate card

 

PodSafe Audio - free sound files for you to use, be sure to give credit to the artist

 

Soundzabound - purchase audio for your students to use in broadcast

 

 

 

Podcasting Resources

 

Tony Vincent's 34 page booklet on Podcasting for Teachers and Students - FREE pdf download

 

Wes Fryer's Podcasting Resources

 

Poducateme Resources

 

Dan Schmit's books on podcasting in the classrom