Podcasting In The Classroom

Podcasting In The Classroom

Language Arts and Podcasting A very natural fit – words and sound! Activates the spoken word Increases the writer’s audience Speakers listen and critique their own voices Great writing, reading, and oral literacy opportunities! ( Integrated Academics tag cloud) Activate your course content!

Quick Survey What is a podcast? Did you ever listen to a podcast? Have you ever recorded your own voice? Have you used Audacity? Have you created a podcast? Have you used Movie Maker or Photo Story?

Equipment needed Basic equipment – computer with headset/microphone Next step – Portable mp3 recorder

Equipment needed Slightly more advanced studio equipment: Podcast porta-cart!

A Podcast… hmmmm? A podcast is an audio recording Length from 30 second clips to a full 30-minute broadcast Saved as an .mp3 or .wav file Listeners hear a short amateur radio show Available to a wide audience of listeners Here’s a sample!

Podcasting History Podcasting is a relatively new medium In 2004: A Google search for ‘podcasts’ gave us only 22 results Tuesday evening’s Google search for ‘podcasting’ - over 17,100,000 hits Over 100,000 shows listed in iTunes directory

Podcast = iPod? An iPod is not needed to hear or create a podcast Anyone with a computer can hear and download podcasts If you don’t have iTunes or a Mac, what will you do?

Does Podcast = iPod?

Making your own podcast

Podcasts In The Classroom

Ideas for your Classroom Field trip reports Digital storytelling Documenting progress Class lectures Interviews In conjunction with Moviemaker or Photo Story Remote Lectures

Foreign languages Parent communication Professional Development Oral reports Class or School wide Newcast Audio Quizzes

Cycle of Podcasting Development Gathering

Planning

Student “On Task” Time Practice Recording and Editing

Publishing

Research and synthesis As with any project, this is MOST important! Storage - Where will the students’ projects be kept? Computer Hard Drive Memory Stick CDRW Network Drive NEVER on Floppy Disk (If they still exist!)

Models – Locate and play exemplary podcasts as models for students

Gathering of Resources Hardware/Software Gathering - Prepare for your students to succeed! Download music tracks for background or bumper music for the students’ podcasts prior to beginning the project Create “templates” in Audacity

Recording THe Podcast Prepare to model proper use of software to your students. Free audio editor Audacity Commercial products could give better results, but they present significant learning challenges!

Audacity Audacity is free, open source software for recording and editing sounds. It is available for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems. Simple graphical user interface (GUI) allows for easy to use by students and adults alike. Let’s open Audacity!

Click the button with the small red circle when you are ready to record audio

Click the button with the two blue vertical lines to pause during recording. To begin recording again press pause a second time.

Cli ck t he but ton wi th the g r een t riang le to listen to a pl aybac k of the r ecor di ng

Use the Select ion T ool but ton to delete por ti ons the

Highl ight the ar ea to del ete. Use bac kspace or del ete button

Reading the script – tips for the kids! Practice, practice! Never ad lib! 3 or 4 fingers from the microphone Support your voice – breathe!

Reading the script – tips for the kids! Leave space between phrases for editing Use the pause feature Repeat error laden sentences in real time and edit later

Audacity – Background Music Drag and Drop clips into Audacity Creates background music to enhance the podcast Where can I find music? Garageband.com Freeplaymusic.com Don’t forget about COPYRIGHT LAWS and FAIR USE! Edit amplitude (volume) Make sure the voice on the recording can be heard

Use the Envelope Tool to edit the amplitude or volume of the recording

Set points in the track. All volume between those points will be changed

NOW WE WILL export OUR recording as an mp3 FILE

Expor t the r ecor ding as an mp3 file

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Internet Publishing of Podcasts

Publish Podcasts Is the podcast just for classroom use? If not, where will the audio file “live”? You need space on a web server Your own Your school’s

A few places to publish podcasts Ourmedia.org http://www.podbean.com/

Podcasting RESOURCES

Audacity - http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ LAME Encoder - http://lame.sourceforge.net/ iTunes – http://www.apple.com/itunes/store/podcasts.htm Garageband – http://www.garageband.com Podcasting Tools http://www.podcasting-tools.com/ http://www.a1freesoundeffects.com/ dmoz Open Directory - Free sound links!

…And more Resources To Help NPR Podcast Directory http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast/podcast_directory.php Free Play Music – http://www.freeplaymusic.com Free Audio Clips – http://www.freeaudioclips.com Yahoo Podcasts - http://podcasts.yahoo.com/ Podcastalley http://www.podcastalley.com/index.php

Contact Information [email protected] [email protected] Or just yell really loud!