Podcasting 101

What We’ll Do Today….

• Define a podcast

• Learn what hardware and software are needed to create one

• Work specifically with Audacity to create, edit and jazz up audio files.

• Learn how not to get in trouble with the copyright police

• BRIEFLY consider how to get your podcast to an adoring public

What We Won’t Do Today….

• Enable you to leave with a finished podcast

• Spend lots of time creating RSS Feeds and considering all webhosting permutations

• Talk about how you might subscribe to podcasts

• Tell you everything you need to know about podcasting….but we are available for follow-up help!

Podcasts and Audio Files

Podcasts Audio Files

• Usually created as mp3 files

• Can be composed of such things as voice, sound effects and music.

• Can be downloadable

• Need to be hosted somewhere

• Do not have to be shared through subscription

• Are made up of audio files

• Are episodic

• Downloadable

• Shared through a subscription (RSS feeds)

• A way for you to share your unique voice with an audience that shares your interests.

• May require some promotion

WHAT GOES INTO CREATING A PODCAST?

2. Creating Your Audio File

3. Editing Your Audio File

4. Hosting Your Audio Files

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

5. Creating an RSS Feed

6. Locating your RSS Feed in

a Blog or Website

• A PLAN

Who is your audience? How often will you create something new? Does it need to be on Blackboard or available through subscription? Develop a script.

Creating and Editing your Audio Files

Where Does Your Podcast Live?

• Size of your files and the amount of bandwidth available for downloading are questions to ask when choosing a web hosting service. Files Sizes

• Check with your ISP or the IT department to see if space is available on their servers.

• Look for free or low-cost solutions offered by MyPodcast, Liberated Syndication, OurMedia.

Real Simple SyndicationAn RSS feed is a file that is stored on the internet and read by software on a

computer in order to provide updated content from another source.

Blogs

News

Podcasts

Real Simple SyndicationRSS feeds are written in XML…but all you really need to know is where to find

a program to create one for you.

www.feedburner.com

Blogs

News

Podcasts

What Else Do You Want to Say?• Web hosting services, free blogging sites or institutional websites may give

you the opportunity to create a ‘front page’ for your podcasts that is visually interesting and enables you to say a little more about yourself and your episodes, and gives you a place where audiences can subscribe to your material.

About software…

• Free• Good public tutorials• Several guidebooks• Fairly simple menu• Good mid-range use

Audacity Downloadable:http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Lame file Downloadable:http://audacity.sourceforge.net/help/faq?s=install&item=lame-mp3

You have to be a bit lame…

About menu basics: 3 groups

#3#1

#2

Group 1: stereo controls

Group 2: Time

Group 3: the Pointer

Your new friend!

As easy as 1-2-3!

How to stay on track

Have a big effect

• change pitch• change speed• fade in• fade out• repeat• normalize

What we’re going to do…

• Open “Noah’s Ark Story” in Pod101 folder

• Open script in Word

• Do some editing

• Insert some added sound tracks

• Practice exporting

Noah’s…

• We need 2 second of silence at the beginning.

• Cough clipped at second 29-32.

• Rain added at second 60.

• Replacement reading overlaid silenced cell phone from second 133 to 142.

Floating by…

Take-Aways

• Many good online tutorials

• We are here to help

• The MCL is a place for you to work

• Handouts

• And now some feedback!

The END...for now!

Photos from: www.sxc.hu (stock exchange photos), www.iconarchive.com, and grafikdesign.wordpress.com.

Story reading from: NOAH’S ARK from GOD AND HIS CREATIONS, retold by Marcia Williams, Candlewick Press, 2004.

Bad jokes from: well, they were all our own…