What is Podcasting

Podcasting is quickly becoming a buzz word among the techie crowd.

So what is podcasting, anyway?

Podcasting is online audio content that is delivered via an RSS feed. Podcasts can be created by anyone who has a device which can record audioin a digital format, such as an iPod, many mobile phones, mp3 players and of course laptops.

Many people liken podcasting to radio on demand. However, in reality, podcasting gives far more options in terms of content and programming than radio does. In addition, with Podcasting, listeners can determine the time and the place, meaning they decide what programming they want to receive and when they want to listen to it. Listeners can retain audio archives to listen to at their leisure. While blogs have turned many bloggers into journalists, podcasting has the potential to turn podcasters into radio personalities.

Podcasting can be used for:

1. Self-Guided Walking Tours - Informational content.
2. Music - Band promotional clips and interviews.
3. Talk Shows - Industry or organizational news, investor news, sportscasts, news coverage and commentaries.
4. Training - Instructional informational materials.
5. Story - Story telling for children or the visually-impaired.
and much much more.


The ABC offers a huge range of Podcasts which can be freely downloaded take a moment to take a look at the following pages and download a podcast.

• http://www.abc.net.au/services/podcasting/
• http://www.abc.net.au/tv/video/downloads.htm#?vid=video1

When people create podcasts, they usually list them on one of the Internetʼs major podcasting directories such as

• www.podcastdirectory.com
• www.podcast.net
• www.podomatic.com
• http://www.learnoutloud.com/

Many large organisations also have there own podcasting websites.

• NASA

Software.
There are several pieces of software which can be used to listen to and keep up to date with podcasts. Probably the most common of these is the iTunes software which is made by apple computers and is most often used with iPods.

There are several other pieces of software which can be downloaded for the IBM including JuiceReciever (Available on the Mac and IBM) and ZiePod (Which also an RSS Aggregator)

Why Podcast?


Why would you get your students podcasting?

As well as the fact that kids seem to find the podcasting process incredibly motivating, creating a podcast involves a wide range of important learning skills including scriptwriting, group collaboration, researching, audio recording techniques, microphone skills, oral presentation skills, developing clear speaking and good timing, and well as skills with managing digital media.

Because podcasts can be published to the web, your students can have a global audience, making the task so much more authentic. This alone is likely to encourage your students to do their best work.

Podcasting is an ideal way to get kids working with the content of your course, reading more carefully, synthesising and interpreting information in order to represent and repackage it in more meaningful ways.

It lets kids work with digital media, something that many of them find highly motivating. It encourages collaboration, sharing and teamwork, all important 21st century learning skills. It promotes the integration of outside ideas, bringing in guests and voices from outside the classroom. Students can (and should) look at recording interviews and information from outside sources in order to enrich the standard course content. This notion of using podcasting to break down the boundaries of the classroom walls in very empowering!

Podcasting can be done not just an add-on to your current courses. It can provide another way to engage kids with the existing course content in a very rich and relevant way, extending it and constructing new knowledge through authentic conversation.

Links.

• How to Create your own Podcast with Audacity