Podcasting your Class

Audio Recording with New iPods (and other mp3 recorders)

mbolser — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 17:02:26 +0000

Want to create an audio podcast? Do you have a new iPod or are you going to get one? The latest models of the iPod Nano, iPod Classic, iPod Touch and iPhone all have the ability to record audio, which later can be brought into iTunes, turned into a podcast, and uploaded anywhere you’d like to deliver it.

The only requirement for the latest iPod Nanos and Classics is earphones with a built-in microphone or any other iPod compatible microphone. (If you own an older iPod Nano or Classic, see posts about purchasing and using the Griffin iTalk device. This is no longer needed on the latest versions of the iPod.)

For the iPod Touch and iPhone there is a free application from the iTunes Application store called iTalk Recorder which will also accomplish the task of recording audio from a microphone connected to your device.

Of course, there are cheaper recorders than an iPod. An Amazon search for “digital mp3 recorders” reveals all sorts of portable recorders at prices for anyone’s liking.

Regardless of whether you capture your audio with an iPod or other device, once the device is hooked up to your computer you can easily drag the files to iTunes to convert the files, rename them and add all of the necessary information.

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Converting Audio Files in iTunes

mbolser — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 22:45:05 +0000

iTunes can easily convert audio files that were recorded with portable devices such as iPods or other recorders to podcast formats such as AAC or mp3 (see post on The Difference to learn more about these formats). The following video covers converting files with iTunes and adding information such as titles and artist:

Here is a step by step for converting files to AAC or mp3 format:

Convert to AAC (m4a)

Drag the file to iTunes.
While the file is highlighted click the Advanced menu at the top.
Choose Convert Selection to AAC (for MP3 conversion see below)

iTunes makes a duplicate copy of it in the new format. To check the file type (since you now have the original WAV file and an AAC file with the same name, right click your file and choose Get Info. There you will see the file type and be sure you choose the converted one). You can also add information to the track, as well as podcast artwork that you have designed. Drag converted the file out of iTunes to your desktop for easy uploading.

or Convert to MP3

Follow the directions above using the Advanced menu, but prior to doing so, go to iTunes > Preferences > Advanced > Importing
There, change the Import Using: AAC to Import Using: MP3 Encoder
Now when you highlight the track and choose Advanced on the top menu, you will see Convert Selection to MP3 rather than AAC.

Thanks Doug Seidler over at NESAD for pointing this out to me!

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Choosing a Format: Audio, Video, or Screen Recording?

mbolser — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 18:41:40 +0000

Which type of podcast do you need to create for your course? Choosing the right format is important and dictates the way you go about creating your content and how much work is involved.

First considering the message and what is required to convey it effectively will assist you in choosing the best format and options.

Audio:

Easiest format for the content producer (equipment: a mic and computer or portable recording device)
Smaller file sizes, software editing tools (if needed) are available free (see Audacity)
Most portable to the end user (can be played on many devices beyond a computer)
Best suited for: lectures and any other message or discussion where visuals are not paramount to the message
Equipment: Mircophone or Portable Recording Device, Computer
Software Choices: Audacity, Garageband, Quicktime, iTunes

Video:

More complex for content prodcuer (equipment requires a video camera or webcam, depending on recording locations)
Very large file sizes, software editing tools range from free to very expensive (computer processing power and time required to process video also important)
Less portable to end user (can be played on computer but may not play on certain portable devices)
Best suited for: Messages when visuals of speakers or events are paramount to the message, or would greatly enhance message quality.
Equipment: Flip Video or Other Camcorders, Webcams or Apple’s built in iSight Camera
Software: Apple: iMovie, Final Cut. Windows: Windows Movie Maker, Avid

Screencasting:

More complex for content producer (microphone and computer needed, must be done at computer)
Large file sizes, software tools needed for capture and editing are not free and range from $50 to $400 depending on needs.
Portability for end user depends on players (as in video example above)
Best suited for: Tutorials and situations where content shown on the computer screen is central to the message.
Equipment: Microphones and Computer
Software: Windows: Camtasia. Apple: Snapz Pro or Screen Flow

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Choosing a Microphone for Podacsting

mbolser — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 18:17:31 +0000

PSU has a great support section for podcasting help. Following is a clip they’ve created on the different microphone options available to podcasters. What’s most important is to assess your needs and the environment in which you will be creating your podcast. Is portability an issue? Will you be podcasting in front of a computer? Or on the go? The options outlined below are best suited for podcasters who will be utilizing a computer during podcast capturing. (For options on the go, see posts on the iPod and other mp3 recording devices).

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Podcasting in Plain English

mbolser — Sat, 03 May 2008 17:20:48 +0000

Another great explanation from the folks at Common Craft. Here’s their newest one, released yesterday, “Podcasting in Plain English”:

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Confessions of a Podcast Junkie: A Student Perspective

mbolser — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 17:55:44 +0000

(The following was cross-posted in the blog, EdTech Bits)

What are some student perspectives on podcasting? Carie Windham, former undergraduate student, North Carolina State University, and current graduate student, University of Ulster, Northern Ireland presents her own views and experiences with podcasting as well as views from several students she interviewed in the paper: Confessions of a Podcast Junkie: A Student Perspective.

In “Confessions…”, Windham recounts her own introduction to and involvement with podcasting (and how she became a “podcast junkie”) and cites student data and interviews from University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of British Columbia, Bentley College, Duke University, and DePaul University. Some of the conclusions are as follows:

All the students identified the same benefits to podcasting technology:
• The ability to access course content on a 24-hour basis
• The chance to take their learning mobile so that listening can be done on the bus, at the gym, or on a walk between classes
• The creativity factor when making podcasts: they can present the content in a way that they choose
• The ease of access: podcasts can be easily downloaded from the Internet for free

For teaching and learning, the students saw concrete benefits to podcasting projects, especially when compared with standard modes of testing, such as writing a paper or doing a class demonstration:
• They were able to get “intimate” with course material, either by re-listening to course lectures and supplements or by teaching the rest of the class.
• They could showcase their projects to the rest of the community, expanding the reach of
the classroom to their friends or members of the community.
• They had the opportunity to review course material during pertinent moments in the semester, such as before exams or during course projects.
• They learned new technical skills, whether they were downloading files or creating new ones.

Finally, all the students reported that they enjoyed their classes more because of the inclusion of podcasting, and all hoped that more faculty members would use podcasting in the future. Michael Martinez-Mann said it best when he said of podcasting: “The possibilities are absolutely limitless. If there’s an idea, there’s a way to do it.”

Some of the sections of the paper also include:

Podcasting in the Real World: Student Use (and Misuse) of Podcast Technology
Notes on the Go: Offering Lectures and Class Notes via Podcasting
In Their Hands: Students as Podcast Creators
A Microphone and an Idea: Nonacademic Podcasting on Campus
If I Were in Charge: Tips for Faculty

Windham’s paper is informative, well-written, and entertaining, and was published in EDUCAUSE Review, Vol. 42 (May/June 2007). It also appears on the web in the resource-rich ELI Discovery Tool: Guide to Podcasting in the section “What Do Students Think?”

While whitepapers, research, and case studies are certainly useful, it’s definitely refreshing to get student perspectives directly from students in their own voices.

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Podcasting: A Teaching with Technology Whitepaper from Carnegie Mellon

mbolser — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 17:08:36 +0000

The Center for Teaching Excellence at Carnegie Mellon University released a comprehensive whitepaper last summer on teaching and learning with podcasting. The whitepaper covers file production, podcast publication, and delivery and playback of podcasts, as well various case studies from 2006 and 2007 which explore the different uses of educational podcasting:

Abstract: Sharing audio and video files on the Web has been possible for most of the last decade. Why, then, in the past two years has podcasting exploded onto the scene and become such a hot topic in educational technology? How does this new technology and its widespread adoption create new opportunities in education? Is it just a passing trend, or is there genuine potential to improve the quality of the educational experience and learning outcomes? This paper attempts to answer these questions through the exploration of educational podcasting in three realms: the creation and distribution of lecture archives for review, the delivery of supplemental educational materials and content, and assignments requiring students to produce and submit their own podcasts.

Some highlights of student uses and perspectives on podcasted lectures revealed the following:

Most students perceive lecture podcasts as a tool for review, rather than as a replacement for attending lectures
Many students who use recorded lectures for review believe the practice has a positive impact on their performance. In a UM study, 85% of survey respondents who used the lecture archives believed it had a positive effect on exam grades
20% of students in the UW study listened to more than 75% of recorded lectures. In addition to picking and choosing which lectures to review, many students also scan the lectures, fast-forwarding to specific points or sections, and listening to particular portions multiple times
The convenience of RSS subscription increases the likelihood that students download files

The paper is available for download in PDF format from Carnegie Mellon University.

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Where Are All the Honey Bees? Pedagogy and Podcasting

mbolser — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 18:14:12 +0000

I recently listened to a very engaging podcast from Penn State on the educational uses of podcasting. It was delivered last summer as part of the series, “What Works in Educational Technology” by the Teaching and Learning with Technology staff. This particular 20 minute episode includes faculty interviews and explores ideas and examples for podcasting as part of the curriculum. The discussion moves from podcasting lectures to having students create informative podcasts in a science course for an active learning experience.

Last spring, a group of Penn State students (non-science majors in a science course) collaborated with their professor and created the informative Honey Bee Podcast (for bee keepers) while exploring the recently discovered phenomenon now called Colony Collapse Disorder. The public podcast grew in popularity and was ultimately cited in a testimony before the United States government on this wide-spread issue.

I highly recommend listening to the podcast for ideas, inspiration, and to learn more about the Penn State Podcasting Initiative. This episode can be downloaded from directly from iTunes U. Enjoy!

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Tips: Using the Griffin iTalk for Audio Podcasts

mbolser — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 14:54:31 +0000

[Update: This device works with previous versions of the iPod Nano and Classic and is no longer needed with the latest versions of these devices]

Faculty and staff have been using the Griffin iTalk Pro this semester with much success to record lectures and presentations. A group of students took one to El Paso, Texas, for Alternative Spring Break to record a series of interviews with Habitat for Humanity staff, local residents, and the students in the group.

While there are a couple of posts here about using an iPod with the Griffin iTalk for audio capturing, below are a few things to keep in mind to avoid snafus and to cut down or eliminate editing after you’ve recorded (although in some instances, and for more refined productions, editing will be unavoidable).

Recording:

Be sure the iPod is fully charged and has sufficient space before using it to record.
When the iTalk is connected, use the highest quality settings for recording so you get the highest sound quality possible.
Be sure the device is as close as possible to the speaker.
The iTalk captures your audio segments in clips depending on when the device is started and stopped. Use this to your advantage depending on what you are trying to capture (more below).

Lectures:

If you are recording a lecture or class in its entirety, try not to stop and restart the device during the lecture or class. (Doing so will give you separate audio clips that you will have to connect later using an audio editing program.)
Keep the device near-by the speaker at all times
If there is a long introduction for a guest speaker, you may want to start the recording when the introduction ends and the speaker begins talking. Alternatively, you could record the introduction and the speaker in two separate clips just in case the introduction is something you may not want in the final production.

Interviews:

Be sure the interviewee knows when the recording begins
Have a list of questions ready (you may want to share these first before the interview begins). Also, engage with responses with further questions for elaboration. And let the interviewee do more of the talking.
Make sure that the interviewer and the interviewee are in close proximity to each other and the device (for interviews on the fly and not in a formal setting, you may hold the device like a microphone and move it back and forth between persons speaking).
If you are doing a series of interviews with different speakers that could be separate productions, stop and restart the recording so you have separate audio clips for each interviewee.

Editing and Producing:

Editing of clips can be done in Audacity on Windows and Garageband on Macs (both free programs).
If no editing is required, renaming, compression, conversion and adding the proper metadata to these tracks can all be done in iTunes.
Keep in mind that all files from the iTalk recordings are large and must be compressed and converted for delivery in podcasts.

(Click the tags on the right for more posts and information on using the iTalk or for any of the topics mentioned here.)

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Tips: Using the Flip Video for Video Podcasts

mbolser — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 22:30:13 +0000

The Flip Video Ultra has been a big hit among faculty, staff, and students who have used it this semester. The video and sound quality are impressive for such a small, easy to operate, uncomplicated device. So far it has been used to record short student presentations, capture video of projects, and to video short student-related events. I promised to write a little something about using the Flip Video Ultra camera for video podcasting, so here’s a brief overview of what to do and what to keep in mind when using it.

Shooting:

The camera runs on double AA batteries, and video recording uses a lot of power, so buy rechargeables and keep some handy.
It can record 60 minutes of video clips before it is full (this is the Ultra series only, prior models only record for 30 minutes).
The Flip software will put your videos into separate clips based on when you start and stop the camera, so use this to your advantage.
To capture decent audio, make sure the camera is not too far away from speakers.
Digital zoom can become pixelated, so it’s best to move closer to the subject rather than relying too much on this feature.
A small, portable, 10″ tripod is available for the Flip for $29 to avoid shaking and moving, and it also can be mounted to almost any other larger tripod.

Editing and Compression:

(more…)

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Top Five Things to Think About for a New iTunes U Site

mbolser — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 00:36:25 +0000

Today I discovered that Apple recently posted a document with the story behind the Stanford University iTunes U site with tips for schools new to iTunes U. Here’s an excerpt with things to keep in mind when starting your own site:

“Top Five Things to Think About When Starting Your Own iTunes U site:

1. Content, Content, Content

At a university, the most important thing is substance. So make sure you cast a really broad net that draws the best intellectual content to the site. The worst thing you can do is show yourself in a way that doesn’t represent the core values of your university.

2. Stay Focused

Start small. Don’t go into it thinking you have to change the communications landscape overnight. Just get a good, coherent, small program running. It’s better to start with a few great pieces than a lot of mediocre ones.

3. Get Support

Enlist the support of critical allies in the university system. They could be alumni; or staﬀ from the president’s oﬃce, the chancellor’s oﬃce, or development; or any combination thereof. It’s important to leverage the success of your iTunes U site to build awareness and get the right people on board.

4. Staff Properly

Look to student interns for staffing options. They’re much more aﬀordable (more…)

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Related posts

Flip Video for Video Podcasts

mbolser — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 18:24:59 +0000

Do you need to capture video for your podcast? The Flip Video Ultra pocket video camera is a perfect solution for capturing video on a shoestring budget. There are no cables, no extra pieces, and no manual required; simply start and stop recording in a snap. Then, pop out the USB arm and connect to your computer. The camera comes with software installed that lets you name, edit, mix, and compress your video clips. Watch the short video on Amazon about just how easy this camera is to use.

This is a great solution for those needing to capture short clips in the classroom or on the go. The Flip is small and lightweight, has two double AA batteries, and records up to an hour of video. The software will compress your video files to just the right size for web delivery. I’ll be creating another post in the near future with some tutorials, but for now check out David Pogue’s recent review of The Flip in the NY Times. For an entertaining Pogue-esque spin on the joys and ease of using this nifty little video camera, see the video he created (using the Flip) too!

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Using Blackboard and iTunes U

mbolser — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 04:52:37 +0000

Are you using iTunes U for a course you teach or would you like to? iTunes U access is integrated into Blackboard through a Building Block from Vanderbilt University. To learn more about requesting and managing an iTunes U course page, (more…)

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AAC or MP3 Audio Files? The Difference.

mbolser — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 04:07:21 +0000

There is some confusion over AAC and MP3 audio files. AAC is the newer format (popularized by Apple’s adoption of it in its music store) and has many advantages over the older MP3 format, including higher sound quality and smaller file size. The iTunes Music Store supports both AAC and MP3 formats. If you read up on the two, you will see that AAC is slated to replace MP3 as the most widely used format. (FYI: the MP3 extension ends in .mp3 while the AAC extension ends in .m4a)

If you have an older MP3 media player that doesn’t play AAC files but plays MP3 files, no problem! (more…)

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Video Tutorials for GarageBand and Audacity

mbolser — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 20:12:36 +0000

GarageBand and Audacity are both free programs that allow you to create, record, edit, and compress audio podcasts. GarageBand comes free on the Mac and Audacity is a free software program that you can download for Windows. (Links to these programs found in the right column of this blog.)

Penn State’s Educational Technology Division has created some excellent, short video screencasts detailing how to use each program. These screencasts are available as podcasts on Penn State’s iTunes U page.

To visit this page and view these screencasts, click the link below (requires iTunes installed on your computer). Screencasts are about 3 minutes in length and are enough to get you up, running and creating podcasts in no time!

Take me to Podcasting at Penn State Tutorials

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Podcasting your Class

Audio Recording with New iPods (and other mp3 recorders)

Related posts

Converting Audio Files in iTunes

Related posts

Choosing a Format: Audio, Video, or Screen Recording?

Related posts

Choosing a Microphone for Podacsting

Related posts

Podcasting in Plain English

Related posts

Confessions of a Podcast Junkie: A Student Perspective

Related posts

Podcasting: A Teaching with Technology Whitepaper from Carnegie Mellon

Related posts

Where Are All the Honey Bees? Pedagogy and Podcasting

Related posts

Tips: Using the Griffin iTalk for Audio Podcasts

Related posts

Tips: Using the Flip Video for Video Podcasts

Related posts

Top Five Things to Think About for a New iTunes U Site

Related posts

Flip Video for Video Podcasts

Related posts

Using Blackboard and iTunes U

Related posts

AAC or MP3 Audio Files? The Difference.

Related posts

Video Tutorials for GarageBand and Audacity

Related posts