15 Mar, 2008
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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19 Feb, 2008
If you are using Audacity and can’t export your project to the MP3 format, you can export it as a WAV file. WAV files are extremely large. This is fine, but if you want to upload that file to iTunes or Blackboard, you will want it to be smaller and compressed, in either AAC (m4a) or MP3 format. Here’s how you can use iTunes to accomplish this:
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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11 Jan, 2008
This short clip will take you through the basics of using Audacity to create an audio podcast.
Download Video: Posted by <f
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10 Jan, 2008
The video below will take you through more advanced features of Audacity. Be sure to watch the Basics video first. Download Video: Posted by sheehy at TeacherTube.com.
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