Thing #21: Podcasts and Audio Books

A podcast is a digital media file, or a series of such files, that is distributed over the Internet using syndication feeds for playback on portable media players and personal computers. A podcast is a specific type of webcast which, like 'radio', can mean either the content itself or the method by which it is syndicated; the latter is also termed podcasting (Wikipedia)

Podcast vs. Vidcast - Video podcast (sometimes shortened to vidcast or vodcast) is a term used for the online delivery of video on demand video clip content via Atom or RSS enclosures. The term is an evolution specialized for video, coming from the generally audio-based podcast and referring to the distribution of video where the RSS feed is used as a non-linear TV channel to which consumers can subscribe using a PC, TV, set-top box, media center or mobile multimedia device. (Wikipedia)

Here is a short video from the CommonCraft guys that will explain podcasts "in Plain English"



The possibilites for using Podcasts or Vidcasts are endless! Some examples are; book reviews posted on line for sharing with other students, book reviews done by a librarian or teacher for "virtual" or "digital" booktalks, sharing a voice performance with others, sharing a presentation at a conference or other such gathering so that those unable to attend can hear the speaker, just to name a few!

To put a podcast into a Blog you will need a "hosting site" --- this is a place where you would "park" your podcast and then put a link to it in your blog. Because a podcast is a file you can email it and put it on a regular webpage, but for some reason blogs don't like podcast files!
You can however upload a PhotoStory!

So if you want to post your podcast in your Library2Play blog, try using a podcast hosting site like Switchpod.You will need to register, but then you can park your podcast there and then put a link to it in your blog here!

Two great tools for getting started with Podcasts and Vidcasts are Audacity, which is a simple free program to use to record vocal presentations, and Photostory, which allows you to combine vocal recordings with pictures and create a great "movie" type presentation easily. There are many other tools like Garage Band and others that can be used to create Podcasts and Vidcasts, so feel free to explore the options out there. We would recommend that if you do record using your computer that you invest in headphones with a microphone to use for recording, they will block out some of the background noise and create a better voice recording.

Below is an example of a Podcast using Audacity and a Vidcast using Photostory:


Find more videos like this on TeacherLibrarianNetwork


Book Review Podcast

Discovery: Use either Photostory or Audacity to create a Podcast (you will need to link the podcast) or Vidcast and post it in your blog along with your thoughts about using this kind of technology. Have fun!

Note: Photostory uploads directly to Blogger. MUST be saved as .wmv (not just wp3, the default.) A little more help. Click images for larger version.