A podcast is essentially an audio file that one downloads and listens to. People generally produce podcasts to share ideas, presentations, or music. Typically podcasts are linked from a blog, so “podcasting” is often used to denote audioblogging. Podcasting combines the words "iPod" and "Broadcasting," but you don't need an ipod or a Mac to produce, or listen to, a podcast. (There are now video podcasts, so the definition of a podcast is changing.)
Further complicating matters is that there are now video podcasts. So is a podcast an audio or video file?
In (audio) podcasting, the producer first records the audio presentation. The file that results is typically large, but with iTunes and other software you can convert a large (AIFF) audio file into a compact MP3 file. You can then upload the MP3 file to a web page or download it to an iPod. In this way it is available to listeners. Podcasts sometimes resemble radio programs as some podcasters add music and sound effects to verbal presentations.
Digital music players take digital music files and play them through headphones or speakers. All of these devices either plug into a computer or have a memory card where content can be exchanged.
Podcasting in Education
Podcasting could be used to record a teacher’s lesson or a student conversation. It could be used to create a homework assignment or even as part of a test. Students could use podcasts to interview each other about what they learned during the week. They could create a newscast, hold a debate, or run a radio show. Schools could use podcasts to make announcements via their web site. Students could read their own poetry or stories. Podcasts could also be used to record guest speakers and make their presentations available online.
Here are some specific ideas for the history/social studies classroom:
students interview relatives about their life histories, and then combine the audio interview with family photos in an iMovie project.
Students write a radio drama based on a historical event and record their show (complete with commercials) using an iPod and a voice recorder.
Students learn about a different country by interviewing a recent traveler. They record the interview and then create a digital travel album.
Students use an iPod and a voice recorder to interview sources for articles for a class newspaper.
Students write and record short stories and add music and sound effects.
Teacher records a tutorial that students listen to on their own
Present student writing through a class radio drama or a poetry slam.
Teacher records and broadcasts group discussions
Using an iPod and a voice recorder, the teacher records each student telling a story and then saves the recordings in iTunes for assessment purposes.
On a field trip, students use an iPod with a voice recorder to take notes and a digital camera to take photos. They then create a guided tour in iMovie.
Apple has created lesson plans and rubrics for these and other activities at:
My "A Day in the Like of a Hobo" Project
This interdisciplinary creative writing/historical simulation activity calls on students to research the plight of homeless teenagers during the Great Depression and then create their own fictionalized account of a day in the life of a Hobo. Students post their story on their blog and read each other's work. Students comment by stating what they liked about the story they read -- and what made it seem authentic. The blogs provide a public form to present and share student work. Students are then interviewed in character and recorded as part of a "1930s Radio Show" podcast.
Instructions to students:
In this assignment you are to write from the perspective of a Hobo who is "riding the rails." Use your knowledge of the period and your creativity to create a story (500-1000 words) about a day in your life as a Hobo.
Here are some questions to help guide your story:
How old are you? Where are you from and why have you left home? Are you traveling alone or with someone? Who? Why did he/she leave home? What possessions do you have? What are your plans? What are your concerns? How are you feeling, physically and emotionally? What happened to you today? What dangers have you experienced? What have you been eating? What are you wearing? What have you seen? How does what you see make you feel?
Excerpts from a past student story:
"When you’ve gotta worry ‘bout starvin’ and freezin’ to death you forget to keep track of what day it is, but I’d estimate today’s the 15th of December, year 1932. It took me near three weeks to get here. “Here” is Lancaster, California. I left home in Abilene, Kansas when Dadi told me he’d got word from Aunt Sarah in California. “Aunt Sarah’s got a place for you to stay with her and she’s found you a good job in a shop downtown Lancaster,“ he said. “You go put your things in the bag that I’ve left you upstairs and I’ll take you to the train in the morning. . .
I made quick friends with a hobo ‘bout my age named Jim. He warned me ‘bout the bulls and told me where the camps that made the best mulligan stew were on the way from Kansas to California. I spent ‘near three weeks ridin’ the rails, walkin’ on route 66 to get from station to station and stoppin’ at hobo camps in between. Pretty much ‘came a ‘bo myself . . .
Background Reading Stories from the Great Depression: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/dustbowl/sfeature/eyewitness.html Tales from the Rails Hobos -- At the height of the Great Depression more than 250,000 teenagers were living on the road: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/rails/sfeature/tales.html Weaver Dial: Battling the Bulls; Leslie E. Paul: I Was a Burden; Henry Koczu: Going to California; Norma Darrah: One Weary, Hungry Mile After Another; Gene Wadsworth: Losing a Brother; Berkeley Hackett: Feeling Like Tom Sawyer
Bumming in California http://newdeal.feri.org/fwp/fwp07.htm
School for Bums http://newdeal.feri.org/voices/voce02.htm
focus: What was it like to live during the Great Depression? What physical and emotional toll did the Great Depression take on Americans?
Turn in your editorial Thursday: 75 points. Your story will be posted on your blog and another student will leave a comment on the authenticity and creativeness of your faculty.
Open Garage Band (Finder --->Go--->Application or look under “Faculty Applications”)
Create a New Project
Save Project as “Title of Project”
Delete piano track (select it and then Track--->Delete Track)
Insert new track (Track--->New Track)
Real Instrument = Basic Track--->No Effects, click Create
Set Garage Band Preferences (Garage Band--->Preferences)
select Audio/Midi; if internal mic is to be used Audio Input = Built in Audio; if external mic is to be used Audio Input = (mic model no.)
Hit ‘eye’ icon (left of scissors) to enter a music track or hit red record button and record your voice
Select an appropriate music style and sample corresponding tracks
Simply drag desired track to beginning of your new track
Select Track-Master Track and set master volume level
Select Control and uncheck Metronone
Move the playhead (red vertical line) just after your music track. Now record your voice:
Hit red record button and speak; click again when done; stop arrow by clicking play button
Edit the audio you’ve added to your New Track
Select and double-click region to edit
You can split a region in the timeline. (Splitting a region lets you start playing the region from a point other than the beginning, or use parts of a region in different places in the timeline.)
Select the region you want to split.
Move the playhead over the point in the region where you want to split it.
Choose Edit > Split. (Only the selected region will be split, even if a region in another track is under the playhead as well. If multiple regions are selected and are under the playhead, they will all be split.)
To export to iTunes select File ----> Export to iTunes
in iTunes Go to Advanced and Convert to MP3
(apple I (info)) delete AIFF file, keep mp3 file; under info, fill out appropriate fields
Once the file has been converted to MP3 in iTunes, make a volume adjustment. Click on the file, select apple + i and then go to "options". Move the volume adjustment slider to the right to boost the track volume.
Finding Podcasts with RSS- Real Simple Syndication
Related to blogs and podcasting is RSS, known as Really Simple Syndication. Through RSS, information can come to you without you actively searching for it. This is accomplished through an RSS feed, a source of information that is regularly updated and to which you subscribe to. You select the type of information you would like to receive and the updated information is sent to you by what's called an RSS aggregator. There are web-based aggregators, and downloadable aggregator software. Both enable users to subscribe to select RSS feeds.
Here is a simple and easy way to select and receive RSS feeds: Bloglines is a news-based web aggregator that enables you to make your own personalized news page tailored to your interests from millions of live internet content feeds -- including articles, blogs, images and audio. It's free and you don't need aggregate software to use it. After you join Bloglines you search for the content you are interested in and identify the feeds you want to track. Bloglines will constantly check those feeds for changes or additions and send new information to your Bloglines personal page.
Mind you, you don't need Bloglines to subscribe directly to a blog. Many blogs contain a reference to the URL of their RSS feeds. Major newspapers such as The New York Times, The Washington Post and others also offer RSS feeds of major sections in their papers. Even Amazon.com offers an RSS feed.
RSS feeds are distributed in a code called XML (eXtensible Markup Language) and RSS aggregators will enable the content of these XML files. To subscribe directly to a blog you need the URL of the blog's XML file. To find it , look for a small, orange rectangle on them that say either XML or RSS:
To capture it, right-click on a PC, or Ctrl-click on a Mac, and select Copy Link to Clipboard. You can now go back to Bloglines and Add the feed to your feeds listing. If you opt not to use Bloglines you could install free aggregators software such as NetNewsWire(Mac OS X ) and SharpReader . The advantage of Bloglines it is a web-based aggregator, so you have nothing to download and you can access it on any Internet-enabled computer.
One advantage of this type of information retrieval is that your aggregator feed is virus free, ad-free, and spam-free. And the content is something you want to read because you subscribe to it! To help you sort through thousands of potential RSS feeds try Feedster. This search engine uses RSS feeds to discover major happenings in the "blogosphere" in near-real-time. Also, There are many potential educational benefits with RSS. A social studies class could stay abreast of the latest developments in Iraq while a science class could receive updates in the fight against cancer. Parents could use RSS to receive select information --upcoming holidays, PTA meetings, etc. -- from a school's web site.
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