Online Instructional links

• Recording a Podcast by Jake Ludington
• How to Podcast: Four Basic Steps by Jason Van Orden (2005)
• Camtasia Show Me Tutorials (Camtasia)
• Camtasia Learning Tutorials (TechSmith)

Podcasts in Education

Everybody seems to be talking about podcasting these days. Certainly they are fun, cutting edge (still), and even pretty cool.

They are not, however, 508 compliant. At least most of them aren't.

And in most (non-educational) cases, that isn't much of a problem.

For podcasts that deliver educational content, however, it is a problem.

Podcasting is one of those subjects that just didn't exist 2-3 years ago. It does not, of course, show up in Gillani's 2003 Learning Theories and the Design of E-Learning Environments or in Ko and Rossen's 2004 Teaching Online.

And it is probably fair to say that as of fall 2006, the very new activity of podcasting traditional F2F classroom lectures and the issue of 508 compliance hasn't really worked itself out yet. Right or wrong, the thinking seems to be that such podcast lectures are already providing something extra--an audio archive of a face to face lecture presented to a (closed hearing) audience of students.

For those who want to add captioning to various kids of audio/video components (not just podcasting), there are software solutions, of course. Most cost. If not money, then time. MagPie seems to be the most highly regarded free captioning software. But it still takes time. Companies such as Automatic Sync will caption audio and video podcasts...for a price, or course.

While captioning may be optional for many, for us, it is not. When delivering online learning activities, whatever podcasting we do must also have a corresponding textual component.

That's why we suggest here working in PowerPoint and/or Camtasia. These programs make it easy to add both audio and text together in a learning activity.

At any rate, 508 compliance and podcasting in education will be an interesting topic to watch in the coming months. As podcasting matures, we will almost certainly see more about 508 compliance than we do now.

It is important to recognize that Podcasting is not the same as offering an audio component to an eLearning activity.

When you add audio to an eLearning activity, you just add a link to a downloadable (or streamable) audio file.

Podcasting is a distribution of audio via the internet. Podcasting adds computer code to the audio file so that it can be syndicated and subscribed to by individuals. Although many podcasts are offered as single broadcasts, the medium is designed for serial subscription.

That's why podcasting F2F classroom lectures has taken off on several campuses. The student "subscribes" to the rss feed offered by the professor (rss stands for really simple syndication, and is, essentially, computer code that allows users to subscribe to a series of broadcasts), and the professor's audio archived lectures automatically shows up on the student's iTunes (or any other podcatcher, including new features in some browsers).

It is then an easy matter to transfer the podcast to an iPod and (re)listen to the lecture anywhere.

Podcasting does indeed seem to have a future for the automatic distribution of audio archived F2F classes.

But does podcasting have a future in online teaching and learning?

The jury is still out on that one.

iTunes

If you haven't experienced podcasts as a consumer yet, you should do that now.

The easiest way is to download iTunes (if you haven't already), then click on Podcasts.

Then click on browse.

Search it's directory and subscribe to something that interests you. (They offer Educational Technology as its own category in Education).

And make sure you also click on the University Channel.

Apple remains the primary source and resource on podcasting in education. If you want to learn more, Apple offers some helpful videocasts on Podcasting in Education. (You will need to register to see the videos, but they are free).

Berkeley iTunes U is especially interesting. To check it out:

1. First, open your iTunes on your computer
2. Then go to http://itunes.berkeley.edu/
3. Click on "Take me to Berkeley on iTunes U"
4. Then look at your iTunes.

You should see in your iTunes:

 

Amazing stuff there.

Really.

 

The Readings/"How To" Resources

Both Jason Van Orden's How to Podcast: Four Basic Steps and Jake Ludington's Recording a Podcast are very helpful--especially with Audacity. It seems to be universally accepted that for recording into your computer (either with a microphone or recording a CD) and for editing audio, Audacity is the podcaster's choice.

If you want a quick and easy overview, check out Jake Lundington. If you want considerable more detail, go to Jason Van Orden.

If you are not used to using audio with your computer and need help with such tasks as downloading and installing Audacity and/or configuring your microphone/sound card, Jake Lundington gives a quick and easy overview.

Jason Van Orden goes into more detail on most all subjects pertaining to podcasting and offers a number of Audacity video tutorials.

If you choose to use Audacity, most of you will find that it just takes a couple of minutes to learn. Probably the only thing that isn't almost immediately intuitive is you usually need to set Audio I/O preferences for recording and playback (Toolbar Edit--> Preferences). Also, to save as mp3, you will also have to install LAME to convert to the important (and podcastable) mp4 format. Audacity makes that a fairly easy process, however.

Gillani's chapter 8 ("Animation, Video, and Audio") focuses primarily on Flash. He gives a nice overview of the program and helps the reader understand what the program is about, but the overview is not nearly enough information for someone to actually start using the program. The good news is that you can produce Flash movies without ever opening the program.

That's the magic of Camtasia. (see below)

 

WHAT YOU PRODUCE

You have several options here, and what you produce largely depends on what kind of learning activity you want to create and what you want to learn how to do.

If you double check the rubrics on the learning activities, you should notice the wide leeway you have in what you choose to do and how you choose to do it. If, for instance, you choose to produce no video at all, that's a loss of only 2% of your total grade and well within a total course grade of A.

We worked hard at trying to balance offering you the opportunities to learn new applications and new software with the realities of what you can do, want to do, and what is appropriate for you to do.

While we want to encourage you to experiment with podcasts and vodcasts, mostly we want to encourage you to... well, just explore.

Not everything is going to work.

That's to be expected. And at the very least, it is good fodder for your Development Notes (don't forget your Development Notes are 25% of your total grade--12 times more than producing a video).

Once again, the primary focus is on you developing online learning activities that are appropriate for your discipline.

 

CAMTASIA

Almost without question, Camtasia is the Killer App for creating eLearning tutorials. Obviously, we love it. It is an extremely easy to use application that essentially records what you are doing on your computer. Then you can edit that recording, narrate it, and (especially importantly for us) add captioning. Then you can export your project to a 508 compliant (and "SCORMable") Flash movie. Or podcastable mpeg.

Aside: I've been using software with varying levels of complexity for over 20 years now, and I can't recall ever using an application that does so much yet have such a short learning curve. It may even be easier to use than PowerPoint.

To Download a 30 day trial, go to Camtasia

The Camtasia Show Me Tutorials and the Camtasia Learning Tutorials provide more than enough help for you in using this product.

Here is one suggestion: Work first with PowerPoint--produce some content appropriate for your eLearning area Use Camtasia to capture the PowerPoint presentation Once captured, narrate it in Camtasia (you could also narrate it in PowerPoint and capture the narrated presentation, but this way gives you more editing options) Add captions Save your project Then convert the project to a Flash movie (2 minutes could be 5 MBs) Flash movies are probably the best option for online tutorials. Vodcasting is when you want to be a producer and, essentially, syndicate and publish your eLearning activities (to your class and/or to a wider audience). If you want to experiment with vodcasting, then go back into Camtasia and convert the project to mpeg movie (2 minutes could be 50 MBs). Then import the MPEG into iTunes, which will convert it to a vodcastable format.

 

Do You Want To Podcast?

Remember...this is extra. You don't have to do this. You can work with Camtasia and build a Flash movie. Or you can simply narrate a PowerPoint.

But if you want to Podcast without spending any money, here's the best way to do it.

Download Audacity, Podifier, and (if you haven't already) iTunes and FTP Commander

1. Record your audio in Audacity
2. Save it (using Lame--a kind of plug-in for Audacity) as an mp4
3. Determine where you intend to upload the audio file and the rss file
   • for instance, http://student.mcdaniel.edu/~OTL502/yourusername/podcasts
4. Open Podifier and follow instructions. You can use any page in your portfolio site as the place you will link to the rss feed and provide additional information...but you don't have to do that before you fill out the info in Podifier. Just remember where you will put the audio file (in a podcasts subdirectory in your site).
• you can try to use Podifier to FTP the completed rss file, but you will probably have more luck if you skip that and just save the file (Podifier automatically saves it in its own directory).
5. Upload the audio file and the rss file to your podcasts subdirectory
6. Open iTunes and click on (Toolbar) Advanced --> Subscribe to podcast and include the URL of your RSS feed

That's just one way. Not the only way by any means. There are multiple programs and services to make the process even easier (at a slight cost).

If you have truly made something you want to broadcast and/or syndicate to the world, go to iTunes and click on:

The important message here is that if you use Audacity, Podifier, and FTP Commander, you can create an audio file and an rss feed and make them available however you want to make them available.