‘Casting – It’s Not Just For Fishermen Anymore!Eric M. Larson, GusDay 2006

Who is this guy?

• Eric M. Larson, University of St. Thomas– Instructional Process Analyst

• Host of The Ericast since March 2005– (www.ericast.com)

• Presentation at:

www.emlarson.com/gusday

Agenda

• Definitions

• Conceptual How-To

• Innovations

• Who’s ‘casting to whom?

• Collaboration

• More Innovations

• Q & A

Definitions

Podcasting?

Coursecasting?

*casting?

What is “podcasting”?

• “Podcasting” is the act of producing a podcast– Listening to a podcast isn’t “podcasting”

• Remember, listening to a radio or television broadcast isn’t “broadcasting”

• “Podcasters” are those who make podcasts, not those who listen to podcasts

What is “a podcast”?

• “A podcast is a web feed of audio or video files placed on the Internet for anyone to subscribe to.”

• “The subscription feed of automatically delivered new content is what distinguishes a podcast from a simple download or real-time streaming.”

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcasting)

What is “a podcast”?

• “Internet talk-radio”

• Regularly created– Daily, Weekly, Bi-Weekly, Monthly

• MP3 + RSS 2.0 feed with enclosure tag– A link to an MP3 audio file that’s sitting on a

web site is not a podcast– A RealPlayer audio file is not a podcast

• What’s an RSS feed?– RSS is an HTML-like format, for computers

What is “coursecasting”?

• “Putting audio of a lecture online”

• Might be done as a podcast, or maybe not.

• So, many professed “podcast” desires might be fulfilled with a simple audio file uploaded to a web server– Students could manually download and save

MP3s onto a portable MP3 player

Podcasting and iTunes

• iTunes’ “podcast directory” is (just) one means of finding and receiving podcasts

• For a podcast to be there, it has to be a genuine podcast (RSS 2.0 + MP3)

• Remember, you’re then in Apple’s hands for trying to get things listed properly– (Though, if a student’s local workstation is

configured accordingly, any MP3 file download will appear in iTunes)

Videocasting

• Videocasting?

• Vidcasting?

• Vodcasting?

• Video Podcasting?

• Video Blogging?– vlog?

What’s the iPod Video use?

• H.264 video: up to 768 Kbps, 320 x 240, 30 frames per sec., Baseline Profile up to Level 1.3 with AAC-LC up to 160 Kbps, 48 Khz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4 and .mov file formats

• MPEG-4 video: up to 2.5 mbps, 480 x 480, 30 frames per sec., Simple Profile with AAC-LC up to 160 Kbps, 48 Khz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4 and .mov file formats

Photocasting

• iLife/iPhoto

• Flikr

• FlimLoop.com

What’s the connection to Blogs?

After all, that’s in the session title, right?

How do Blogs relate to all this?

• Blogs are a typical, common venue for regular commentary that’s provided to the planet through the web.

• Blogs are a typical, common “engine” for creating an RSS feed.

• So, you start with a “blog” and add things (audio, video, photos) to it.

How can I do this?

Or, “Could my faculty already be doing this?”

How to get started podcasting

Recording

• Adobe Audition (PC)

• GarageBand (Mac)

• Audacity (Mac/PC/Linux and free!)

• Quality Tips:– Compression– Normalization

Original

Compressed

Normalized

How to get started ‘Casting

Publishing

• OurMedia + Blogger + FeedBurner– OurMedia: Host the Creative Commons MP3– Blogger: Provide the (Atom) feed– FeedBurner: Clean up the RSS feed

• …and faculty might be doing this already!

Innovations• Enhanced AAC (slideshow)

• Pairing MP3 with SMIL (Mac/PC only)

From one-way to two-way

• So far, we’ve been talking about faculty publishing their materials out to students

• Is there more?

YES!

Audio Collaboration!

• Phone in to podcasts?– Like “community voicemail” but more

convenient– An advantage to students who don’t want to

raise their hands in class, but don’t feel confident expressing themselves in writing (e.g. in a discussion board)

• (AudioBlogger + Blogger + E-Mail)

Written Collaboration

• Discussion boards or e-mail DLs are an early version of this, of course

• Group blogs– UST Journalism class launching a community

newspaper using MovableType blog server

• Wikis

Innovations• Combining streaming video with a blog

that advances at key points in a timeline

• (Microsoft Producer + hosting + Blogger)http://www.emlarson.com/gusday/vidlog-gusday2006demo.htm

Learn More!

• Start listening to…– IT Conversations

• Recordings of seminars (like this one, only better!)

– Slashdot Review• “Slashdot, read by a southern guy”

– Connecting the Dots Podcast• Interesting Minneapolis-based ~weekly thoughts

– ChuckChat Technorama• The prototypical “guy in a basement” podcast

– The Ericast