Three P’s in a Pod

Melanie Lewismlewis@amherst.k12.va.us

Podcasting: What’s it all about?

• Podcasting is a way to post and distribute multimedia files online.

• Originated from blogs. • Create audio files, post them online and make

them available for people to subscribe to.• Tivo for audio files. Your computer automatically

downloads them for you• Listen to them on your computer or MP3 player• Content includes everything you can imagine

To be successful in any educational endeavor, one needs to remember the three P’s. . . • Positive

• Purposeful

• Productive

Podcasting hits all three.

Purposeful: Teachers have many reasons to integrate it.• We can use podcasts to…

– Differentiate!– Extend!– Remediate!– Communicate!– Engage!– Motivate!– Publish!

It’s a Positive tool: Students have many reasons to use it.• Multimedia

• 99% free

• Can be listened to on many platforms: desktop, laptop, handhelds, MP3 players, cell phones (versatile)

• Mobile

Productive: Administrators have many reasons to support it.• Inexpensive

– Most students already have them.– Less cost than computers

• Enhances test scores– Students have no excuse to not studying at home.– More easily solves the problem of students not having

a home computer. – Portable remediation

• Produces results

Finding Podcasts

• Podcast directories– iPodder.org – www.ipodder.org– Podcast.net – www.podcast.net– Yahoo podcasts – podcasts.yahoo.com– Podcast Directory –www.podcastdirectory.com– Podcast Alley – www.podcastalley.com– ITunes –

www.click-to-download.com/itunes2/index.asp?source=go7598&kw=itunes01

– EPN – epnweb.org/– Educational Podcast Directory –

www.podcastingnews.com/forum/link_6.htm

Basic Needs for using premade podcasts

• A device to listen or view– Desktop or laptop computer

– Handheld computer

– MP3 player (iPod or other)

– Cell phone

• Internet access

• Software to listen or view

Ripping CDs

• Please respect other’s intellectual property and copyright

• Very simple on Windows XP with Windows Media Player 10 – just insert CD and follow instructions

• iTunes can also be used for this

• See www.k12handhelds.com/mp3 for more details

LEGAL QUESTIONS

What is Copyright?

• Copyright the the branch of law that protects creative expression.

• Provides the © owner exclusive rights to control certain activities in relation to a creative work.

• Constitutionally based (Art. I, §. 8, Cl. 8)• The “engine of creativity”.• A restriction on speech -- in careful balance with

the First Amendment.

Creating your own podcast

• What you need:– Content– Recording hardware and software– Editing software– Hosting server– RSS feed (optional)

• Good tools to get started:– Audacity – audacity.sourceforge.net– FeedBurner - www.feedburner.com

Using Audacity to create a Podcast

Make sure that the microphone and sound is correct in the control panel. Either double-click the speaker icon in the system tray or go to Start > Control Panel > Sounds and Audio Devices. Click the Advanced button in the Device Volume section of the Sounds and Audio Devices control panel. With the Volume Control open choose Options > Properties from the menu and click the button next to recording.

Make sure the Select box

under the Microphone

column is checked and the

volume is above zero or you

won't be recording anything.

Leave the Recording

Control open so you can

make adjustments during

the recording process.

Open Audacity and then open the preferences from File > Preferences

On the Audio I/O tab, Verify your sound card is selected as the device for both playback and recording. In the Channels dropdown box under Recording choose 1 (Mono). Unless you've got two microphones stereo simply doubles the sametrack, making the file sizebigger.

From the Quality tab

choose 44,100 Hz as

the Default Sample

Rate and 16-bit as the

Default Sample Format.

Prevent accidental overwriting

The File Formats tab controls the output formats for your audio. To avoid accidentally overwriting your audio files, select Make a copy of the file before editing.

To add LAME support to AudacityFirst download the latest stable version of the LAME codec and unzip the files to a folder on your hard drive. Click on Find Library. Click Yes to locate the lame_enc.dll file and browse to the location where you extracted LAME.

With the LAME encoder inked to Audacity you can configure which bit rate to use for encoding MP3 files.

Close the preferences by clicking OK.

Push the record button and start talking.

When you finish recording press the stop

button or the space bar and save the file as

a WAV. The save is important so you don't

lose your recording. After we edit we will

export to an MP3 file.

Editing your podcast

As you can see by the graphics, the time shift tool is selected. It Is used to move the entire audio clip around inside its track. The cursor (little blinking line across a track and the timeline) will remain at its position, so effectively you'll be sliding your audio material underneath thecursor. If you want to cut out that bit in the middle first we've got to select it.

Making a selection

To select the part you wish to cut, copy or

paste to, use the selection tool . If it's not

activated, do so now by clicking on it in the

toolbar.

Press and hold the left mouse button while

you drag the mouse to mark an area.

This area is darker than the surrounding area of the clip. Note, that even though you can mark an area larger than orextending beyond the actual audio clip in the track, the operations will only work on the actual clip. Playback however will work outside the clip. Press the space bar to listen to the audio in the marked area. To extend or contract your selection, hold down the SHIFT button andclick on the area you wish your selection to extend or contract to. If you click at a spot that is on the right hand side from the middle of the current selection, you will set the right hand boundary of your new selection.

Cutting the selectionCut the selection by selecting "Cut" from the Edit menu ... or press CTRL+X.

To undo this operation, select Undo in the Edit menu or press CTRL+ZCopy will copy the selection to the clipboard. You can then paste that data back in to any track by clicking where you want this audio to be inserted and select Paste in the Edit menu, or press CTRL+V.You can also copy material, make another selection with the mouse and then paste. This will replace the selected material with the contents of the clipboard, no matter how short or long either of them are. during all operations of this kind, the bottom row of the screen will display two things, namely the start time and the end time of your selection.

Silencing unwanted music or audio

This operation flattens the selection. It essentially is a cut operation without deleting the selection completely. After all, if you cut a second away, nothing remains. Using the Silence operation will still leave you with a flat lined area. When silencing parts between vocal lines, keep in mind that a sudden drop in background ambiance can have an bad effect, so at the very least fade the area around the silenced part, to minimize that effect. Rules to start with are, fade in quickly and fade out slowly. Alternately, use the envelope tool to lower the volume in that area. That way, you can change it later.

Adding Music tracks

First save project for future edit, save often.

Importing musicYou may want to add music as an introduction or at the end. Go to the Project menu and select import audio. You must have this music on your computer already. (you can find free clips at freemusicdownload.com) Navigate to the place it is saved. You will notice that it comes in on two tracks that is called Stereo track. First decide how much you want at the beginning. Using the same selection tool you used for audio select the first part of your music. Go to the Effect menu and select fade in, you may also want to use fade out at the end. You may not want music playing while you are talking or you may want it to play at a lower level. You have several options, you can select the music that is playing during your audio and then go to the Generate menu and select silence or you can select the music and cut it and then add another track, paste and move it to the end of the audio. Use effects to fade in or out.

Exporting into MP3 formatYou will need to export the file as

an mp3 file. Go to File and select

Export mp3, give you podcast a

name, click on save. You will see

the following window. This is asking

for the ID3 tags which is information

that the computer uses when it

uploads your podcast. Put the name of

the podcast where it asks for Title. You

may also want to add date and episode

here. For Artist: put your name or email

or school etc. For Album put the name

of the podcast again. For Track Number

put the number of the episode. For

Comments add a short description of

podcast For Genre: put anything you

can change it to podcast when it is in

itunes or window media player. Click on Ok and to save it.

You have just created your first podcast!

Conclusion

• Podcasting is quick and easy, but has enormous benefits for a variety of audiences:

– Students

– Teachers and administrators

– Parents and the community

• Go try it out!• Q&A

Thank you!

Please call on us if you need help “Poddling” over ideas for integration.