Podcasting Confusion

Podcasting has been creating a lot of buzz recently. Podcasts are a great tool for allowing anyone with the right setup to develop their own personal audio or video broadcast which can be downloaded to a portable media player. Many professors have been playing around with the idea of podcasting, especially for distributing lectures and reviews.

Although podcasting does open the door to a new and exciting opportunity for educational technology uses, there have been a few misconceptions to the notion that we are trying to clear up.

Some major points:

• True podcasting requires a server to host your audio files and an XML file for the RSS feed that would allow subscribers to automatically update their local copy of your collection of “broadcasts.”
• A quick and easy, effective alternative for instructional use of audio content is posting MP3 files directly to HuskyCT.

Check out this great video offering a simple, straightforward look at podcasting

Listen Up!

Audio content is an effective but underused teaching and learning resource. Using Audacity, an open source sound editor, instructors can quickly and easily create audio content for use in HuskyCT, PowerPoint, and even Podcasting. Creating audio files provides a valuable resource for students looking for extra reference or more in-depth explanation. Providing content in forms other than text is often more efficient and effective, but it also has benefits for students who may learn better from what they hear than what they read.

The following slideshow was presented at a recent IRC workshop given by Janet Jordan and Steve McDermott on February 25th, 2009 highlighting creation and usage of audio files in an educational setting.