03.04.10

Steps to successful podcasting

Posted in digital literacy tagged audacityocadiadigital literacyocadiaedublogsocadiapodcasting at 3:00 pm by csutcliffe

Steps to successful podcasting

Step 1 – Recording your podcast

This first step is about producing the actual audio file that you want to publish as a podcast. There are many pieces of software that allow you to record and edit audio files, but my top recommendation is Audacity. This is available as a free download at www.audacity.sourceforge.net and offers a range of tools and features to enable you to record, edit and export audio files in a variety of formats, including mP3.

You can record directly onto the computer using a microphone or import clips from other sources such as USB voice recorders. You can add music tracks and sound effects and then use the editing tools to combine everything to make up the finished episode for your podcast. Audacity has several tutorials to help you make the most of the software. For ideas and advice on what makes a good school podcast visit http://www.wolverhamptonclc.co.uk/2007/03/02/tips-for-a-successful-school-podcast/

Once recording and editing are finished, just export the project as an mP3 file and save on your computer. You are now ready for Step 2.

Step 2 – Uploading your podcast

In order to publish your podcast you will need to upload the audio file to a website. This could be your school website, or any hosting site that gives you access to the file. To make a true podcast, the web page should have an RSS feed, which enables users to subscribe to the podcast and get automatic updates each time you add a new episode. Some sites, particularly blog sites, will automatically generate the feed when you upload your file, so it may be best to create a page for your school on a site such as Edublogs (http://edublogs.org). This is a free education blogging service that will allow you to create a podcast page and upload your audio files. The RSS links are automatically added, and people can subscribe to your podcast directly on your Edublogs page. This may be as far as you wish to go, but if you want your podcasts to be more readily available, you may wish to go on to Step 3.

If you want to use your own school website, you will need to upload your audio file and then establish an RSS feed for that page. You can do this using tools such as RSS Feed Creator from http://sourceforge.net/projects/rssfeedcreator/ or Google’s Feed Burner.

Step 3 – Sharing your podcast

The last step is to submit your podcast to iTunes, thus enabling people to find and subscribe to your podcast more easily. You will need an iTunes account set up already, and in the iTunes store podcast area click the option to “submit a podcast”. You will be asked for the “Podcast Feed URL”, which is the web address of the RSS feed from your podcast page. In the case of Edublogs it will be http://yoursite.edublogs.org/feed. It may take up to a day for iTunes to add your feed, but once this is done, anybody will be able to use iTunes to search for, subscribe to and download your podcasts.

I hope this has been helpful. Have fun!!!

Chris

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