Our second episode includes a discussion about why we podcast with our students, Portable PD Podcast Picks Karen’s Mashups and 1-2-3 Listen 2 Me, our wonderful web resource Levelator and a lesson on making stations IDs with Audacity.
Audacity (free audio editing software) 1-2-3 Listen 2 Me – a podcast made by a family in South Africa Karen’s Mashups – a podcast that samples other podcasts Levelator – balances the volume on your audio
Music
Hot Doggin’ – by DeerFoot (Podsafe Music Network)
The Kool-Aid Makes Itself – Psykosoul (Podsafe Music Network)
Mumbo Jumbo – BD Lenz (Podsafe Music Network)
Hook, Line and Slinker – Podington Bear
Bump and Run – Derek Audette
Mark from Thunder Bay had a couple of questions about starting up a podcast:
How expensive are the voice recorders?
We’ve found decent/reliable voice recorders for under $100. Look here for more information about what we use or hope to use in the future. They kind of look like cellphones and uploading audio files to your computer works the same way as a digital camera.
How do you evaluate students?
We view podcasting as an extension of our Lanaguage Arts program. Look here for more information about assessment.
How much of each day is devoted to the podcast?
We’ve experimented with a variety of models for this. At the moment we have reserve one hour for podcasting every Friday. Also, whenever students have free time they often choose to work on their podcasts.
How many computers do you use?
Our classes each have a networked Windows XP computer. We also have access to a media cart that we wheel into our rooms. Our students visit our school’s computer lab (30 XP computers) once a week for an hour, but apart from a unit on using Audacity at the start of the year, we usually don’t use lab time time for podcasting.
A few weeks ago we received an Asus eeePC. It’s less that half the size of a regular laptop but appears to be ideal for our students to use it for editing audio and word processing. We plan to write about those machines in the near future.
Jane and I also spend time on our home computers for final editing.
How about software?
Audio-editing sofware: The main piece of software we use is Audacity. If you are on a Mac, we hear that GarageBand works exceptionally well.
What else will you need?
online storage space: We store our audio files on our school website. Another option is to use storage space that comes free with Edublogs.org. They offer 100MB which works out to be roughly an hour and half of MP3 audio.
a blog: This makes it easy to let people know everytime you have a new episode. We’ve had success using Edublogs.org, a free service offered to educators.
OK. It’s cool, but more than a little strange, to have children come up to you during yard duty saying “I saw your picture on the cover of a magazine.”
Jane and I are very happy with how the article turned out. The pictures of the students turned out really well. We had no idea we’d make the cover!
audio editing software (we use Audacity and it is a free download)
a blog (we got one for free at Edublogs.org)
online storage space (Edublogs gives some storage space with their free blogs. Once your podcast grows you’ll want to explore other storage options. If you work in the Ottawa Carleton District School Board, NetCaster provides a means to store and share audio and video files online.)
Do your research.
Listen to as many podcasts as you can. Here’s a couple to get you started:
Hook up a microphone to your computer. We recommend you think cheap at this stage – use old computer mikes or buy them at dollar stores. Record some audio. Get some practice working with audio editing programs. Audacity is a free download and works very well.
Once you feel comfortable enough with the software get your students to do some recording. Think small. Two to five minutes is a great way to test the waters and figure out what works for you and your students.
Name your podcast
Give your podcast a memorable name. Sign up for a blog. We use free blogs offered at edublogs.org. The blog is a convenient way for people to find, listen to, and comment on your podcast.
Upload your sound file
Login into your blog and select “Write a Post”. Scroll down a little further to see a section that allows you to upload your audio MP3 file. After you have uploaded, click “send to editor.”
Write your shownotes
Now write a description (known as “shownotes”) of what happens in your first episode. Once you are happy with everything click “Publish”.
Spread the word
Congratulations! You now have an official podcast that can be accessed by anyone in the world with an Internet connection. Start advertising your podcast’s web address: send newsletters to parents, get a link to your podcast added to your school’s website, mention it in your emails – do whatever it takes to get the word out.
Tell Us!
We’d love to hear of any podcasts you put together. Leave us a comment or email us (Nathan.Toft@ocdsb.ca or Jane.Smith@ocdsb.ca) and we’ll let our growing Portable PD community know about it as well.
Hi,
I am keen to get going further on the podcasting and have tried recording with a few students.
I am wondering about the issues about posting and parent permission. Do we need to get permission from the parents as we do for posting things on the webpage? If so, is there a form that I might be able to look at as a sample?
Cheryl
Hi Cheryl,
Like all schools in our board, we start the year off making sure our students’ parents have signed the following documents from the OCDSB:
Acceptable Use of Computers and Internet/Intranet Technology Agreement
School Web Site Permission Form
Media Permission Form
These forms can be found on the board site. Our school has included them in the student agenda and made these forms available online.
Anyway, to get to your question, we don’t use a consent form specific to podcasting and blogging. In our opinion, podcasting and blogging is within the realm of computer use. However, we do make a point of advertising what we are up to through newsletters, emails and notes/stickers in agendas. Here’s a newsletter we sent out early this school year about collaborating with students from around the world.
For our regular podcasts and blog entries, we make a point of only using the kids’ first names on blogs, websites and podcasts. We also avoid posting any video or photos of their faces.
In the case of the article we wrote for ETFO’s Voice magazine and a video documentary Carleton University journalism students was made about the kids, we did contact the families for permission. We’ve been fortunate that all of our students’ families have agreed to participate.
We’ve found that it really helps to continually email parents whenever a new show comes out. Nothing sells what we’re doing better than parents getting to hear their kids voices at home or at work on their computers. I have to admit that having a few seasons under our belts makes selling the podcast to a brand new batch of students much easier.
