iPodcast Therefore I Am (How A Newbie Created His First Podcast In Seven Steps)

Web 2.0 is all about being a producer and there is nothing more exciting than creating and posting your very own podcast. Wikipedia defines a podcast as a digital media file, or a series of such files, that is distributed over the Internet using syndication feeds for playback on portable media players (i.e. iPod).

I recently created a podcast for my classroom. As of April 2007, Apple had sold over 100 million iPods worldwide and it seems like most of those where purchased by my students! With that in mind, I thought this would be an excellent web 2.0 tool to use in my class.

For today's posting I thought I would discuss the seven steps I took to creating my podcast.

7 Steps To A Podcast

1. determine the message- I think that this is the most important step in the whole process. A potential podcaster needs to figure out who his audience is and what he wants to say. For my podcast I decided to have students create short audio clips of my classroom “lectures”. I have been posting text outlines on my website for years so I felt that this was a natural progression.
2. record the audio file- For my first podcast I used my son to record the lecture using my ipod. He used a very cheap mic that plugs directly into my ipod. It took him three tries before he got it right and the quality of the audio file was not the greatest. As my finances permit, I’ll upgrade to a better mic.
3. convert the file- I took the audio file off my ipod and imported it into Garageband and ran into a problem. The file it created sounded like an auctioneer on helium! After playing around for about an hour I finally figured it out. Garageband doesn’t handle .wav files very well so I converted my recording from a .wav to an .mp3 (using iTunes). Everything then worked fine and I finally had my podcast.
4. upload the podcast- I used my favorite .ftp program (Transmit) and uploaded my podcast to my website without a problem.
5. create the RSS feed- In order to submit my podcast to a podcast aggregator (i.e. iTunes) I knew that I would have to create a syndication feed using .xml. I did a quick search on google and found an application (FeedForAll) that walks you through the steps. I downloaded the trial version and used it to create my .xml file. I also used an online image editor to create the picture iTunes would use to represent my podcast (myimager.com).
6. submit the podcast- After uploading the .xml file I went to iTunes and clicked on the submit button. I filled out the forms and received an email telling me that I would get an another email notifying me whether or not they accepted my podcast. Approximately ten hours later, I received the email telling me that my podcast had been included in the iTunes store. Yea!
7. tweak the .xml file- I immediately went to iTunes to check out my listing and noticed that I must have made some mistakes in my .xml file because there were a few errors in the listing. I opened the file, tweaked it and uploaded it again. I checked the site the next day and everything looked fine. Double Yea!

To see my iTunes listing type Mr. Fuhrer in the iTunes store search window or click on this link to subscribe to the podcast: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=257088001

This week I thought that I would share three of my favorite podcasts. The links below will take you to blogs where you can subscribe to the podcasts. Happy Listening!

• SMARTBoard Lessons Podcast: If you have a SmartBoard in your classroom, you need to check out this podcast. Two Canadian educators offer useful tips on SmartBoard use and they always have a few great web 2.0 sites to share with their listeners.
• MacBreak Weekly: If you have a mac, you need to check out this podcast. Leo Laporte and his buddies discuss the latest mac news and views in a roundtable format. If you like this podcast, you should also listen to This Week in Tech.
• The Tech Teachers Podcast: Two young teachers talk about how they use technology in their classes and in their lives. I've been listening to these two for so long that I feel as though I am a part of their families.
  

In my next posting I will be taking a look at a web 2.0 application called Gliffy.