Podcast

Easy Podcasting … Finally

/ Cole Camplese / 1 Comment

It looks like companies are really starting to get the hint — people want to podcast. Although it is still a little tough to get the software side of it setup (if you really want to produce something with multiple inputs), the hardware end is getting a reall boost lately. Some time ago, I got one the new USB powered Samson Audio microphone. It looks and sounds very good … it did take me quite a bit of time to get it setup, but now that it is the results are great.

To add to that, on Friday at work one of my new staff came in to show me what he had just purchased for the group, the Blue Microphones Snowball Microphone … he picked it up from the Apple Store. Here is another one of those plug and play kinds of things. Although I haven’t used it myself he says the quality is fantastic. It doesn’t look quite as good as the Samson in its shock cage, but if it really works as well as he says, this might be the one. Then yesterday I saw the M-Audio has released the Podcast Factory setup … its a nice mic, some software, and a breakout box all in one package. While I was the director of the Solutions Institute, our podcast studio used two M-Audio mics and a USB breakout box — not easy to setup, but the quality was unmatched. I am curious about this new release by them.

Remember, its also really simple to just open QuickTime Pro and use your iSight as a microphone. I do that for quick class releated podcasts and the quality is strong as well. If you have a PowerBook, the built in mic isn’t too bad either, but nothing like the iSight’s mic. Garage Band has some good support as well, but not nearly as easy as QT Pro.All in all, it seems as though podcasting (and content creation in general) is finally hitting the point where anyone can do it — with the right tools … and the tools are finally available.

2 New Podcasts

/ Cole Camplese / 1 Comment

Here are direct links to 2 of the 3 podcasts I did while at Educause in Orlando. The first podcast was with James Hilton and Lynne Johnson of the University of Michigan about their iTunes Music Store for education project. It was a fun discussion … as a matter of fact, I was able to get James to talk a bit about his slant on copyright, what is wrong with it, and how the commons is being impacted and created. I hate to say it, but this is edited down a bit from the original where we spend a bit more time on that stuff. It is a fun talk though.

The second podcast is with Susan Metros from Ohio State and Julie Little of U of Tennessee. Again, too much fun hanging out talking to these two about teaching and learning with technology. Both Susan and Julie seem to have a real passion for not just the use of technology in the classroom, but for the process of teaching well. Fun … by the way, I am not a real journalist — I just play one on my podcasts so excuse my lame interviewing abilities.

The EDU Bar Talk Podcast

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I’ve been doing podcasts for quite some time … I had a podcast called From the Basement for close to 8 months last year … it was myself and several guys from the Solutions Institute sitting around having a few drinks talking about various items. It just got out of hand, so we sort of disbanded.

This week I got some very smart people from PSU together to sit down and try again. This time we went to the Nittany Lion Inn, setup our gear, and did a way too long podcast. It is about education, technology, beer, life, you name it … it is long, but you might find some of it interesting. Check it out! It features Cole Camplese, Chris Millet, Kyle Peck, and Brian Smith.

This first one was really a dry run and more to show the participants how easy it is to get lost in beer and talk. Great fun and we are working on a format that will really be great. For now, we are calling it the EDU Bar Talk podcast … sort of a rip off of the great Car Talk radio show. At any rate, go ahead and have a listen. We will probably be moving it to its own server soon, but for now jump over to the old FTB site and check it out.

The Enclosure Bundle

/ Cole Camplese / 1 Comment

I may have written about this in the past, but I thought it was timely after just reading a nice piece called the Podcast Theory Gap by Susan Smith Nash … it got me thinking again about podcasting and what I will be doing this fall. I also just listened to Lessig’s Free Culture talk from OSCON 2002 again and re-realized how powerful well designed mixed-media (dare I say multimedia?) pieces can be if done well.

What I am planning to do is create a series of Enclosure Bundles throughout the semester. The concept of the bundle is to place an audio file, a PDF of a case, some slides, an assignment, and other items into a package, zip it up and deliver it via RSS. The pieces will add up to some sort of educational experience that I am hoping will provide some level of educational value. My students last fall weren’t really into the podcast thing (here is a link to when I introduced it to them), but I have a feeling if I can bring some more depth to my enclosures, they will enjoy them. Hey, they might even learn something. Has anyone been doing this?

Scholar Podcasts Piling Up

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I’m not sure how good the latest crop of podcasts are, but a bunch came in last night. I’ll want to take a listen to them. It is cool to get them all via iTunes and have them just sitting there when I get up. If you are interested, this search link will return all podcasts and this link will let you subscribe to the same … from blogs@pgsit.

First Student Podcast … Actually Really Well Done

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I know I’ve been talking about the Blogs@PGSIT space for some time now … well the program is a week old and the space is a hit. What is even cooler is that the first videos and podcasts are making it to the site. The first podcast is really well done. The scholars talk about the role (pros v cons) of computer mediated communication … what sort of blows my mind is that I didn’t assign that at all! Furthermore, I didn’t tell them how to do this stuff — either from a technical side or a style side. They just showed up in our new podcast studio and laid down a great podcast. It might be worth subscribing to the site’s feed (via iTunes 4.9 of course) and listen to them as they come through.