Week 8 Podcasts

In 2005, "podcast" was named the "word of the year" by New Oxford American Dictionary and with the growth of podcasting over the last few years, it's easy to see why.
Podcasts take many forms, from short 1-10 minutes commentaries (like the podcasts that have been created for this Learning 2.0 program) to much longer in person interviews or panel group discussions. There’s a podcast out there for just about every interest area and the best part about this technology is that you don’t have to have an iPod or a MP3 player to access them.
Since podcasts use the MP3 file format, a popular compressed format for audio files, you really just need a PC (or portal device) with headphones or a speaker. iTunes, the free downloadable application created by Apple is the directory finding service most associated with podcasts, but if you don’t have iTunes installed there are still plenty of options.

Discovery Rescources:
Have a look at the Blog created by Podcasting Ireland to explain Podcasting.

Please watch this short video presentation to explain about Podcasting.
(a Youtube video presentation by Common Craft)

Some Podcasting Directories
http://www.podcastingireland.ie/
http://www.podcastdirectory.com/
www.learnoutloud.com/podcast-directory

Optional Advanced Resources: (for those who want to learn how to create a podcast of their own)
Beginner's guide to Podcasts & Creating Podcasts
How to podcast tutorial

Discovery Exercise:
1.Take a look at itunes or one or two of the podcast directories listed above and see if you can find a podcast that interests you. See if you can find some interesting library related podcasts, like book review podcasts or library news.
Have a listen to the podcast tour of our own library here at the University of Limerick.
2.Do a search for your favourite radio station, find a podcast that interests you.
for example: http://www.rte.ie/radio/podcast/
3.Add the RSS feed for a podcast to your Bloglines account
4.Finally, create a blog post about your discovery process. Did you find anything useful here?

Optional: If you're very ambitious, why not try down loading Audacity and create a podcast of your own and then add it to your blog.
Note:
Click on download Audacity 1.3.6 (Beta)
Lame MP3 Encoder will allow you to convert your recording into an MP3 file.

1 comment:

  1. This is one that I'll come back to. I downloaded Audacity, made a few recordings, and then downloaded Lame, which was very tech-y but I think I did it right. However, when I tried converting, my poor little laptop objected - I'm out of space and not allowed to go any further. I'll have another go some day soon. The hard part - overcoming the fear - is over.
    On podcasts in general - I love that I can record radio programmes from the RTE and BBC archives to listen to when I'm somewhere without a web connection.

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Useful comments!