View Podcast? ID = 274420659
Sidenote - There is much to say about listening. Years ago, I read some research on how accurately information is remembered through different media. Retention of spoken information is generally better than something like a TV program, while printed material can be recalled with the most detail of all. Mileage will vary. I experimented with myself and found that information from TV documentaries got garbled in my mind far more quickly than from radio or newspapers. For this reason, I kind of hope that audio podcasts gain wide usage.
Still, some of the things that I wanted to post were quite hard to describe and so I ended up going with a video podcast format. In Apple's ecosystem, you would tend to edit footage with iMovie and bring it into Garageband to add music, voice-overs and sound effects (Image 1). This is what I did. On a PC, I suppose I would use MovieMaker. The great thing about Garageband is that it can export an audio or video podcast that will play on a computer, an mp3 player or a TV. The default settings seemed to work and I uploaded it to my Internet Provider.
The next step involved creating an RSS feed. Initially, I tried using some tools on the Web such as Feedburner. I wasn't having much luck. I ended up using an actual program called Feeder (Images 2 and 3). It is pretty cool. I began to see how you can add a title, images, tags and a description in an RSS file. Feeder put a lovely feed into the folder that I had placed my podcast in.
As an iPod user, I depend a lot (too much?) on iTunes for the syncing of my music, books and podcasts. That's where I headed to present my podcast to the world. Before telling the iTunes Music Store about a podcast, it is strongly recommended that it be tested from the user's computer. The iTunes program has an option to do this (Image 4). It worked nicely. I now had 1 subscriber, me.
At this point, things were working well enough to tell iTMS about my feed. I gave the store the location of my feed (Image 5) and waited. A day later, the iTunes Store Team gave me the thumbs up (Image 6). I actually doubt that 'the team' is a real person and I bet they would approve a podcast of me watching paint dry. Still, I felt strangely validated.
They gave me a rather convoluted link that tells iTunes to subscribe me to the podcast. It works (Image 7). If you use iTunes as your music player, try it here. Happily, the podcast syncs up beautifully with my iPod. I can kind of imagine students taking advantage of this.
Lots to puzzle over. How long does it take the iTMS to notice that a new episode has been created? Are audio podcasts far quicker to download with slower connections? What about Zune users? Are their feeds completely different? Are there times when it's best to embed media right in the Web page?
I have embedded the podcast as a Quicktime movie right in this post if iTunes is not your music software.
posted by John Lobe @ 8:46 PM
3 Comments:
Hi John, I found your discussion of memory of audio interesting. I wonder if people remember it better because they create their own images. Arlene
Hi John: I enjoyed your podcast on constructionisms. Wow do I have a lot to learn. Your edits were so smooth,the video excellent and the music embedded was appropriate. Both Bob and I would love to get a iPod. That and a new computer are on our list of things to look at down the financial road. Great work!
Cheers
Val
John, what a great "vodcast". I really appreciate your description of how to do this on a mac...another nail in the coffin of my almost new PC. If my dream of a getting a mac ever comes true, I will refer to your description of the process as my guide.
Val, on the note of getting a new ipod...there has been an ipod crisis in our family. Our son inadvertently put his new ipod through the wash(deep in the pocket of his hoodie). It is now sitting on the kitchen windowsill in a bowl of dry rice and he has all of his fingers crossed. Quel dommage!
He will be doing a lot of gardening to earn money for a new one is my bet!
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