I MADE A PODCAST

I DID IT!
I made a podcast! You may have already noticed that on the right side of this blog window there is even a button to click to subscribe to my podcast. This might not sound like a huge acheivment to those of you who have been doing this for a while, but to me this is like climbing Everest. The final piece of the puzzle fell into place when I was listening to a Bit by Bit podcast by my fellow SEEDlings Bob Sprankle, Cheryl Oakes, and Alice Barr. In this episode they made note of a site called Gcast.com which would host your .mp3 files for you and provide the RSS feed for your podcast. Well that was like telling me the secret of life! I immediately got to work. One of the things that has held me up with podcasting was that I had an older version of GarageBand (2.0.2). Well I played around a little with it, and even though it is not as slick as the GarageBand in iLife 06 and doesn't have all the bells and whistles I managed to create a (I think) dynamic .mp3 file that could be uploaded to my Gcast account.
I didn't use iLife 06 even. I used an old version of GarageBand, Audacity, and iTunes.


Here is what I did.

1. Used Audacity to record intro.
2. Used Audacity to record post from my blog.
3. Went to a site called GarageBand.com that copyright free music to download.
4. I then used an old copy of GarageBand to bring in each of the tracks (introduction, music, and post)
5. Edited the volume of the music so it would fade out when talking started.
6. Exported it to iTunes.
7. Took it out of iTunes folder and placed it on my desktop.
8. Went into iTunes Preferences, opened Advanced, selected Importing, and changed it to .mp3 and lowered the bitrate.
9. Imported the .aif back into iTunes.
10. Under the Advanced menu converted it to .mp3
11. Created an account at gcast.com which hosts .mp3 files for podcasting for free.
12. Uploaded the now .mp3 file from my desktop to gcast account.
13. Subscribed to my own podcast through iTunes.
14. Submitted my podcast to the iTunes Music Store so others could find it.

Goals For the Year

If you read my previous posts, you know that I am returning to a job I have been away from for a couple of years. Now a lot has changed, not only in this job, but in educational technology. When I was last an integrator, WebQuests were the big thing in educational technology. Now, its Web 2.0 tools.

While I am absolutely thrilled to be back at CRES, I am feeling a bit behind the 8 ball so to speak. I so want to share with the teachers what I have learned about blogging, podcasts, RSS and such, but I have not had any actual classroom experiences with these tools.

This being said, here are my goals for the 2006-07:

1. Learn as much as humanly possible about Web 2.0 and their applications in the classroom.
2. Share what I have learned with teachers in these ways:
• Post definitions and educational uses on "What is Web 2.0?"
• Present these tools during staff meetings and professional development workshops
• Teach the teachers when working with them and their students
  


3. Take part in professional development for myself; workshops, conferences, and peer training