Emerging Technologies

This post is cross posted from my edublog.

Module 3 Part 3 for W200 begins with podcasting. I'm feeling a bit triumphant right now because the only thing I knew about podcasting before this module was how to watch and listen to them. I've listened to Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty tips, for instance (http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com), and who hasn't checked out a You Tube video now and then? After doing some research, I've now learned to record and broadcast an audio file on this blog and I've even uploaded it to my wiki.

According to wikipedia," A podcast is a series of audio or video digital media files which are distributed over the Internet by syndicated download, through Web feeds, to portable media players and personal computers." (Click the quote to read more.)

When I embarked on this assignment, I checked out the link http://epnweb.org/report.php?request_id=2885&openpod=9 to do a little research. There I found an audio podcasting tutorial at this link: http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/techtorial/techtorial092.shtml. After going through the tutorial, I made my first attempt to get my voice out there on the internet.

To begin, I opened the sound recorder (programs<accessories<entertainment<sound recorder) and plugged in my little computer microphone. Most laptops have them, but mine didn't produce very good quality audio, so I dug up the one we have in the desk drawer. After adjusting the audio controls (click the sound icon in your system tray and choose properties from the drop down menu), I was cooking with gas.

After I saved my recording as a wav file, I dropped it into i-tunes and converted it to an mp3. To do this I googled "wav to mp3 on itunes" or some such search and got this website, http://teaching.mrbelshaw.co.uk/index.php/2006/01/11/podcasting-part4/, which was very helpful. The conversion was a success.

Then I uploaded it into this post.

Click below to here my first attempt at podcasting. Be prepared to be underwhelmed.

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This exercise was very timely for me, because I've been discussing the use of podcasts on the website I administrate for my job http://fh.msdwt.k12.in.us/ with the media specialist (my boss and mentor). I hope to podcast the news program the students produce every week on our website.