Wednesday, November 4, 2009

A Practical Podcast for My Classmates

Classmates, this one's for you! I have published a podcast on postsecondary teaching options for secondary teachers. The podcast compares and contrasts secondary and postsecondary teaching contexts, with postsecondary represented by my private two-year college. I consider outreach to potential postsecondary teachers an important function of my personal and professional commitment to college-level instruction. If you have any interest at all in postsecondary instruction, please subscribe to this podcast!

This is the RSS feed for my podcast from media mill:

http://mediamill.cla.umn.edu/mediamill/generateRSS.php?podcast_id=500
music attribution:

There is also an RSS feed for my podcast on the menu to the left, which I added as a gadget (thanks, Jerehmy, for the tip!). It's called Postsecondary Teaching Options.

Lessons Learned
Using Audacity to make my mp3 was relatively technical compared to the other tasks we have accomplished this semester. Video editing posed some challenges last week, but fading out an audio soundtrack while fading in my voice felt pretty "high level." Adding bumper music to the end of the podcast was the most challenging aspect of my production. I kept trying to add the ending bumper music to the timeline of the introductory bumper music. Finally, and mercifully, it occurred to me to add another track.

I was pleased with the resulting file. However, I used the lowest quality option in media mill in an effort to keep the file size down since--surprise--my podcast got a little longish. I had so much information I wanted to share!

I did just one take of the recording. I planned it minimally, as the tutorials recommended, in order to keep it conversational. No written notes or rehearsal. Interstingly, I think I spoke at a slower, more deliberate rate than I normally speak. I would be interested to hear from you listeners if the pacing enhanced or detracted from:
  1. Listening enjoyment.
  2. Comprehension.
  3. Retention of information.
Future Applications
For my position as a college administrator, I considered the possibility of podcasting descriptions of vacant faculty positions. However, other colleges could subscribe as well in an effort to keep tabs on me. I suppose they could do that anyway by trolling employment sites (maybe they already do!).

For teaching, the obvious application is to record important class sessions for the benefit of (1) absent students and (2) those who would like to refresh themself on the topic, such as before an exam. The potential downside is that anything technical--such as writing on the board, etc.--would not be ideal in a podcast. Would a video recording of the class be better? If using a web site, such as Ning, one could include handouts, notes, etc., in addition to the audio file. To make it a true podcast, the class session would have to be published. For the teacher recording classes infrequently, simply providing an audio file to students might suffice instead.

Skype
Skype was both easy to set up and use and full of potential. I would be somewhat leery of creating a podcast and then playing it in class. That, to me, smacks of the seventh grade history teacher who tape recorded his first class of the day and simply hit rewind and play for his remaining five hours of class. However, add a Skype interview with an expert or exciting guest, and the teacher is bringing in outside content that can be justified.

In the context of the private, two-year business college, recording Skype interviews with alumni working in their field would make a "guest speaker" a more frequent option. It could be particularly convenient for the alumni, especially those with great jobs who work out of the commuting area. For some of our programs, students must complete an externship, and students are required at specified intervals to return to campus to share their experiences so far with other students. If the externship takes place out of state, the externship coordinator could record Skype calls (with permission) with the student for sharing with the group. The externship coordinator could also podcast the meetings to which the out-of-state externs could subscribe.

The conference call on Skype also has possibilities for interesting audio discussions. I wonder if that would take a little more "coaching" so that everyone gets adequate air time. I listened to a podcast on edtech talk that sounded clumsy. I know that's supposed to be part of the "charm," but it can detract from learning somewhat. In particular, the producer did not account for the female voice, as the software appears to allow. I think I would plan an agenda for such a conference, deviations from which would be fine. I would also plan to spend considerably more time editing for clarity/volume.

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