Friday, August 31, 2007

Podcasting

Did you know that the term "pod" when used in relationship to an iPod is copywrited by Apple? In recent months Apple has gone to some trouble to have certain websites remove any use of the term "pod" since it possibly refers to your iPod. Hmmm. As a result, websites have been taken down or had to change domain names in fear or legal retribution. The term that was supposed to be adopted to mean the same thing is "Netcast". It's not too popular as yet.
I do belive that using Netcasts for education is a great idea but only when used in addition to other instruction methods.  iTunes U from Apple is designed to host Netcasts for higher education. As is true for many of these types of things, I think that a cool idea doesn't always translate to a finished product. The hard work is actually creating the content that is appropriate and usable.
I have used Podcast Alley to find podcasts and also VOTE for your favorite podcast. This is good for the creators since the more popular casts get advertising money and sponsors to support them.
Something that is very important for creating your podcast/netcast is the use of good equipment. Many times you'll download a netcast that looks good and sounds interesting but the quality is so poor that it detracts from the experience. It's important to use a good microphone and good quality recording software and hardware. Good podcasters also edit their material so that anything that is not supposed to be there gets deleted. "This Week in Tech" is a show where they have a variety of guest speakers and many of them participate from other locations. They use an application called Skype to have participants "call in" from where they are at. Sound is transmitted over the internet but the quality of the sound on Skype is very good so the show doesn't sound like a bunch of guys on the telephone. It's attention to things like this that make a good quality program.
Erik

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