Tutorial for Cobham Connections

Cluster teachers.

Podcasting

What is podcasting?

Simply:

A podcast is a series of digital media files, usually digital, audio, or video, that is made available for download.

A podcast once uploaded to a website is available for listening on the web or may be made available as a download.

The normal format is an mp3.

What do I need to make a podcast.

• Computer• Microphone• Audio editor (programme)

Listen to Podcasts first:

• Google podcasts and have a listen to a few educational podcasts.

• Not all podcasts on the net are high quality.• A podcast describing a cat is not necessarily

brilliant.• Korero Pt England is a good place to start.

Steps to create a Podcast:

• Have a reason for creating the podcast?• Should be integrated into learning.• Storyboard the podcast.• Write the script.• Source any audio file you will need (rip

from CD etc…)

Planning

Get equipment needed:

• Computer• Microphone (laptops usually have a mic

built in)• Software: download Audacity from web and

don’t forget Lame mp3 encoder.• Or use Audacity from PortableApps.com

which runs from a memory stick.

Start recording

• Find a quiet room preferably.• Do a test run to make sure your voice is

recorded ok.• Start recording the podcast.• Make your first podcast fairly short (less

than a minute)

Press record Adjust mic levelSound recording

• Plug in microphone to microphone jack on computer• Click the record button once• Start talking: you will see the recording being made• Click the stop or pause button to stop recording• Press the play button to listen to your recording

Click the magnifying glass and left click on the audio to expand

You can then listen to the track and take out any mistakes or silences.

By clicking on the select tool, you can then mark(highlight) any audio you wish to delete by pressing on the delete key.

Where the marker is the audio has been removed. The same technique is used to remove any unwanted silence which shows up as a narrow line.

Adding audio as a second track

• You may want to have some music playing in the background of your voice track.

• Click on Project, import Audio and then browse for a suitable mp3 or wav file to include.

• Audacity will not recognise wma files.

Select the music file then click on Open.

Audacity is now importing the mp3 file as a second track.

The new audio file (recorded in stereo/ 2 tracks) has now been imported into Audacity.

Listen to your podcast with all three tracks playing, adjust the volume levels of each track to suit.

Select and trim (push delete button on keyboard after selecting sound file) any unwanted sound. Or click the scissors icon (cut)

Finally, click File then select export as MP3

Click OK

Give your MP3 file a name and save in a folder preferably called podcasts or similar.

Login to Podomatic and upload your podcast for the world to listen to! You can send an email with the web address to direct people to the page.

An alternative is to start up your own blog and upload your podcasts to the blog. See this example of Pt England School.