Audacity and Podcasting


Audacity is a free, easy-to-use audio editor and recorder for Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems. You can use Audacity to, Record live audio, convert tapes and records into digital recordings or CDs, Edit Ogg Vorbis, MP3, and WAV sound files, cut, copy, splice, and mix sounds together and Change the speed or pitch of a recording.

 

Audacity Quick Start Guide:  audacity-quickstart.pdf

 


Podcasting

Video podcasts enable students and teachers to share information with anyone anytime. If a student is absent, she can download the podcast of the recorded lesson. It can be a tool for teachers or administrators to communicate curriculum, assignments and other information with parents and the community. Teachers can record book talks, vocabulary or foreign language lessons, international pen pal letters (podcast pals!), music performance, interviews, debates. Video podcasting can be a publishing tool for student oral presentations. Audio podcasts can be used in all these ways as well. It also allows people to leave a journal. The initials “RSS” are variously used to refer to the following standards:

·        Really Simple Syndication (RSS 2.0)

·        Rich Site Summary (RSS 0.91, RSS 1.0)

·        RDF Site Summary (RSS 0.9 and 1.0)  

RSS formats are specified in XML (a generic specification for data formats). RSS delivers its information as an XML file called an “RSS feed,” “webfeed,” “RSS stream,” or “RSS channel”. 


 

Podcasting in Plain English


Resources for Podcasting

Listen To: Three Little Pigs PodCast (The narrative is an overview of the science of PodCasting and its potentials for educational integration)

·        Podcasting for Educators

·        A page of links from the PiNet digital library of David F. Warlick

·        Educator Podcast Network

·        Gcast A Podcasting Service

·        PodNova is a place to find podcasts, videoblogs and stay informed on your favourite blogs. With PodNova you can subscribe, listen, view, read and maintain your feeds online.

·        The Internet Archive is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that was founded to build an Internet library, with the purpose of offering permanent access for researchers, historians, and scholars to historical collections that exist in digital format.

 

Audacity

To create a Podcast you will need a audio recording tool. The best free recording tool currently on the market is Audacity. Audacity is an audio editor. It’s features include recording/playing sound, sound editing using Cut, Copy and Paste (with unlimited Undo), track mixing, effects (including Echo, Change Tempo, and Noise Removal). Audacity imports and exports WAV, AIFF, Ogg Vorbis, and MP3 files.

·        Audacity is distributed under terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL)

·        Audacity Download Tutorial And Lame MP3 Encoder

·        Audacity Tutorial for Podcasting

·        Installing Audacity with Lame Encoder for XP Tutorial

 


What is a Podcast?