Week 9, Thing 21

I read through one of the tutorials listed at the bottom of the "thing" that has some good information in it about how to get started so I thought I'd put the URL here.
http://forevergeek.com/geek_resources/beginners_guide_to_podcasts_and_podcasting_plus_how_to_create_a_basic_podcast_of_your_own.php
There's a good timing outline for a script here for people just getting started.

Since we use Mac laptops at school, the kids have access to iTunes so I thought I'd do some research there. I looked under Podcasts/Categories/Kids and Family and found several Disney ones. This got my attention right away since I'm a BIG Disneyland fan. I chose the first one about Disneyland and quickly discovered that just 1 episode is 192M! I guess that's what you get with 18 minutes of video. Much as this topic interests me, I can't see spending a couple hours for the video to download. I think I'll try finding a shorter one or one that is audio only.

In looking at some of the others, I saw that one of the "official" Disneyland ones rated the content as "clean". That's certainly helpful! I found one there that was still video but much shorter so I'll download it.

It bugs me that you can't listen to them (preview) before downloading (at least I didn't find a way). I thought that was a pretty standard feature with iTunes. How do I know if I want to describe or download it without hearing a sample?

Ok. I downloaded a quick Jonas Brothers podcast. (Just found out about them when visiting with my niece and nephew). It was an interesting blurb. Mostly just a message to fans who don't have microphones to tell them to go to the website to leave their shoutouts. Interesting use of podcast. I don't think i want to subscribe to them, though.

Ah! Found one. Nancy Keane's booktalks. Finding that one led me to SLJ Booktalks and Horn Book Booktalks. Gotta love those "you might also likes...". (I subscribed to this one. In the meantime, the other 2 I was downloaded an episode from disappearing from the downloading screen. Ah.... technology.

Now I'm confused. I subscribed and it looks like I can listen to them in iTunes but can I get them anywhere else? Is the subscribe for this different than an RSS feed for blogs? I guess so. (Ok - I found a feed for Nancy Keene's booktalks on the Educational Podcast Network that allows me to set up an RSS feed to my Google Reader. I guess the answer to my question is that iTunes, as always, relies on proprietary solutions.)

I think I could use the booktalks for school. I can download the ones that I have books for, then put them on my school website for kids to use when looking for books. I think this will appeal to them since so many of them love to use the computers. The only downside is that they'll have to get the actual book if they want to read it. I guess I need to go on to the next "thing" to see about getting ebooks so they can read on the computer.

(As a side note, I intend to have my Library Tech students do podcasts this year for book reviews. I think I'll start simple with audio only, then have them do one with video. We've done some like these at my school using iMovie and Garageband and the tech teacher has instructions so that should be half the battle.)

Although audio isn't my medium of choice, I do see the value for students who have difficulties reading as well as students who have become so comfortable with iPods and all things audio. I'll look around for some other feeds that might be useful to put on the library website to give the kids something useful to do when they have "free time" on the computers.