Having finally found my feet with blogging so that its workable for me I thought the next evolution would be Podcasts, Don’t get me wrong I have dabbled with the technology and ideas behind podcasting. I have dabbled in audio a number of times as a lecturer in the past including feedback embedded in assignments, guidance for activity tasks, audio-casting a full series of lectures to accompany existing presentations for absent learners (HE level) with most being well received. I have even created the odd music track to accompany various video projects (re-used a number of times across the years). But I have never created a Podcast in its full context:
- Recorded, edited and saved an audio file ✓
- Located on a webpage ✓
- Audio jingles, effects & enhancements ✓
- Created a series of related audio ✓
- RSS Feed ✗
Hence the term audio-casting earlier as I have never set up an RSS feed. I have a number of milestones to reach in order to get the first Podcast off the ground
- Modify a music track to have an intro and exit clip for each Podcast ✓
- Identify a worthy topic ✓
- Identify some apps for recording on the go, if the opportunity arises ✓
- Identify a length and interval for the podcast to be sustainable ✓
- Record and edit
- Identify a platform ✓
- Set it up
- Publish to iTunes
The audience being made of those avidly following the blog posts to those that may listen to the podcasts in isolation – a ten to twenty minute length every month is my aim with the current thinking of a TechLec “Month in Review” focus. Effectively a summary of the topics in the blog with updates, developments and maybe snippets of things that in themselves not worthy of a specific post but useful as side-notes. There are a host of solutions as a platform for the podcasts but I do like to learn as much as I can from these activities and I think I would spend fortunes trying the easy options that cost and don’t really develop you. Thankfully, is currently seems, I can use the WordPress Blog itself – details in an upcoming blog as I progress (or not!).
I am interested in recording via desktop and on-the-go with the iPhone 6 Plus using a variety of apps and devices, to be blogged about in future posts, these are already identified in the most part. My worries are that it may well be a bit rough around the edges, for the time being I am going to use the microphone of my Logitech Pro 9000 Webcam, not ideal in the long term, if the podcasts work out the way I intend I will likely purchase a semi-decent dedicated microphone for desktop and externally for my iPhone 6 Plus and on a final note my voice! I think I will naturally avoid those singular level monotonous vocal ranges that some podcasts have, only being saved by sterling content, as I am fairly expressive but it will be at the expense of having a Thames Estuary Accent (that’s posh for Essex). Although I did have a past lecturer tell me that they would like to hear me carry-out a podcast as they could imagine it being engaging with my vocal range, I will let you draw your own conclusions from that comment!
Andy
The TechLec Blog 