Currently, in my Electronic Publishing class we’ve been talking about podcasting. I realized this was a great tool for online education, and will be blogging about it for the next two weeks. This week, I’ll offer a quick how-to on making podcasts. Next week, I’ll elaborate on podcasting and it’s benefits in the classroom through a podcast of my own.
How to Make a Podcast in the Classroom
1) Have students write a script for their podcasts based around a topic in the curriculum.
Tip: The best kind of script is usually an outline of topics to be discussed. This makes the podcast more conversational, and interesting to listen too.
2) After approving their script, teach students how to record their podcast.
- GarageBand=Create a “New Podcast Episode” in GarageBand. Choose the track you would like to record on (either Female voice or Male Voice), and then click on the record/pause button.
Remember: If you are using an external microphone, go to the GarageBand menu and choose “Preferences.” Then click the “Audio/MIDI” icon to chose what microphone to use for recording.
- iMovie=Click on the Audio tab and use the record/pause button.
Remember: Make sure your settings reflect an external microphone as your input if you are using one.
- Audacity=Click on the microphone icon in Audacity’s Meter toolbar to turn on monitoring. Push the Record button and start talking. When you finish recording, press the yellow square Stop button.
Remember: Connect your microphone to the microphone-in connection on the PC. Open the Audacity Preferences window from the File menu. On the Audio I/O tab, verify that your sound card is selected as the device for both playback and recording. In the Channels drop-down box under Recording, choose 1 (Mono), unless you are using two microphones.
3) Once they have a recording they are happy with, save the file.
Tip: Now is the time to make any edits to the podcast using the audio editing software you recorded the episode on. You can find podcast editing tutorials at the end of this entry.
4) Export (under the Share menu) your podcast and play it for the class, burn a CD, or post it online.
Free Digital Sound Editing Software