Podcasts and the art of sound

“Podcasting is one of the most exciting and wonderfully disruptive technologies to emerge in recent history.”

The quote above, from the Podcasting in Education site (http://chatt.hdsb.ca/~magps/boylit/Podcasting%20in%20Education), is a thought-provoking one for me (it is not directly attributed, but it seems to be from the webmaster Shaun Else). “Wonderfully disruptive”, that’s an interesting phrase; what does it mean? The term makes me think that podcasting is disrupting old ways of education, old ways of listening, old ways of being entertained, and/or old ways of learning. What does it mean to Else? Well, he has specific reasons for using podcasting in the classroom, such as increasing literacy:

“As the Ministry of Education document "Me Read? No Way!" suggest some of this gap may be an expression of lack of interest, and/or lack of appropriate strategies used by teachers. I have proposed the use of podcasting in the classroom to elevate interest in literacy among boys, if not all students. Based on approval from my administration, I submitted an application/proposal for a grant from the "Halton Learning Foundation" to fund the hardware needed to begin using the podcasting in Maple Groves for the 2006/7 year. We started Radio Maple Grove as a small club and through use in class, and I have been promoting it's use as a class tool/strategy with staff. Radio Maple Grove is a place where audio about books, speeches, and other school happenings are showcased.”
(http://chatt.hdsb.ca/~magps/boylit/Podcasting%20in%20Education)
To me, that quote leads me to believe that podcasting is less disruptive than forward-thinking. Using podcasts as a new way to get students more involved in reading, writing, and communicating makes sense in today’s world. Not only can students, teachers and other collaborators benefit from online broadcasting; parents can as well. Parents can listen to what their children are doing while jogging, riding a bus, as they’re driving…the possibilities are far-flung. For busy parents such as myself who don’t always get the opportunity to celebrate their kids’ successes, having the flexibility to listen when time permits, podcasting could be a huge boon.
There are some other implications for educational uses of podcasting. One big plus for podcasting as opposed to using videosharing sites such as YouTube is that the impetus for blocking sites is lessened; I suppose the possibility of hearing questionable content is less than viewing and listening to questionable content. Consequently, the chances of more students and teachers being able to use podcasting to a greater degree are much higher than YouTube. Also, without the pressure of creating visually stunning or highly entertaining images, students can focus more deeply on speaking more effectively and hooking people’s attention with sound (incidentally, Daniel J. Schmit has called the last two points unique features of using podcasting effectively in the classroom – see http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/25/technology/techspecial2/25podcast.html?_r=2&oref=slogin ). For English teachers like myself, gaining a whole new world of prospects for speaking and listening is like finding a pot of gold.

Perhaps at this point I should admit that my knowledge and appreciation of podcasting prior to recent personal research of amateur internet-distributed radio was sorely lacking. I do own an iPod and I have downloaded a few podcasts over the last couple of years, but I had no idea that it had become such a phenomenon. The Education Podcast Network lists 154 podcasts relating to English Language Arts alone (see: http://epnweb.org/index.php?request_id=39&openpod=4#anchor4)! Well. What else have I been missing?
So after scolding myself for being so backwards, I dove into creating my first podcast. After downloading Audacity, I had a goofy time with my new headset microphone - I still haven't figured it all out yet. At any rate, I managed to record a few seconds of an introduction. Unfortunately, podOmatic was undergoing site maintenance when I began to upload. Aargh! Finally I was allowed to finish uploading. My first test worked, but even after a few tries, I couldn’t get a Flickr RSS feed to hook up with my podcast when viewed/listened on my blog. The images worked fine when viewed on podOmatic, but went to black when watching and listening from the blog.
I’ve been trying to upload a “Real” podcast but podOmatic keeps giving me an “Internal Server Error” message. I really wanted to delete my earlier tiny test podcasts and insert a real one, but technology is refusing to be my friend right now. I’ll try again later, sometimes friends just need some time alone.