Loukia's Podcast

Loukia is going to use podcasting in her economics class. Take a listen to her ideas!

Internet Archive - this is a winner - almost!

I decided to bypass ccPublisher and just upload a file to Internet Archive using ftp software. I am a dreamweaver user, so I already had software on my machine. Those new to using ftp software may not find this to be the easiest solution, but it does work and it's free! Here's the mp3 on my archive page.

Update - I checked the link and it will not play here! It is being aggregated through iTunes. Very confusing.

Mega-File.Net Trial

Mega-File.net is another on-line file hosting service. It doesn't make any statements about how much content can be uploaded. There is also no mention about linking the file on other web pages. Here's the link that was generated for the file http://www.mega-file.net/audio/view.php?play=70c0f1269b46e217377307a8cac8d307

Notice there is no .mp3 extension listed which suggests this will only play the file, not allow it to be downloaded. A second option given was to "email the file" to someone. I emailed it to myself, hoping it would be a download link, but after 6 hours nothing has come to my in box.

When you click on the provided link above, you're taken to a page full of adds. At the bottom of the page is an audio controller. I couldn't get the file to play...another no-go option!

ccPublisher & Internet Archive Test

Here is my second attempt to upload my podcast to the Internet Archive. Creative Commons has a piece of free software called ccPublisher which performs two functions: adding Creative Commons licensing information to the file and uploading the file to the Internet Archive.

The experience didn't begin well. It took several tries to just download ccPublisher to my iBook running OS X.3.9. Problems continued when I opened the software and began the process with the file. Each time I check a radio button or clicked "next" there was a lag of several minutes before the software responded. When the upload finally did begin, I got error messages about an inability to "parse xml". I repeated the process and got an error about missing "metadata". I didn't have the patience to try this a third time! To give credit to ccPublisher, perhaps the issue is the fact that I'm using a Mac with 10.3 rather than 10.4. I don't have a Windows machine to test this with, but will try to do so soon.

Ourmedia Test

Well I spent several hours trying to get the free file hosting service Ourmedia to work. I've come across this site in several sources on podcasting, but I personally can't get a file to upload. I created an account, and another account in the Internet Archive as directed. Just the initial account creation was frustrating. I had to submit my user name and password several times before the site accepted it. Then, when I went to upload a 5MB file, I repeatedly got a message that my file was a valid file. After reading the forums, this is evidently a reoccurring theme for Ourmedia. If you can get it to work, more power to you!

Liberated Syndication

Here's my first attempt at using hosting service called Liberated Syndication to give access to my podcast. I used a trial area of Liberated Syndication. This is a pay site ($5/month), but allows 250MB of storage. It also has blogging tools built in that will generate your RSS feed. The upload was quick and easy! Here's a link to the saved mp3 file. We'll have to test to see how well we can play or download from this service.

Summer Ice Podcasting Session

On July 12th, 2006 Illinois Computer Educators will sponsor an all-day podcasting class which I'm leading. I set up this blog as a class demonstration and as a way to share class created podcasts.

One of the wonderful benefits of being a full-time technology facilitator is having the time to research new technologies and how they can and should be utilized in the classroom. I became interested in podcasting during fall 2005 when a teacher approached me about doing podcasts with her students. As educators, we're always looking for ways to connect student learning with the rest of the world, and I immediately recognized podcasting as a powerful tool for authentic student publication. In my mind, podcasting offers students an opportunity to research, write scripts and to speak publicly to an audience outside of their school and perhaps their community.