TCC09: Podcasting with Section 508

Liveblogged notes from the TCC online conference. My comments in italics.

Presenters:

• Dr. John R. Kallis, California University of Pennsylvania
• Dr. Chris Patti, California University of Pennsylvania

This presentation will be an overview of the different methods in the planning, producing, publishing and promoting of hybrid podcasts with instructions on the building of a 508 compliant podcast. This workshop will provide participants with new concepts and augment their skills to current guidelines on the accessibility of emerging technologies. Method of delivery will be a hybrid podcast via the web with interaction either via email or a forum.

Market research on US podcast audience

• 18.5 million (2007)
• 28.0 million (2008)
• 65 million (2012 projected)

Focus on enhanced podcasts, including visuals/slides/etc.

Digital File

• Can be mp3
• AAC (m4a)–audio
• mp4 video
• m4b audiobooks
• PDF

RSS feed–podcasts are syndicated

Plan – Produce – Publish – Promote

Plan

Good to have two people–more interesting than listening to just one person at a time. Two people don’t have to be in the same physical location.

• Topic: Something you care about
• Format: solo/co-host, length, posting
• Location: setup, hardware, software

Produce

• computer
• software: GarageBand, iTunes, Camtasia, ProTools LE, Office 2008. I’ve never heard of doing podcasts in Camtasia–he says he uses ie when he wants chapters
• open source software options: Audacity
• microphone–dynamic or condenser
• Headset
• Pop filter
• Mixer–no open source ones out there, but Audacity does a lot

Learning In Hand has a free booklet with step-by-step directions for getting started with podcasting–good for K-12 or higher ed.

Podcast Gear

• He has a small recording studio at home
• He has a mic designed for podcasting–$200
• Digital reference monitors–speakers for playback
• Pop filters–you can buy it at any audio supply or use an old screen door and bend it around your mic
• He has a mixer to edit multiple people
• ProTools has a portable USB mixer
• He also has a keyboard (the piano kind) for music too

At the other end of the spectrum, you can use a headset mic and Audacity.

Audacity

• lets you get rid of your mistakes
• free mp3 encoder
• free special effects can be downloaded
• PC/Mac/Linux
• Audacity has its own tutorials, including video

Office 2008

• From PowerPoint:
  • Save as Pictures
  • Save as Movie

Camtasia

• Save in different formats
• Save to CD, swf, avi, mp3, Quicktime
• 30 day free trial
• He records in Audacity, then puts the pieces together in Camtasia

Garageband

• multitrack audio for Mac
• chapter markers
• lots of music, instruments, etc available

Save

• Include ID3 tags to make it easier for people to find

Publish

• Your server
• Ourmedia: free hosting
• Lipsync: small fee based on how many people listen
• Odeo: record, share; 50 MB limit for upload
• Many others

RSS feed: can do the XML yourself. Or just use something that provides it automatically–I wouldn’t want to mess with this regularly

iTunes has different code–not standard RSS XML

Feedburner for RSS

Use a Feed Validator if you do the code yourself

Can do conference calls to get multiple people together–Skype or whatever. I’ve done this for SME interviews for our team blog–worked pretty well.

Promote

• Aggregators
• Podcast Directories

Section 508

• Want to make sure that all students are able to learn from podcasts
• Web pages
• Captions for videos
• Need for podcast

Interactivity is important for e-learning

Very few people said they are required to meet 508 or doing anything for accessibility now

Technical Standards

• Open or closed captions
• Open captions are visible like subtitles
  

Transcripts can be used if it’s just audio (mp3 or radio)

Transcripts can be used to create captions, but aren’t appropriate as a substitute for multimedia

Software

• Dragon Naturally Speaking
• Casting Words–transcription service
• QuickTime has CC
• Camtasia has CC
• Magpie Media Access Generator This is a totally new tool to me–never heard of it before. Creates captions for rich media.
• Captivate has CC

Podcasts within LMS

• They have Blackboard–just link to everything within there
• Someone in chat said they do the same in ANGEL

Interactivity or Assessment

• Camtasia lets you do quizzes and surveys-export SCORM to Blackboard

Most people at their university use media players, not iPods

Image: ‘Official Podcast Logo‘
www.flickr.com/photos/60236052@N00/145053162