Micropodcasting, Podcasting and Audacity

CONTENTS

Here are the contents of this session.  You can click to visit the different activites, or simply scroll down.

Become a podcaster

Follow the sets of instructions to start you on your road to podcasting.

Voxopop

VOXOPOP is a 'blend' of a social network, a discussion forum and podcasting. Here is a blog post by a teacher describing how she used VOXOPOP with young learners. To get started:

1. Create an account at http://voxopop.com.
2. Go to the Talkgroup METU NCC ELT and join.
3. Then find the KURBAN BAYRAM discussion in the GENERAL DISCUSSION zone.
• Listen and take part in the discussion by recording your reply in the discussion forum.
4. When you click the RECORD button, you may get a security warning.
• Click RUN to allow the program.
• If your computer doesn't have the current version of Java installed, you will be asked to update it.

Once you are used to recording your voice (if you're not happy with the first recording, just re-record it until you are happy. Then SAVE your recording) please feel free to start your own discussion topic. Enjoy!

Micropodcasting (Optional)

Micropodcasting is a great way for students to practice speaking.

• You can do it directly from your computer–all you need is a microphone and a few minutes.
• Visit http://audiolip.com/ and create an account (you can log in with your FACEBOOK account if you want).
• Then, create a 15 second 'micropodcast' and publish it.  Share it on our #cte319 channel in TWITTER.  It’s as easy as one, two, three!

Making your own recording studio

AUDACITY is an opensource audio editing program.

• You can download it and use it for free on your computer.
• It makes it easy to record, edit and save audio recordings on your computer.
• Once you have an audio recording saved on your computer, you can upload it to a podcasting site like Podomatic.

Download AUDACITY

1. AUDACITY is a program that lets you record, edit and publish audio.  The program is open source, so it is free to download and use.
2. To install the program on your computer, go to the download page for AUDACITY.  Choose the version appropriate for your computer.
3. If you want to export your recordings to MP3, you will also need to follow the instructions to download and install the LAME MP3 Encoder.

Here are some instruction manuals:

1. How to get started with AUDACITY: http://www.wikihow.com/Use-Audacity
2. Full documentation is available at: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/help/
3. Work with a partner and record a short conversation about what you like and dislike about using technology.  Find out what each of you find most frustrating about using technology and what strategies you use to cope with the stress this may involve.

Uploading an MP3 as a podcast

When you are finished making a recording

1. Go to http://podomatic.com and create an account.
2. Export your AUDACITY recording as an MP3 file
3. Upload it to your PODCASTING channel as an episode.
4. Embed this in a blog post and then share the link to the blog post with your peers in our EDMODO class wall
5. Visit two or three of your peers' blog posts, listen to their conversation, and add your own comment in support of one point that emerged from the conversation.

Turning text into MP3

You can use some sites to convert entire pages into an MP3, using text-to-speech software.

1. Try it out with a text you find.  Use http://www.yakitome.com/ (you will need to create an account) to create an MP3, and then save it on your computer.
2. You can then open the MP3 with AUDACITY if you want to edit it, or add your own voice for instructions, etc. 
3. You can also create a listening exercise with 'BEEP' to create and 'audio fill in the gap' type of activity.  Of course, you could integrate this media in a Hot Potato type of activity to provide feedback on the answers.

There are many other sources of pre-recorded listenings

1. See http://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/ as a good example...it's readings are also graded according to Flesch-Kincaid.

Other 'podsafe' audio resources

1. You may want to include sound effects, background music and other audio resources.  To do this you should be 'podsafe'.
2. Go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podsafe and you will see a list of resources at the end which you can freely use with your podcasts.