Podcasting

Click the play button above to begin the podcast.

I used Audacity to create my MP3 file for the podcasting project.  I have a Mac laptop, so I installed the Mac version of Audacity to do the recording, and the LAME encoder to export my recording as an MP3 file.  I had used my Mac to record my voice in the past, and knew it did a decent job of recording audio with the built-in mic.  So, I found a quiet place, launched Audacity, and began recording.  That makes it sound like a simple project, but in reality it was a rather lengthy process.

My first issue was that I had to restart my recording multiple times.  During my reading, I remembered an article discussing the pros and cons of following an outline, versus recording it on the fly.  Using an outline can make a podcast sound too scripted, but recording on the fly brings in more mistakes and awkward pauses.  On my first few attempts, I tried to record on the fly.  All I can say is that I have a greater respect for radio DJs than I had before.   I found it too difficult to monitor pronunciations of words and think about what I was going to say.  Following an outline didn't help much either, so I resorted to writing a script.  The script worked much better for me, but even with this I found myself making pronunciation mistakes and losing my train of thought.  After seven or eight attempts I was able to complete the recording with what I felt were acceptable mistakes.

With the recording complete, the next issue to tackle was editing the recording.  One side-effect I don't like when using the built-in mic on my laptop is the sounds that it picks up from my keyboard.  When I had to click my mouse button to start or stop recording, it was recorded by Audacity and was very annoying.  I also wanted to add into, ending, and continuous music to my recording.  So, I had to use editing tools to trim clip lengths and lower the volume on the music tracks so it didn't interfere with my podcast audio.  I have had a lot of experience with Final Cut Pro video editing software in years past.  Maybe this is somewhat of a handicap, because I often find free software unnecessarily confusing.  For example, while editing my podcast I inserted a background music audio file.  I needed to highlight the file and drag it into a different position on the track, but I couldn't figure out how to select and move it.  I finally gave up figuring it out on my own and resorted to a Google search.  It said to highlight the file and click on the Time Shift Tool icon.  This icon is a rather nondescript line with arrows on either end.  To me, this makes no sense at all, but I do admit that these things would become insignificant after using the program on a few projects.

The last hurdle in completing this project was the most difficult for me.  I had issues uploading my podcast to the U of A Comp server.  Technically, uploading the file to the server wasn't a big issue.  Locating the correct URL for the file and trying to get correct permissions on the "audio" folder I created was painful.  I have used FTP clients for years, so I understood the concepts of transferring a file.  However, I never could get the rights correct on the audio folder to access the files.  On the 3D GameLab site, the instructions mentioned modifying the rights like we did in the Dreamweaver project. The problem was that I hadn't completed the Dreamweaver project before doing this assignment.  First I tried using my Mac FTP client, Cyberduck, to modify the folder permissions.  But every time I changed them it would default back to the original settings on the folder.  Next, I did some Google searches because I assumed other students would have had similar problems in the past.  I found an article describing how to change the rights using this website: https://webdocs.uark.edu.  I logged into the site, click on my "audio" folder and selected the option entitled "Change Permissions" just as the page instructed.  I entered the same permissions as my "public_html" folder had, but when I would click the "Save" button, a blank white screen would appear.  I tried three different web browsers with the same result.  Finally, I conceded and put everything inside the root of the public_html folder and it worked perfectly.

What I've learned during this project is that while creating an audio file isn't necessarily that difficult, it is still much too technical for the average K-12 teacher to use.  I don't mean to say that our teachers couldn't figure out how to use it from a technical perspective, but rather from a time perspective.  Because of the technical nature of everything involved, it is too time consuming to be used in most K-12 classrooms.  Teachers don't want spend time working out technical issues; they want to focus on instruction.  For my personal purposes, I will likely use Audacity to create audio files for our intercom and bell system.  I am more likely to use Apple's Garageband to record a podcast.  The types of podcasts I will create will be informative in nature, describing technical procedures or discussing upcoming technology projects.