It’s probably about time for me to mention podcasting. It’s sweeping the blogosphere. It has its uses in education and elsewhere….
What is podcasting? The pod comes from iPod. Though one is not required, it does make it more fun. Why not pick up an iPod shuffle for $99? I’m loving mine. It’s so tiny!
But I digress. Let me explain podcasting. Hopefully you’ve read my previous entries on RSS (1) (2) (3). I’ll assume you understand RSS and have subscribed to an RSS feed or two.
1) OK, now suppose each of those article headlines had an MP3 file attached.
2) Now suppose your RSS aggregator understood that there was an MP3 file attached and knew what to do with it. It downloads the MP3 file with the RSS feed and copies it to your iTunes. Why iTunes? Because you have an iPod and when you plug in your iPod it synchronizes your iTunes music (now with these MP3s you just got from RSS).
3) So on your iPod you have these new MP3 files from the RSS feed.
4) So as you go about your day, disconnected from your computer, you can listen to these files. Or you can just listen to the MP3 files on your computer.
What are people doing with these enhanced RSS feeds, or podcasts? They’re creating their own radio shows, commentary, music, conference coverage (NLII) , or whatever. There’s several educational applications out there. Textbook is Audio has come up. One idea Chris mentioned was doing podcasts for rep tests in music — each student buys a $99 iPod shuffle, subscribes to their classes podcast, and listens to the rep tests everywhere.
Need help with podcasting? Here’s some or here. It’s becoming the “next big thing ” for 2005 and is popping up in the press . It’s been called TiVo for radio.
Some of my favorite M/NPR radio shows are getting on board — Future Tense and On The Media . Many of the major news outlets have RSS feeds, podcasts aren’t far behind I’m sure.
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