Buried deep within the Applications folder on Macintosh computers running the 10.5, or Leopard, operating system, is a small un assuming little application called “Podcast Capture”. This little app is the client side of an extremely powerful, game changing, system called Podcast Producer. By itself, the application is useless. But with an account on a Leopard Server, it becomes a streamlined conduit that gives users a fast and easy way to create video, audio, screencast podcast episodes and publish them in a single motion.

In this episode I’ll outline some of the things that I like about this application and some of the areas that are in need of improvement. If you are using podcast producer, I’d love to hear from you and get your initial impressions.

http://www.intelligenic.com/kidcast/shows/kidcast048.m4a

A picture is worth a thousand words… let’s prove it! Learning to describe what we observe in depth is a valuable skill that is connected to seeing and thinking more deeply. This episode will provide you with another great podcasting activity that will develop descriptive observation in your students. We’ll use photographs to create a guided visual tour in GarageBand.

For more great podcasting activities and lesson ideas checkout KidCast: Podcasting in the Classroom and Kidcast: Creative Podcasting Activities, Strateigies, and Ideas from FTC Publishing.

http://www.intelligenic.com/kidcast/shows/kidcast046.m4a

This is the handout for my presentation on constructive and creative with technology.

Creative Spaces in a Digital World

I also have a wiki space dedicated to this topic. Please consider dropping by and adding your two cents to the wiki.

http://creativespace.wikispaces.com/

This week’s show features an update on the KidCast Awards – we had over 150 submissions! These represent some really excellent work by teachers and students. I’m looking forward to sharing the results with you soon. Check back after May 15th for results.

This episode was recorded using Ubercaster, a full featured podcast studio that offers some great work flows and creative options for podcasters. It takes some serious horse power and a lot of preparation (which is actually a great thing!) Ubercasters gets you to think about podcasting as a performance as much as a production. You can download a demo at ubercaster.com

Mothers day is just around the corner, so I decided to throw in a little podsafe music, “Mother”, from Kevin Reeves.

There has been a bit of a backlash lately toward the iPod. I think most of it is drummed up media hype, but it is important to address these kinds of concerns by engaging administrators and teachers about how to address cheating and appropriate use through effective classroom management not knee jerk generalizations.

I end this episode with a sound seeing tour from Massacre Canyon in south west Nebraska. I love discovering cool little piece of history like this and it gave me an excellent change to bring out the iPod and do a soundseeing tour.

Listen – Subscribe

There is still time to get involved in the 2007 Kidcast Awards – plenty of entries have come in, but not in every category. Still looking for more drama and sound seeing tour entries.

Special thanks to our platinum sponsor Humble Daisy: makers of ProfCast. Our other sponsor is Atomic Learning. They are helping to bring this great contest together and are providing some great prizes! Including:

Student Prizes:

• a handsome trophy for the winner of each student category
• a single user license of ProfCast for each student winner’s classroom
• a copy of my book – Kidcast: Podcasting in the Classroom

Teacher Prizes:

• a handsome trophy for the winner of each teacher category
• a 500 seat license of ProfCast for each teacher winner’s school
• a copy of my book – Kidcast: Podcasting in the Classroom
• the winner in the professional development category will also get a one year subscription to Atomic Learning.

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It’s a very exciting time…watching all this great work fly in…knowing all the creative and constructive energy that goes into it. Thank you to all the vangards out there who are making podcasting happen in your classrooms.
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The 2nd Edition of KidCast Podcasting in the Classroom….FINISHED IT!
- GarageBand’s Podcasting Studio
- Video Podcasting (including Video Cue Pro)
- more ideas about student voice and the fundamentals of podcasting
-It is available online at ftcpublishing.com – they have some great bundles – and they can even sell your district a license so that you can reproduce it for staff development within your district.

CURRENTLY working on a companion to that book that is a resource and activity book for classroom podcasts – it has over 50 ideas, strategies and Activities “KidCast: Creative Podcasting” – Look for this title out later this spring.

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I went down to Florida last week to speak on a panel at the Technology and Learning, Tech Forum 2007 Orlando. I spoke with David Warlick and Ginger Jewell about new technologies that are changing education. We took a really fun round robin approach to chiming in with exmples and ideas about collaboration, student publishing and creation, and immersive simulations and games. I popped my iPod on the table and recorded – most of the session – i’ll post it as a separate show.
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Ubercaster – a new tool that i’m going to review soon. – go check it out, mac users. I’d be interested in what you think about this.
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Videos from the Carrollton Farmers Branch Beyond 4 Walls keynote in Dallas are back up… update your feed (or resubscribe) to get them
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Podcasting and ELL – Allison Wimmer, who is an amazing foreign language teacher has a request for us – she’s doing some research and is looking for resources and ideas about blogging, podcasting and ELL. Email her at wimalim@gmail.com
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Two Minute SoapBox is a new collaborative podcast for teachers about teaching produced….you guessed it…by teachers. Make a short recording and email it to me at dschmit@intelligenic.com or just call (309)401-9353 and leave a posting as a voice mail.

Photo Story is available as a free download from the Microsoft website. According to the software maker, “Photo Story helps you to create exciting video stories by adding panning and zooming effects to your pictures. Use Photo Story to record narration for your pictures, and add titles and background musicto your story. You can also share your story in a variety of ways.

Overall, I was a little underwhelmed by Photo Story. The process is fairly straightforward, with options to edit photos, set panning and zooming on photos, add effects, add music and record narration. Recording narration was easy,but editing and creative choices seem a little limited. I used my Samson CO1U microphone. There were a few issues in getting the program to recognize my microphone, but after a few tweaks (!) it worked.

The output of Photo Story leaves us trapped inside Microsoft-land – WMV. Luckily there is a freeware application that can help us – Jodix

Jodix can easily convert a variety of different media formats into an iPod compatible format. For podcasters working with software limited to exporting to Windows Media formats, this is an essential piece of software.

http://www.intelligenic.com/kidcast/shows/032307_kidcast.m4a

Here is part two of the Keynote. This half has some useful integration ideas for bringing podcasting into the classroom. I hope you hear/see something you like and can use in your school.

If you have some ideas you would like to share, please feel free to drop me a line at dschmit@intelligenic.com or call my listener line at 1-(831) 303-2994.

You can view the video here.

Part 1 – Earlier this month I had the privilege of speaking at the Beyond 4 Walls Podcasting Conference in Carrollton-Farmers Branch, Texas. It was great to see so many people excited about the possibilities of podcasting in learning environments and to receive such an enthusiastic response from them.

Thanks to Maria Henderson of Apple Computer and the technology team at Carrollton-Farmers Branch for inviting me to share the day with their participants.

Special thanks to Richard Sands of the Technology Services Division at Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD for taping the presentation and making it available.

Click Here for the Video