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Podcasting - On a Mac and then PC August 20, 2008

Posted by ijduran in : laptops and writing, laptop research , trackback

Podcast LogoSo one of the challenges we have been facing is to purchase Apple computers to create podcasts, video work, and other key areas.  Three high school music programs utilize Apple computers to create content for their musical performances.  One of our high schools just made a big switch over to mac laptops and key reasons were the seamless integration of the software and the belief that students will be able to focus on creativity and productivity with the macs.Our district standard are Dell computers and we have over 11,000 of them in our district.  They are a key part of our solution so we have to ensure that we are able to do everything we know the macs can do on a PC.  I am currently getting ready to support a classroom teacher and a group of students.  One of our goals is to create student podcasts of their writing or book talks.  We have one mac in the classroom and 35 Dell laptops.  We need to find a solution so students can use the PCs for the work.  I know it is doable, I just have not done it myself so I am going to learn.Below you will find a link to a simple, simple podcast I created on a mac.  It took me less than 5 minutes to create it, add a jingle, and another voice introduction.  I spent more time looking at the jingles in Garage Band than I actually did editing the podcast.  The steps I took were:

  1. I recorded my voice on an iPod with a Belkin voice recorder.
  2. I synced my iPod to my Mac Laptop and the voice memo was transferred immediately.
  3. I dragged the new voice memo sound file to Garage Band and dropped it in a male voice track.
  4. I added a jingle by selecting from a library of music.
  5. I copied the first male voice track, deleted the file attached, and re-recorded an intro to this podcast.
  6. I saved the file as a podcast and exported it to iTunes.
  7. Now, I am not sure if this was the “right” step to do but I needed to change the file format from the iTunes “mp4″ format to a “wav” file so I can load it on Word Press and play on a pc. I used a free program called “Switch” to do this conversion.
  8. That’s it….check it out and let me know if you have any tips!  Next, the PC version!
macpodcast.mp3

Comments»

1. Ben Gondrez - August 21, 2008

For the PC side I would use Audacity. In fact I was about to start doing that very soon with my students. You can download Audacity here:
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
It’s free and Open Source and very simple to use.

2. Cari Roberts - August 21, 2008

Nice, I was looking at using Audacity too, haven’t had time to try it yet.