Gabcast!
Play the podcast of this week's blog entry on the player... or read the blog entry itself!
Podcasts are not difficult to create. Nonetheless, they do require a decent microphone, some audio editing software, a set of procedures… and a bit of a learning curve. Well, at least, until Gabcast became available. Now they’re just plain easy!
Use a cell phone or a VoIP client or a landline touch-tone phone. No microphone. No audio editing software.
After you record your podcast, post the podcast to your blog. Gabcast plays well with Blogger, TypePad, WordPress, and other blogging software.
Individuals who subscribe to your Gabcast channel are notified when you publish a podcast made with Gabcast.
A basic membership is free. You can use up to 200 MB of disk space and each episode can be up to 60 minutes long. RSS feeds and integration into your blog are included. Upgraded memberships with additional features are available for a fee. You must be 13 or older to create an account.
So how do you create a podcast with Gabcast?
1. Sign up
2. Login
3. Create a channel
4. Record an episode
5. Publish the episode
You’re done! ☺
Gabcast is published by a small company in Canada. You can check out their web site (http://www.gabcast.com) to learn about other useful features.
I learned about Gabcast from Liz Kolb’s presentation, Cell Phones as Classroom Learning Tools (http://k12onlineconference.org/?p=152), at the K12 Online Conference 2007 (http://k12onlineconference.org/). Gabcast is just one of many Web 2.0 applications that Liz discussed in her excellent talk about applications for cell phones and how we can use these applications in the classroom.
If you’ve thought about using podcasts in your classroom, but thought they were too much work, this may be the solution for you.
2 comments:
This sounds like something even the less that 'techie' like me could handle. What ages would this be appropriate with?
Amy, you're correct... this application does make podcasting much easier and non-threatening for the "tech hesitant" educator. In response to your question, I think that podcasting can be used with most any age. How about first-grade students talking about ants, fifth-graders sharing about the Constitution, middle school students sharing their science experiments, or high school students teaching us about indigenous Australians? These ideas are all examples of actual student podcasts that I found on the web. Jo
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