Podcasting didn’t exist before September, 2004. I first got interested in the technology in November of 2004 when I started listening to Adam Curry’s “Daily Source Code.” At the time, there were, maybe 200 podcasters. Today, there are thousands. The second anniversary of podcasting has just gone past and the tools are beginning to get some attention so let’s spend some time bringing you up to speed.

According to Wikipedia

“Podcasting is the method of distributing multimedia files, such as audio or video programs, over the Internet using syndication feeds, for playback on mobile devices and personal computers. The term, coined in 2004, is a portmanteau of iPod and broadcasting.”

At this point you know about feeds and aggregators. Podcasting just adds content download to the mix. And sometimes a scheduler that permits the download to happen in the middle of the night when you’re not at your computer. By using a special kind of aggregator (often referred to as a “podcatcher”), you simply subscribe to the feeds of the shows you like.

For example:
I have a podcatcher called “Juice”. At 2am every morning, Juice checks my RSS feeds to see if any new content has been put online since the last time it checked. If it finds new content, Juice downloads it to my hard drive. When I want new content on my portable MP3 player, I plug it into the USB port of the computer, remove what I don’t want, add what I do want, and when all the file moving is done, I just unplug it from the computer and take it with me.

The next question is, of course, how to find content to subscribe to and in the old days (last year) you only had a couple of choices. I’m still partial to IndiePodder but Podcast Alley, PodCast Pickle, and even iTunes provide good access to categorized lists of podcast feeds. Subscribing is no more difficult than dealing with your own ‘gators. Listening does not require an iPod or other exotic device. Your computer can play the files easily. If you have one of the portable devices, so much the better, but they’re really not necessary.

A more difficulty question is why listen to podcasts? I listen to learn, and I listen for pleasure. I have a collection of Blues podcasts that I listen to every week because I enjoy the music. I also listen to IT Conversations — which is a collection of technical talks from various conferences from around the country. I also listen to fiction — short stories and serialized novels — like “books on tape” but free. I’ve found, in the almost 2 years that I’ve been listening to podcasts that I no longer listen to the radio. In my car, I have an adapter that I can plug into my portable and it plays over the FM radio. It started out as a “fun thing to do with technology” and it’s really turned into a way of life for me. I listen to the music I like — and I like music that I really can’t hear on the ClearChannel broadcasts. I listen to authentic voices and people who can’t get onto the government controlled airwaves. I hear things that engage me and my specialized interests in ways that broadcasters can’t afford to support.

Can you use podcasts in your classroom? Maybe, maybe not. Go explore the directories and you’ll find a third grade class in rural Maine that produces a weekly podcast. You’ll find teachers that produce content for other teachers. You’ll find a wealth of information that might prove useful in your practice. Can you use podcasts to inform, engage, and enlighten yourself? Well, that depends on what you want to hear. And whether you get any value from what amounts to “private radio stations.”

Podcasting is a tool. There are some horrible abuses of it — such as podcast lectures — and some interesting applications of it — like podcast audio commentaries from popular TV shows. Because of the nature of podcasting — more complex than a simple web page, audio-based content, fairly large file sizes — your mileage on it may vary. In our week of Advanced Tools, however, you really need to be looking at this technology, if only to make a decision that it’s not something you want to get involved with at the moment.

References:
Adam Curry’s Daily Source Code
Juice
IndiePodder
PodCast Alley
PodCast Pickle
iTunes

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 20th, 2006 at 11:51 pm and is filed under Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.