Podcasting is another wonderful way to bring Christmas cheer. Whether it’s sharing your conversations, creating a platform for your thoughts and ideas, finding friends and bringing them together; podcasting is a chance to draw audiences into your experience and talk to each listener as if they were there with you.
Podcasting is as distinctive and unique a medium as video, animation, print and radio. It has its own quirks and characteristics, strengths and weaknesses, challenges and opportunities, which is why academics, research staff and students are starting to explore the opportunities and create their own shows. The best part is that it has never been so easy to make a podcast.
Here are three apps to get you started, remembering that the more you try this out, the better you get. Podcasting needs to form as a habit; it’s a craft and only by trying it out will you find the right tool, the right voice, what your audience likes and how to ensure your content hits home.
Voice Recorder Pro 7 (iTunes store)
This brilliant app gets you up and running at the push of a big red button. A simple tap will start the recording. Too simple you might say, well – the next steps are where it really comes into its own.
Stop your recording and you’re invited to do almost anything with it, you can trim and edit each clip if you need to, tweak the sound and then save almost anywhere you want to so that you can retrieve it later; or publish straight away to SoundCloud or YouTube. You can even take a photo of your contributor and publish with the sound file, you can create a title card and brand your audio so that it presents in a professional way, all within the app.
You might want to record your pre-lecture conversation with your contributor. What will you be talking about? What’s the one message you want the students to take home?
Opinion (iTunes store)
You might be collecting various clips from a number of contributors, perhaps you’re asking your students for their contribution and you want to edit it all together. Here’s the app for you.
Either edit and re-order individual clips or separate longer clips into shorter ones. You might add music or a jingle. Each coloured bar can be moved up or down, expanded and edited until you’re ready to publish. Choose your destination, whether it’s direct to a SoundCloud channel or its own RSS feed to place within a website. A great app, which works especially well with multiple contributions.
Bossjock jr (iTunes store)
This is the complete production studio in an app, each coloured block represents a sound, with which you can accompany your recording. Either add music or download sounds and clips from Bossjocks’ own library and add them in; then you can mix, record and distribute your podcast directly from the app.
You might use this instead of a presentation, perhaps you want to broadcast a weekly show to your students, maybe you want them to create shows for you. What a brilliant way to capture evidence.
Whatever app you choose (and remember there are plenty more on the google play and Amazon app stores) it’s now easier than ever to capture, create and publish. Podcasting is useful and effective, it can be consumed on the fly, without the need for screens and the worry of high-production values. Whether you capture a short micro-cast 3-5 minute thought, or a conversation, a debate or invite your students to join in and make their own show, it should be as easy as sending an email.
by Stephan Caspar