Unless you have been taking a lot of naps over the past few years, you know that one of the greatest forms of professional development and entertainment available to educators is the tried and true podcast. As I wrote in a recent post called PD in Your Ears: The BeerEDU Podcast, I highlighted some of my favorite shows and introduced the world to the podcasting venture that my good friend, Ben Dickson, and I commenced over the summer.
Quick side note: The BeerEDU Podcast is officially live wherever you get your podcasts, including Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Pocketcasts, Spotify, and many, many more! As of this writing, we have three episodes, plus a little intro episode that we recorded in June to introduce it. Check us out, subscribe, and give us some feedback! You can also find us on Twitter (@BeerEDUpod), Facebook (beeredupodcast), email (beeredupodcast@gmail.com), and use the hashtag #BeerEDUpod. And, we also have stickers! If you see Ben or me, ask for one!
Many are under the impression that in order to produce a high-quality podcast, you need to have some high-quality, ridiculous expensive microphones with a mixing board and a complicated recording program. That is not the case at all! There are numerous low-cost options for recording programs, microphones, and publication tools so you can get started podcasting immediately. I want to highlight what Ben and I use for recording The BeerEDU Podcast.
Computer: We don't have anything extravagant for a computer that we use when we podcast. In fact, depending on the recording session, sometimes we have used my Dell Inspiron laptop, something that I bought at Costco for less than $500, sometimes we use my Asus Chromebook. So long as the device we are using is connected to the Internet and can access the recording and publishing tools, we are able to produce a quality recording with a standard machine. The bottom line: you just need a regular computer to get started!
Microphone: Most laptops, Chromebooks, etc. come with a built-in microphone. While it works fairly well in most circumstances, the built-in mic may not pick up everything that you want to record, especially if you are recording with another person. That is why we use an external USB microphone when we record. There are a lot of great microphones out there, but we use the Blue Snowball iCE because it can pick up our voices well, even when we are sitting across a table from one another, and it filters out a lot of other noise that could lower the quality of your recording. According to the Snowball's manufacturer, this microphone is Skype certified, ensuring that your recordings will be clear regardless of where you are using it. Blue does manufacture some microphones that are a little less expensive, and some that are very expensive, professional models. And because it is plug and play, you don't have to install any drivers or software, you just plug it into your computer and start recording. For less than $50, you cannot go wrong with this mic. Find one on bluedesigns.com or Amazon (which, as of this writing, had this model on sale for $39.99!).
Recording Program: Again, just like computers and microphones, you have tons of options to choose from when picking out what program that you use to record and edit your podcast. Ben and I use Soundtrap to record The BeerEDU Podcast. Soundtrap is a program that I was introduced to a couple of years ago that was described to me by a Soundtrap representative as "the result of Google Docs and Garage Band (Mac, iOS) having a baby." In Soundtrap, you have options for recording voices, creating tracks from thousands of loops and instruments, and collaboration with others, even when they aren't in the same room. When we record, we create a voice track in Soundtrap and record. If need be, we cut and edit out things that we don't want in the recording, then we add sound effects (for The BeerEDU Podcast, it's the sound of a can of beer opening), our beginning and ending bumpers, and I record a quick intro to the podcast to place at the beginning. After piecing it all together (which we now do on the fly, now that we have intros, bumpers, and sound effects already created), we download the episode as a .mp3 file and prepare it for upload to the podcast platform.
Publishing Your Podcast: Once you are ready, you can publish your work! And what good would a podcast be if you Anchor! Anchor has it's own abilities to record, add sound effects, etc., but Ben and I use Soundtrap because it is more robust and has more features to edit our final product. You can use Anchor on the web or by downloading it to your phone, iPad, or tablet. After we record in Soundtrap, we download the file and upload it into Anchor, prepare a description for the show, and publish. You have the option of posting only in Anchor, or it will publish to all platforms that Anchor works with, which as of this writing, is eight more platforms in addition to Anchor.
kept it to yourself? In the past, getting your podcast published on platforms like Apple was a very cumbersome endeavor, so cumbersome that I know of some podcasters that created a free Google website and put links to their audio files or they uploaded the file to YouTube to create an audio-only file there. However, now it is much easier with
Odds & Ends: There are a few other things that you may want to keep in mind if you want to pursue a podcast. You may want to include episode show notes, which Ben and I include in the description when we upload via a link to a Google Doc. Our episode planning guide essentially becomes our show notes. You also may want to create a logo for your show, something that we created using Bitmojis and Google Drawings. To promote your show, make sure you take advantage of social media! While you don't have to create accounts for your show, it gives your show a little bit more ability to promote. And if you really want to get serious, you may even create a website, listing previous episodes and show notes, something Ben and I haven't gotten around to just yet.
Now, maybe you don't want to podcast yourself, but you would love to get your students into podcasting. Because most of the items above are free and your school most likely has access to a few external microphones, you don't need to do much of anything to get your students started! You may want to avoid publishing to Anchor and instead publish to a class website or cloud folder, depending on your school's acceptable use. Your best bet is to speak with your supervisor and/or principal to figure out exactly how your students can start creating and reflecting using podcasts.
So, what are you waiting for? Get out there and create something great! And don't forget to share and promote your material!
Until next time...
Quick side note: The BeerEDU Podcast is officially live wherever you get your podcasts, including Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Pocketcasts, Spotify, and many, many more! As of this writing, we have three episodes, plus a little intro episode that we recorded in June to introduce it. Check us out, subscribe, and give us some feedback! You can also find us on Twitter (@BeerEDUpod), Facebook (beeredupodcast), email (beeredupodcast@gmail.com), and use the hashtag #BeerEDUpod. And, we also have stickers! If you see Ben or me, ask for one!
Many are under the impression that in order to produce a high-quality podcast, you need to have some high-quality, ridiculous expensive microphones with a mixing board and a complicated recording program. That is not the case at all! There are numerous low-cost options for recording programs, microphones, and publication tools so you can get started podcasting immediately. I want to highlight what Ben and I use for recording The BeerEDU Podcast.
Computer: We don't have anything extravagant for a computer that we use when we podcast. In fact, depending on the recording session, sometimes we have used my Dell Inspiron laptop, something that I bought at Costco for less than $500, sometimes we use my Asus Chromebook. So long as the device we are using is connected to the Internet and can access the recording and publishing tools, we are able to produce a quality recording with a standard machine. The bottom line: you just need a regular computer to get started!
The tripod and 360° design of the microphone make this portable and able to pick up sound from anywhere! |
Soundtrap is a "freemium" service, but you can certainly create quality recordings using the free version. We even created our theme music using the loops and instruments in the free version! |
Publishing Your Podcast: Once you are ready, you can publish your work! And what good would a podcast be if you Anchor! Anchor has it's own abilities to record, add sound effects, etc., but Ben and I use Soundtrap because it is more robust and has more features to edit our final product. You can use Anchor on the web or by downloading it to your phone, iPad, or tablet. After we record in Soundtrap, we download the file and upload it into Anchor, prepare a description for the show, and publish. You have the option of posting only in Anchor, or it will publish to all platforms that Anchor works with, which as of this writing, is eight more platforms in addition to Anchor.
kept it to yourself? In the past, getting your podcast published on platforms like Apple was a very cumbersome endeavor, so cumbersome that I know of some podcasters that created a free Google website and put links to their audio files or they uploaded the file to YouTube to create an audio-only file there. However, now it is much easier with
Odds & Ends: There are a few other things that you may want to keep in mind if you want to pursue a podcast. You may want to include episode show notes, which Ben and I include in the description when we upload via a link to a Google Doc. Our episode planning guide essentially becomes our show notes. You also may want to create a logo for your show, something that we created using Bitmojis and Google Drawings. To promote your show, make sure you take advantage of social media! While you don't have to create accounts for your show, it gives your show a little bit more ability to promote. And if you really want to get serious, you may even create a website, listing previous episodes and show notes, something Ben and I haven't gotten around to just yet.
Now, maybe you don't want to podcast yourself, but you would love to get your students into podcasting. Because most of the items above are free and your school most likely has access to a few external microphones, you don't need to do much of anything to get your students started! You may want to avoid publishing to Anchor and instead publish to a class website or cloud folder, depending on your school's acceptable use. Your best bet is to speak with your supervisor and/or principal to figure out exactly how your students can start creating and reflecting using podcasts.
So, what are you waiting for? Get out there and create something great! And don't forget to share and promote your material!
Until next time...
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