Creating your first Podcast

Technology has made the recording, editing and distribution of audio easier and more accessible. Free tools such as Audacity allow anyone with a computer and a microphone to record and edit audio. A number of VLEs also allow students and teachers to record audio directly onto their VLE.

The potential for the use of audio (Podcasts) in teaching and learning has extended beyond their traditional use in MFL and Music.

Use of audio by teachers
Teachers can use audio for a number educational aims. Here are some guidelines to help make your Audio Podcasts more effective.

Avoid including complex and content–dense material that includes lots of facts and figures

Keep the focus of an audio recording narrow – don’t try to communicate too much material in a single recording. Identify the important concepts and develop a recordings that addresses these

Recordings of classroom exposition often come across overly formal and stilted and important visuals are excluded

Use of audio by students
Enabling pupils to record and share audio recording opens up new ways learning and communicating. Using audio may:

remove barriers from pupils who struggle with their written skills

provides variety in the work that you ask them to do

Improve oracy skills

How to record high-quality audio
To record high quality audio you will need to use specialised audio software, such as ‘Audacity’ which can be downloaded for free. This will allow you to edit your audio recordings and enhance the sound quality post-recording.

Top ten tips for recording high quality audio
1. Place your microphone in the right position – Too close and you get a distorted sound; too far and you pick up ambient noise. Set the microphone 6-12 inches from the narrator.
2. Record a demo to make sure it all sounds right – Listen to the audio playback with headphones rather than with speakers – headphones help isolate the audio.
3. Make sure your script is conversational and easy to read – Practice reading it a few times to make sure it flows right.
4. Stand up while recording – You’ll feel more energized and be able to breathe better.  If you do sit, don’t slouch.  Sit up straight and keep your chin out.
5. Don’t ad-lib – Stick to the script and don’t ad-lib.  Odds are that you’ll have to do multiple takes.  If you ad-lib, you’ll rarely have the same break points for editing.
6. Have plenty of liquids available – Keep your vocal chords hydrated with clear liquids
7. Get rid of the plosives – sounds that create the “popping p’s.”  Speak over the mic rather into it or make your own mic shield
8. Record 10 seconds of silence – By recording some silence, you have a way to sample just the ambient noise and use a noise removal process to filter it out. 
9. Relax and don’t rush your words – Practice reading the script.  Create a conversational tone.  Pretend like you’re talking to someone rather than just reading a script.  If you mess up, leave a noticeable pause and keep on going.
10. Mark your retakes – If you do multiple takes or start and stop, leave some sort of marker.  A good simple way to do this is to leave about 5 seconds of silence (so that it’s easy to find when you look at the wave form) and then indicate what it is, like “slide four, take two…”.

Enhancing your audio Podcasts
Using background music throughout your audio Podcast, and particularly at the beginning and end of the Podcast can make it sound more professional and engaging. However, there are real copyright issues relating to the use of commercially available music. The good news is that there are a number of web sites that offer royalty-free music that you can use in your Podcast under a creative commons license. Amit Agarwal has written an excellent blog post ‘Download Podsafe Music in MP3 format for Podcasts‘ with a list of these sites.

Tags: e-learning, Podcast, Top Tips