By: Kary | In: Podcasting |
While I was doing research for the August 21st session on Podcasting, I realized with a harsh reality that this might take some work by teachers. Podcasting in and of itself is relatively easy. The hard part is figuring out a place to HOST the podcasts. Obviously there are some limitations that have to be taken into account.
- The service needs to be free
- It needs to be easy
- Where it is hosted needs to be accessible within the school’s firewall…in other words, it can’t be blocked
Other questions and problems come into play as well. How much server space does this FREE service provide? Unlike blogging, podcasting poses some real problems. You are dealing with mp3 files. A blog post made up primarily of text and a few pictures might use a few kilobytes of your server space. Podcasts however are a different story. By comparison, a 2 minute podcast can use about 2 MEGABYTES of server space. Then, not to get too technical, you have the issue of bandwidth. Every time that podcast is listened to uses bandwidth. The larger the file, the more bandwidth is used. The more times the podcast is listened to …the more bandwidth is used. Oddly enough, having a popular podcast can get you into hot water with your host provider if they only give you a limited amount of bandwidth each month. So what is the solution? The ULTIMATE solution would be for the district to buy a Web 2.0 server and host the podcasts ourselves. That sounds like a dream….but it may actually happen.
But what do we do in the meantime? Where do we host our podcasts so that the process is free, easy and accessible from within the district’s firewall?
I found two solutions…and am looking for more. I’ll talk about the first solution in the remaining part of this post and then speak about the second solution later.
Edublogs to the Rescue!
PROS of using Edublogs:
- Edublogs is free
- Its easy to use
Podcasts show up directly in your blog post and automatically include a nifty little Flash mp3 player
- Edublogs is free of advertisements
- It is a service who caters to educators
- Edublogs uses the Wordpress blogging platform which is one of the most popular pieces of blogging software available because of its ease of use, sophisticated looking layouts and cool features for the blogger/podcaster
- It isn’t blocked by the firewall and is an approved blogging platform by the district
CONS of Using Edublogs:
- 2 mb is the largest single file size you can upload to the Edublogs server
- Your total server space is limited to 50 mb
So, how much are you going to podcast? How long do you want each podcast to be? Since you are limited on how big each individual file can be (2 mb) and how much total space you have (50 mb) this may not be the podcasting solution for someone who wants to create 10-30 minute podcasts or someone who wants to create a podcast every week.
BUT, if you are someone who wants to dip your toe in the podcasting waters and produce some small podcasts on a bi-weekly or monthly basis…this might be the service that works for you. Its not the ultimate solution…but it IS a solution for many teaches in the district and a darn fine one at that.
Want to learn more? Please visit the EdTech’s “How to Podcast” site. The information on the site shows you how to prepare, plan, produce, publish, and promote your podcast.
If you are a podcaster who has a free, easy to use and accessible solution, please chime in with your comments. We love and need all suggestions!
Technorati Tags: podcasting podcast Edublogs hosting
