A What-Cast?

The vast majority of the projects I have done for my tech class were not terribly intimidating, even if not something I was comfortable with. For some reason, making podcasts and/or vodcasts makes me nervous. Maybe it is the thought of seeing myself on video or hearing myself recorded. I think perhaps it is the idea of my recording being sent out into the world for other people to see and hear that makes me cringe. I do see the many varied benefits of this technology, and I did make one for this class, but I think I want some more hands-on training before I go full-tilt into this particular bit of technology.

I have been looking at the work that many other students in my class have done, and it appears that many were able to upload a video they recorded on a camera. Because I had to be difficult and have Ubuntu, a Linux-based OS, installed on my computer, I am not able to do some things in the straight-forward and simple way a Windows user may be able to do. I do, however, have some slightly more awesome applications available for my use if I can figure out how to use them. The key is finding instructions that are written in a language other than Geekese.

I did manage to record myself reading a book with Audacity, and transfer it to an mp3 with LAME, but when I tried to upload this to any of the websites, I was unable to because of length. I went back and recorded some directions for a specific type of poetry, which was much shorter and was able to be uploaded. For some reason, it sounds a bit garbled. I am still working on perfecting this. I do think that the application of recording and loading directly on an mp3 player would be incredibly useful, and I plan on doing quite a bit of this after I get players for my classroom. I am going to pursue this on DonorsChoose.org. This is a wonderful website that allows teachers to post materials for projects they want to do with their students, and hopefully receive funding from well-meaning people in the cyber community.

My first attempt at podcasting can be found at my class website: MissCabeensClass.WikiSpaces.com. Hopefully future attempts added there will be better.