Are you new to Twitter and looking to find educational discussions and content, but do not know where to start?

This video post will give you an overview of Twitter and explain the hash tag symbol (#) that is used to group discussions by topic.

I was reading an article on Podcasting at Justwantinfo.com that I thought was worth passing on to teachers who are considering podcasting to start the new year.

The article lays out the following 10 tips to consider when entering the podcast medium:
1. Plan Accordingly.
2. Original Content.
3. Get to The Point.
4. Do Your Homework.
5. Consistency.
6. Timeless Content.
7. Articulate Words.
8. Optimize Podcasts.
9. Listener Expectations.
10. Archive.

All ten of the items listed are really worth considering when you begin to think about how you are going to produce your podcast. I am going to highlight just a few things that I think are really vital from my point of view:

Planning does actually save you time in the long run if done correctly. Planning how often you are going to produce is one of the more important things to think about. Your listeners are going to want to know when they can expect shows from you if they want to start and follow you. Give thought to how often you can plan and produce a show and let your listeners know your plans so they can plan to tune in again. This will help build listeners quickly.

Plan a format on how you will present your information with the understanding that CONTENT IS KING when it comes to podcasting. Understand that people are really savvy media consumers who have grown up in a “surfing environment”. If there is no interest in the message being presented, do not be offended if they “grab the remote” and surf to new content in search of a message that does. Take the time present things in a concise manner that “gets to the point” as point three states. Listeners are looking for how this information can improve their understanding of the topic.

If you have not produced a media program before, you may want to try storyboards as a way to organize your ideas. The old steps we learned in Language Arts of the writing process will serve you well you can find a more on story boards here:
http://www2.scholastic.com/content/collateral_resources/pdf/07/1000000107_f.pdf
http://www.sotherden.com/video101/storyboard.htm

Production quality does matter. Take the time to get a quality microphone and record in a quiet environment.

Podcasting is a very personal communication medium between you and the listener. As you begin your podcast, speak in a personal frame of mind. Speak as if you are speaking to one person and not as if you are presenting to a large group of people in an auditorium.

You can check out the link http://justwantinfo.com/article/10-tips-for-podcasting-success/.html to catch the content from their point of view, it is worth the read.

Zerolandfill will hold a harvest on Friday 7/23/2010. at 3631 Perkins Ave in Cleveland from 12 PM to 3 PM. Look for the green awning for the entrance on the side of the building.

You can learn more about Zerolandfill at their website or with the link to a podcast I produced to try and share the information with others. The Artist Review Today podcast is no longer in production and I have edited the podcast to focus strictly on Zerolandfill.

Artist Review Today’s Podcast on Zerolandfill.net
ARTShow14Zerolandfillnet

Please pass this information on.

Zerolandfill is a great group that collects materials and prevents it from going directly into land fills. These materials can be of great assistance to teachers, artists, and handmen. There is no cost to collect the materials, you have to come and see what has been collected.

The Podcast Academy Blog has been a lot of fun but technology has continued to evolve and there are tools in the pipeline that I had not even dreamed of when this blog first began.

I have been following the Itouch and Ipad with a lot of interest along with other mobile devices for the last year and think it is time to create a blog based upon the 21st Cent. Tool Kit concepts I proposed in the following article: http://markquinn.net/blog5/2009/06/03/the-classroom-communication-tool-kit-for-21st-century-learners/

I have had a lot of discussion with teacher over the last year concerning the need for a change in the models of professional development concerning technology. I am planning on launching http://markquinn.net/21st-centurytoolkit/ to support this cause over the next few weeks. I will be sharing apps and other reviews at this address from this point forward and maintain this blog dealing with only podcasting.

I hope you will join me at the new blog and continue to contribute ideas for us all to become stronger in the classroom.

This post is a little off track for podcasting per say, but it is about helping to speed up your computer boot time and that helps us to begin podcasting faster.

Soluto runs in the background and looks at your boot process on your PC. Once that has been done, the program begins to offer suggestions on ways to speed up your process. What I really like about the program is that you do not have to be an expert to understand it. It offers suggestions in a “no brainer”, “advanced” and “you can not remove that” type of approach to help you tweek your boot process. Point and click to what you want to tweek and its done.

The program is for Windows only.

Check out the video to learn more:

Soluto – Anti Frustration Software from Soluto on Vimeo.

The introduction of the website for Moe’s Notes states:

Moe’s Notes is a multimedia note recorder, editor and organizer for creative and/or busy people. You can save audio, an image or video, text, tags, and GPS coordinates in each note. You can edit, sort and search for notes in various ways, then email them or upload them to Facebook.

The Iphone is simply the most compact all in one multi-media communication tool there is on the market at this point. No other device allows you to create media in both an audio and/or visual manner and share it with others as quickly as an Iphone with approporiate applications. What has been lacking is the coordination of that media into a complete package where text, audio and visual could be combined into a complete message for communication and/or note taking. Moe’s Notes answers that need with a simple interface and an astonishing depth of editing power for an app that is .99 cents.

I agree that for busy people, this application can create a tool for notes and reference that is top shelf for the ability to document ideas and then sort and share them with others. I do think that the publisher is missing a large market with tool, mainly because hardware has not been developed for the educational market to allow this tool enterence into the modren classroom.

I have written a series of articles entitled the 21st Cent. Tool Kit and discussed the use of social media and hand held devices in the classroom. (http://markquinn.net/blog5/2009/06/18/considerations-for-developing-the-21st-century-tool-kit-in-the-classroom/) The discussion of the mobile device and it’s growing use in society has to begin to show in the educational classroom.

At the time I wrote that post, I was not aware of anyone using mobiles in the classroom. Recently, I have learned of several schools have begun to experiement with cellphones in the classroom where the students have a present amount of time and texts to allow communication with learning groups and teachers on demand. They also have access to websites that have flash animations that will demonstrate a problem like the one they are dealing with on demand. Early results show that students are improving scores on their standardized tests upwards of 30% in Math.

The main factor in rolling out this on a larger scale appears to be just money; The cost per handset and the fact that many sources of funding directly prohibit giving the student personal possession of the device at all times. The simple fact is that this ideas is still in early development and as always early adopters pay a cost to play in that area; but Moe’s Notes is an application that should be on a short list of applications to be included when this technology becomes more common.

I personally believe that may come soon than expected. I believe the second generation Ipad will develop a camera and then this will allow the hardware changes to invite this application into the classroom.

Much of the discussion about adoption of technology centers around thinking that is 20th centuary in its focus. Our students have evolved in the 21st centuary and are adopting these tools as a seemless part of their lifestyle. As discussions continue on how to reach our students, perhaps we should consider HOW they prefer to interface, interact and process information and meet them on the field they are already using.

I was looking at a way to find educational discounts to purchase Flip Video recorders for my students to complete part of a project that they are working on. I really wanted them to do their own recording and wanted to be able to have more than one camera to place within the groups within the classroom.

I had been pricing different video recorders and wondered if Flip had responded to the educational market by offering and educational discount. I am happy to report that they have!!

Flip has an offer to allow 2 for 1 offers to classroom teachers. (maximum of 4 units) You can find the details to the offer here: http://www.theflip.com/en-us/buy/educators.aspx

Using Flip Video cameras you can add a lot of varations to online presentations. Discussions in the Podcast Academy include the use of video in podcasts to assist students with learning content. Students are expressing to me that it helps them learn the content and they enjoy it more than using just a text based presentation alone.

I have enclosed one example of a learning station I created several years ago for introductions of students to content and also incorporations of review materials all into one presentation. Perhaps this may give you some ideas on using video in your own classroom.

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The Excondido Union School District has compiled a list of some of the apps to be considered for education for the IPOD. This list is done in Google Docs and is searchable and can be filtered by subject, grade level and price.

Check it out, it is a good starting point to find things if you are new to your IPOD.

https://spreadsheets.google.com/lv?key=tenru11ELMGfma9kDka2moQ&type=view&gid=0&f=true&sortcolid=4&sortasc=true&rowsperpage=250

I have heard time and time again that school firewalls and software policy prevents Audacity from being installed and used on school computer to allow audio editing that is taught in the Podcast Academy workshops. You may also find yourself away from a computer that has your editing tools loaded and just need to do a quick edit to make something fit a time line or delete sections that do not cover the topics you wish to address.

I found a post on the blog Lifehacker this morning that may just be the solution to the situation. http://cutmp3.net/ allows you to quickly upload and mp3 file and trim its starting and ending points and then save it back to your computer with a file name of your choice.

The interface is simple and quick. There are no effects or other “fancy” adjustments, so correction with this tool is not really possible. It may serve as a great tool to allow primary grades to do their own editing and save a teacher some time of doing all the work.

As a side note, if you are not currently following the blog Lifehacker I really encourage you to do so. The blog always posts helpful hints on a wide range of subjects to save time on things.

You can follow this link to read the quick post of Cutmp3 on Lifehacker: http://lifehacker.com/5495435/cutmp3net-extracts-audio-from-files-entirely-online

I have been a big fan of Itunes as a podcatcher and use it for the podcasting workshops at WVIZ since their start in 2007. In the last few years as people became more familiar with the process, I have started to recieve questions such as, “Can I use anything else besides Itunes” ect.

I have always felt that Itunes was a very soundly designed software package for what it was designed to do. I generally recommended that people might wish to consider staying with that product for ease of use. Once you learn how you can capture other RSS feeds for podcasts that are not carried by Itunes, I really do not see the need to go searching for another program. The interface between the library and device is really nearly fool proof.

I happen to see a posting on Lifehacker that polled readers on what the best podcast manager software might be. They reviewed the features of: gPodder, Zune, Miro, Itunes, and Juice.

I was happy to see that many others also feel that Itunes is a quality software package to work with podcasts. See the results of the survey below:

Results from Lifehacker Survey

As a side note… if you are not following Lifehacker’s RSS Feed or checking out their site, I highly recommend doing so. The quality of the writing and the ideas to save time or create really unusual things to be more efficient is very good.