Managing Podcast Creation in the Classroom

Peggy Hilleary in Georgia is a fifth grade teacher who attended a podcasting workshop I lead a couple months ago. She emailed me with her ideas for managing podcast creation and has some questions.

Dear Tony, I had a great workshop with you in the fall at Woodward Academy in Georgia. And now I am finally taking the plunge with my two fifth grade classes. But I need your help in working out the logistics. And let me say that I will be the first in my school to do such a big project with a whole class. So I don't have any help here. Hope you can help me. Just before our winter break I followed your model of having the students listen to some of your students' podcasts. They really enjoyed them, and they really began to see patterns and qualities important to a successful podcast. After winter break I am ready to put my students into teams of about 10. That will be 2 to a classroom, for a total of 4 episodes being written, then taped, then worked out on the computer with Audacity, adding music and organizing the podcast.

I really like how Peggy has thought this through. A key to successful student podcasting is clear organization. Like most classroom situations, if you don't think it through, the whole activity could become a disaster. Here are some of Peggy's questions and my answers to her:

Is this too much for me to handle--making 4 episodes at once? I do have a teaching assistant, and I do know iMovie very well, so I am familiar with the process of production with script, music, editing, etc.

Four episodes at a time is good because you have the whole class working on it at once. And if you've had movie-making experience, making an audio podcast is much easier, especially from a classroom management stand-point. Just be sure that each student has a specific role so they aren't left out of the process.

If this is something you think is doable, how much time do you think it will take from beginning to end? These 4 episodes will be a series on the theme of "Journeys and Quests." Each one of the podcasts will have almost the same segments, giving the 4-part series some unity along with the theme.

I like consistency you have planned in the series. It will take the most time to research and write and edit scripts. You'll want to give plenty of time for this since it's so important. I'd say a week of writing and then to record and edit, another week. And, with it being a podcast, don't feel you need to publish them all at once. In fact, having one published once a week would be good because then it would give listeners a reason to subscribe in iTunes.

If you do believe my process sounds ok, will I then need 4 computers, one for each team? What software will I need to load on it? iTunes? Audacity? Anything else?

Four computers would work best--especially if they can be laptops so students can go to quiet places to record. You'll want Audacity on them (or GarageBand is a great Mac alterative). iTunes is only necessary on the computer you'll plan to publish from--so as long as you have it on yours. Also, on one computer, have the free Levelator software. Levelator will even out the volume throughout the podcasts so that sounds aren't too faint or too loud. Follow my Podcasting booklet on how to use Levelator and then iTunes to give the audio file tags and export as an MP3.

What advice do you have for me in how to make this successful? I do hope to publish it on iTunes, and I hope it will actually be something other students might enjoy.

To make the best podcast, you really need to read and edit the students' scripts--maybe even for two or three rounds of editing until they are just right. It's so much better to catch misinformation, confusing sentences, and poor planning before students start recording. Also important before recording is that students practice reading their scripts (perhaps in front of the class so the class can give constructive feedback). That way when they do record, they've have an awesome script and have had coaching on how to make it sound the best.

I'm sure Peggy's fifth graders will do a smashing job thanks to the thought she's putting into how she's managing the project!

A Powerful Commercial That Features Podcasts

Kaplan University has a great commercial that's been airing on television. The spot features a professor apologizing to students for a system that has failed them. I really like how about half-way through the 60-second commercial you can see the professor appearing on computer, phone, and iPod screens as a podcast.

The commercial has several great sound bites, including:

"It's time to use technology to rewrite the rules of education."

"It's time to learn how you learn so we can teach you better."

iPod touch and Microphones

Unlike iPhone, iPod touch does not sport a built-in microphone. Thanks to a recent software update, the second generation iPod touch (with volume buttons on the left side) can now use add-on microphones like TuneTalk from Belkin and iTalk Pro from Griffin. These microphones attach to iPod's dock connector. iPod touch also supports microphones that use the headphone port like Apple's Earphones with Mic or Incipio's new $18 Lloyd microphone for iPod 4G (which does indeed work with iPod touch, it just doesn't fit nicely).

In order to record audio with iPod touch, you'll need to download an app. Luckily, a search for voice recorder in the App Store reveals over a dozen applications. In that search, you'll come across the free iTalk Recorder. iTalk Recorder is super easy to use. Unlike when you record with click-wheel iPods, you can name the recording and type in notes to go along with it. I like that you can pause a recording, listen to what you have, and then continue that recording. There are three quality settings: Good, Better, and Best. Here's what iTalk Recorder's support page says about the file sizes associated with these settings:

1. The length of your recordings are only limited by two things: Your disk space and your recording quality.
2. An hour-long recording will take up 75MB if you're set to Good recording quality, 150MB when set to Better quality, and 300MB when set to Best quality.
3. Or, to look at it another way, a gigabyte will store 800 minutes if you have your recording quality set to Good, 400 minutes when set to Better, and 200 minutes when set to Best.

Even if iTalk Recorder is set on the best quality, you should have plenty of space on an 8GB iPod touch. Now, what happens when you want to copy the recordings to your computer? First, you should know that iPod touch only syncs some of Apple's built-in app to iTunes. Additional apps you install have to figure out how to get their information and files from the iPod to your desktop without syncing with iTunes. You might recall that for Comic Touch, you can email your comics to yourself or you can send the comic to the Photos app. Since Photos is an original Apple app, it does sync with the desktop. As for iTalk Recorder, to transfer recordings, you must download and install iTalk Sync, free software for Windows and Macintosh.

Despite its name, you do not actually sync to use iTalk Sync. Instead, the iPod touch and computer need to be on the same Wi-Fi network. iTalk Sync must be running on the desktop and iTalk Recorder must be launched on the iPod touch. iTalk Sync will display a list of iPod touches and iPhones on the network that have iTalk Recorder running. Choose a device and once Yes is tapped on the iPod touch, iTalk Sync will display all of the iPod's recordings. You can drag and drop the recordings or click the iTunes button to copy them to your iTunes Music Library. If any notes have been input with the recording, they are copied to the desktop as a text file.

The audio file itself is in AIFF format. Most audio editing software can import AIFF. AIFF audio files are quite large compared to MP3, so you'll want to use iTunes or Audacity to export the audio as MP3. But first, you can certainly edit the audio with software like GarageBand or Audacity.

iTalk Recorder works really well and is free. But, the free app will display small banner ads along the bottom of the screen. If you want to remove the ads, you can pay $4.99 for iTalk Recorder Premium. The only different between the free app and the $4.99 app is that the premium app does not display advertisements.

There are so many ways to use a mobile voice recorder in the classroom. Apple has some interesting lesson plans listed on their iPod in the Classroom page. A use I have for a voice recorder is for making podcasts. Have a listen to the first half of Learning in Hand: iPods #14: Voice Recording for voice recording examples and ideas.

There are other apps besides voice recorders that you can use with an attachable iPod touch microphone. For example, check out the interesting Agile Lie Detector, a Heart Monitor that really works, a virtual recorder instrument, and a musical note tuner.

12 Days of iPod touch continues tomorrow when I share some games that are fit for a classroom.

iPod touch and Podcasts

Like other iPods, the iPod touch is perfect for podcasts. Just like click-wheel iPods, the podcasts you have subscribed to in iTunes on your Windows or Macintosh computer are automatically transferred to the touch when synced. If a podcast has artwork, it is displayed on the large screen. Video podcasts look awesome on an iPod touch because of that large screen.

Something that I don't like is that all audio synced from iTunes is found in the Music app--even if the audio is not actually music. That means you have to tap the Music icon to access podcasts. By the way, video podcasts are found in both the Music and Videos apps.

Unlike click-wheel iPods, you can download podcast episodes on an iPod touch without syncing. You'll just need a Wi-Fi internet connection. When in the Music app under Podcasts, tap a podcast to see its episode listing. At the bottom of the screen you'll notice Get More Episodes. Tap that and the mobile iTunes app on the touch will launch and take you to the complete episode listing for that podcast. In iTunes, tapping the Free button downloads that episode onto your iPod. Once the download is complete, the episode appears in the Music app, listed with the other episodes of the podcast. Unfortunately, if a podcast is not listed publicly in the online iTunes Store directory, then its episodes will not appear in mobile iTunes either.

The podcasts section of mobile iTunes is no where near as extensive as that of desktop iTunes, but you can drill down to specific categories. For example, you can get to my favorite category: Education > K-12. The mobile directory is certainly not a complete listing, however doing a search for podcast titles will reveal the podcasts you're looking for. The search seems pretty limited and does not search for individual episode topics--only podcast titles and keywords.

As an alternative to downloading an episode (which is saved in the Music app), you can stream episodes in the iTunes app. Streaming does not display an episode's artwork and you cannot access an episodes lyrics/notes, but streaming can be handy if you don't want to wait for the episode to download completely. Besides not showing artwork, a problem with streaming is that the audio or video may have to pause for buffering and if you exit the iTunes app, then the playback stops and what's been streamed is not saved.

As much as I'm glad mobile iTunes has podcast download and stream capabilities, there are some limitations to note:

• You cannot subscribe to podcasts, only download individual episodes.
• You cannot input a podcast's RSS feed--a podcast must be submitted to the iTunes Store and approved for it to be listed.
• iPhones using the cellular network cannot download episode files larger than 10MB. Almost all episodes are larger than 10MB.
• Oftentimes movie files listed in mobile iTunes cannot be played on the iPod touch and you're given the warning, "This movie could not be downloaded."
• All that great content in iTunes U is not listed.
• The whole process of downloading an episode in mobile iTunes seems clunky. I'm guessing Apple will improve this feature in future software updates.

Having the ability to download podcast episodes right there on the iPod touch is a useful feature. Busy educators often don't have time to sync their iPods. With a classroom set of iPods, syncing often is logistically be difficult. When students bring their personal iPods to school, it's not a good idea for them to sync with school computers. So, it was a smart move for Apple to include podcasts in mobile iTunes as a way to get educational content on an iPod touch without the hassle of syncing with a desktop computer.

Tomorrow's 12 Days of iPod touch is about voice recording--recordings that could be used for a podcast.

Flip Video Camera

Teachers have been flipping over the Flip video camera. I've had one for months and really enjoy it. What's so special about this camera? First, the camcorder stores video in its internal memory. That means there are no tapes to rewind, record over, or lose. Secondly, the camera couldn't be easier to use. It only has a few button because it only has a few features. In fact, the Flip video camera seems like a Fisher-Price product because it is so simple. Another awesome thing for classrooms is that the camera requires no cables or cords. You don't need to worry about a power adapter because it uses 2 AA batteries (I recommend getting 4 rechargeable AA batteries so that one pair can be in the camera and the other can be charging). No computer cable is needed because a USB plug is hidden on the side of the camera that flips out when you need it.

Because the video is stored in flash memory, there is no tape to rewind when importing into the computer. The Flip comes with software loaded on it to help you download the video from the camera. You need special software because the camera records in its own DivX MPEG-4 format. As a Mac user, I've installed the free Perian component for QuickTime. This allows my computer to play the movie file in QuickTime, iTunes, and other programs. I can use the video in iMovie HD, but the new iMovie 8 won't recognize the video format.

The Flip does not have a microphone jack. While its built-in mic is pretty good, users need to make sure that if they are capturing someone talking, that person needs to be very close to the camera. We've all seen many teacher and student-produced movies where you barely hear what is being said. To get around this, I would move the camera far back to get a silent establishing shot. Then I'd reposition the camera to get a tight shot so that the camera is close to the person while he or she speaks.

I took my Flip camera to Omaha's Zoo. Here's a clip of fish in a massive aquarium. I zoom in at the end and you can see the image becomes blotchy when zoomed because it is a digital (not optical) zoom. The video is 640 x 480 pixels large. I converted the video format from the Flip's .avi format to an equivalent .mp4. Otherwise, those you without the Flip software or Perian wouldn't be able to see it. Here's the same video uploaded to YouTube. You'll notice the original is larger in size and higher quality than what YouTube displays. Just for fun, here's another video from the zoo's Desert Dome. And here's the YouTube version. Like most cameras, you'll notice that the Flip records much better in sunlight than in semi-darkness.

The Flip currently comes in three different models. The model that records up to 30 minutes of video is $130. $150 will get you a camera that records up to 60 minutes. For $30 more you can get a sleeker 60 minute model.

The Flip is not the only small, cheap, tapeless video camera around. There's the RCA Small Wonder, Creative Vado, and Kodak Zi6. These cameras are very similarly priced to the Flip and have similar features. All include only a 2x digital zoom.

Why have a handy, easy-to-use camera in the classroom? Besides making videos of educational skits, the Flip camera could be used to document field trips and science experiments. It could be used to record interviews and class discussions. The videos could be uploaded to sites like TeacherTube or as a video podcast. Here are a few TeacherTube videos about or made with a Flip video camera: Reflection on Flip Project, Instructions for Using Flip Video Cameras (Windows), and Chinese Greetings.

Video Podcasts Free Up Class Time

Woodland Park High School in Colorado is using video podcasts to remove lecture from class. Viewing podcasts made by teachers is given as homework so teachers and students can focus on hands-on activities and direct problem solving during class time. For students without Internet, they can copy episodes to a flash drive. Those without computers can take home DVDs to play on their televisions.

Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams are the chemistry teachers involved in the video podcasting. In an article in the Pike Peak Courier View, they note an advantage is that students can pause and rewind a lecture when they don't understand concepts. The teachers take turns making episodes, so the students have the benefit of having two instructors. The teachers recommend SnapKast (Windows) or ProfCast (Macintosh) for recording lectures with PowerPoint or Keynote slides.

Click to go to the Woodland Park podcasts. Additionally, Jonathan and Aaron have an excellent video where they talk about their vodcasting. As an aside, I try to avoid educational and technology jargon. I do not use the term vodcast as I prefer video podcast.

iPods Episode #12: Podcasting Booklet

Learning in Hand: iPods Episode #12: Podcasting Booklet is online and gives an overview of the free 34-page booklet I recently made available.

The PDF is titled Podcasting for Teachers & Students and in it, I focus on free and cross-platform software so that both Windows and Macintosh users feel included. First, learn what a podcast is and then learn to find, subscribe, and listen to them. You probably already know how to do that, so most of the booklet tells about creating a podcast using Audacity, Levelator, and iTunes. Also, three methods of posting the podcast online are included in Podcasting for Teachers & Students. I tried to make the directions clear and simple so teachers and students can focus on communicating their messages.

Listen to all 9 minutes of Episode #12 for an overview of Podcasting for Teachers & Students.

Wesleyan Podcast

Wesleyan Academy has posted the first two episodes of its podcast! The school is on the island of St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands. These first episodes were written and spoken by fourth graders. They share segments about several topics they have learned about this school year.

To prepare for their podcast, the students listened to various podcasts from elementary students. They even sent video feedback to some podcasters. I'd love for you or your students to listen and leave a comment on the podcast's blog--it would mean so much to these budding podcasters.

By the way, I used the free Blogger.com service to publish the Wesleyan Podcast. Blogger works in combination with Feedburner.com to create a podcast feed that works really well in iTunes. Unfortunately, these services do not host the audio files themselves. For that, I used my regular web hosting service. Read more about how to Publish with Blogger and Feedburner.

Another item podcasters may be interested in is the Subscribe with iTunes link I placed on the page. I simply replaced the http at the beginning of the feed's address with itpc. When clicked, an itpc link automatically opens iTunes and subscribes to the podcast. Yup, just one click and iTunes starts downloading the latest episode and will download future episodes. The podcast doesn't even have to be submitted to the iTunes Store for this method to work. If a podcast has been submitted to the iTunes Store, you can link to its iTunes details page using these directions.

But, I don't want to stress the techie part of all of this. The important piece is that students knew they were producing something special when they started taking notes and writing scripts. The fourth graders weren't focused on the technology; they were concentrating on their audience and purpose. They made this podcast for other students, so if you get a chance, have a student you know listen and comment on the Wesleyan Podcast blog!

iPods Episode #11: Artwork & Lyrics

Learning in Hand: iPods Episode #11: Artwork & Lyrics is online and is all about giving audio files cover art and accompanying text.

Artwork and lyrics are two things you can easily add to an audio file to make it more useful on iPods. While most all references you'll find to artwork and lyrics on iPods deal with music, the audio files do not have to be songs. They can be recordings from a voice recorder, ripped from a CD, podcasts, files from Audacity or GarageBand, or downloaded from the Internet. Wherever you got the audio, we'll explore adding customized artwork and accompanying text to these files.

Listen to all 11 minutes of Episode #11 for tips, how-tos, and ideas for using artwork and lyrics on click wheel and touch iPods.

Advice for Better Podcasts

Matt Villano wrote Building a Better Podcast in January 2008's T.H.E. Journal. Matt sought helpful hints from various podcasting educators who shared nuances to making worthwhile podcasts. The article focuses on simple tools that can empower teachers to "turn run-of-the-mill podcasts into compelling educational exercises."

Here are some takeaways from the article and some of my thoughts and suggestions:

The first part of the article focuses on preparation. The preproduction is indeed the most important and most educational part of podcasting. Different from report writing or speech-giving, podcasting students need to keep their audience in mind--an audience that can come from all parts of the world thanks to the Internet.

After hitting home the importance of preparing, the article focuses on sound quality. It mentions $50 microphones. I don't find microphones that expensive to be necessary, It's very difficult to hear the difference between a $25 Logitech microphone and more expensive mics. Recently there has been a fantastic discussion about microphones on Wesley Fryer's Moving at the Speech of Creativity blog. The comments to the post contain great insight from teachers and podcasters.

Filtering out the background noise is important. We know how noisy schools can get. I suggest taking students into a quiet room to record. Sometimes a room is not available. According to the article, "The best way for technology coordinators to do this is to go low-tech and fashion a recording studio out of a wooden box and egg-crate insulation." I have not seen this solution in action, but I'm guessing it would have to be a pretty big box to keep out the noise. If you really want to keep out all noise, a parked car provides excellent noise-reduction (but this is probably not a choice location for students to record).

One of the best tips I can give podcasters is to use Levelator. Available free for Macintosh and Windows, Levelator will smooth out the volumes throughout your podcast. Listeners won't have to adjust the volume as all voices will be adjusted to the same volume level. It's a little tricky to use because you have to first export the audio as a WAV or AIFF in order for Levelator to do its thing.

A postproduction tip is to use transitional music between segements. Music signals to the listener the conclusion of one segment and the beginning of another. It also provides time to reflect on the previous segment before moving on. I caution podcasters not to overdo the music. It's easy to include long musical interludes, but that is probably not why listeners are tuning in--they want to hear the content, not GarageBand's music loops. Also, I advise you to have absolutely no more than 20 seconds of "theme" music at the beginning of your podcast. Save the music for transitions so listeners have something to think about while the music plays.

Next, "Building a Better Podcast" tackles the issue of editing. I happen to disagree with this statement about editing podcasts:

As tempting as it might be for teachers to edit speaking errors as their students are recording a podcast, it generally is better to record first and edit later, keeping disruptions to a minimum and forcing students to stay on task.

Now, this assumes that the teachers (not students) are in charge of recording, which is often the case. I have tried recording both ways--editing on the fly while students are sitting with me recording and I've tried editing afterwards. The times I've saved all of the editing for afterwards, the audio becomes a big mess. It takes a long time to listen to the entire recording, find mistakes, and fix them. I find it faster to edit while the students are recording. I simply have students read a paragraph. We stop and I check to see if students are happy with what they recorded. If they are, we move on. If not, I just delete the last recorded portion and we rerecord. This way students are involved in the editing process and it's not such a daunting task for me when I do the final editing.

The length of a podcast is also addressed. I agree that 10 to 15 minutes is the maximum time that a K-12 audience will have for listening to a podcast. If your recording is too long, considering dividing it up into two or more episodes.

Besides advice about length, the article addresses the name of the podcast. Here's a good point about capturing prospective listeners' attention, as podcasts are often listed in directories by just the name:

Because most listeners search podcasts on the internet, a clever name can be the difference between catching the eye—and then the ear—of a prospective audience member and, well, losing that person to something else. Good names usually incorporate the school mascot or something special about a hometown. A podcast about New York City, for instance, might be called "Bytes of the Big Apple."

After you have a name, I recommend having a slogan or catchphrase for each individual episode. You've probably noticed the slogans for Radio WillowWeb episodes like "Can You Hear Us Now?", "The Willowcast Heard 'Round the World," and "Know More about Nebraska." Each episode of Our City Podcast also has a slogans like "Outstanding Omaha" and "Sensational St. Thomas." Some sites I suggest for inspiration are Sloganizer and Slogan4u (check to see that the slogan generator you use with students is school appropriate).

To measure their audience size many podcasters use Feedburner. It's a free service from Google that tracks the number of subscribers. It can be a little tricky to set up, but the statistics are worth the effort.

The end of the article mentions that podcasting requires consistency. Episodes should be produced more than once a year. Podcasts are meant to be a series of episodes, so doing just one isn't taking advantage of the medium. Though, I would rather have teachers try just one, and if successful, continue with more episodes. One of the reasons I started Our City Podcast is so that classrooms can produce just one episode and yet still be part of a series. The article suggests, "The easiest way for educators to weave podcasts into the curriculum is to commit to recording a certain number of them during the year, and to include them with lesson development. "

For more advice for podcasting educators, read the entire article Building a Better Podcast.

T.H.E. Journal is available for free online or in print. Here is the free subscription form.

Our City Podcast & Collaboration

Have you checked out Our City Podcast lately? Recent additions include episodes from Fort Myers, FL, Hannibal, MO, Richton Park, IL, and Lynbrook, NY. Also, the episode from St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands has been published. This is the episode I recently wrote about and described the preproduction process. It's probably the first podcast by Caribbean students and is quite interesting. I have spent several weeks in St. Thomas and I still learned a lot from their episode.

I have described ways in which Our City Podcast can be used in the classroom. One of the best activities is giving feedback to podcast creators. Typically feedback on episodes are text and are send by email. Recently, I had fourth graders from Wesleyan Academy in St. Thomas make a short video for students in Omaha that produced an episode of Radio WillowWeb. The Omaha students loved seeing and hearing students from a couple thousand miles away. It was so great for the Omaha students to know that others are enjoying their work.

Recording video feedback was also a valuable activity for the St. Thomas students as they prepare to podcast. I had students take notes as they listened to the podcast from Omaha. They recorded things they already knew, things they learned, questions, and compliments on a sheet of paper. They then used this to figure out what they would say in the video. The video was recorded directly into iMovie using an iSight camera. It featured students talking into the camera. The video was quickly pieced together, exported, and emailed to Omaha.

I encourage you to send feedback, whether by text, audio, or video, to producers of Our City Podcast episodes. Each details page has an email for the teacher of the class. Keep in mind that many episodes were produced last school year, so you may want to reserve feedback for episodes published this school year.

Interested in submitting an Our City Podcast episode from your school? Read How to Participate.

Furthermore, I know that many teachers are looking for partner classrooms for video conferencing. Software like Skype and iChat make it easy to video conference. Listening to each other's Our City episodes before video conferencing will give valuable background and spark questions for the conference. Since email addresses are listed for each episode I suggest using them to bring some great collaboration into your classroom!

Speaking of feedback, it would be wonderful if you could take a minute to write a comment in iTunes for Our City Podcast. Podcasts with comments tend to get more attention in iTunes, and I think that the hard work of so many students and teachers deserves all they attention it can get!

Podcasting Tidbits

It's time to share some podcasting resources I've recently encountered.

Voices.com has a section titled Podcasting - How To Podcast and Podcasting Tutorials. While light on the tutorial part, the menu of items on the right of the page explains the basics (and not-so-basics) of podcasting. The guide explains audio engineering vocabulary like "multitrack recording" and "channels." It also provides useful advice for planning your podcast, including talking to your audience and developing a style. Podcasters should check out the Mastering Your Podcast page for some useful advice about exporting and organizing audio files. The Voices.com guide is not written specifically for education, but so much of it is relevant to student and teacher podcasters. Even the Brand Your Podcast page can give educators insight into developing a name, theme, and visual appeal.

Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal has an interactive recording studio where users combine instruments to create their own music. The mixer is like simplified GarageBand software but in your web browser. Supposedly a song can be saved as an MP3 file, but each time I tried to save a song, it failed. Be sure to read the Terms and Conditions. I'll leave it up to you to decide if the wording below gives permission for use in podcasts:

General Mills hereby grants you a personal, non-exclusive, non-assignable, revocable, non-transferable license to use and display, for noncommercial and personal use only, one copy of appropriately limited portions of the Materials and/or software that are downloadable from this Site, including, without limitation, any files, codes, audio, or images incorporated in or generated by or in conjunction with the Site and/or General Mills, provided that "General Mills, Inc., 2005. All Rights Reserved. Used With Permission" or "(c) 2005 General Mills, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Used With Permission" accompanies all copyrightable Materials and other notices are properly maintained. You agree not to reproduce, modify, create derivative works from, display, perform, publish, distribute, disseminate, broadcast, sell, decompile, reverse engineer, disassemble, or circulate any Materials to any third party (including, without limitation, display and distribute the Materials via a third party website) without General Mills' express prior written consent.

iPods aren't the only devices that can play podcasts. Microsoft's iPod competitor, Zune, has been updated to support podcasts. Podcasting is now built into Zune Marketplace (Marketplace is to Zune as iTunes is to iPod). There's a software update for folks who had a Zune before podcasting support was included. I find it interesting that Microsoft embraces the term podcast. Seems that word is here to stay.

You're probably familiar with one-click subscribing to podcasts with iTunes. Podcasters might consider offering one-click subscribing for Zune Marketplace. Podcasting News has a short article on how to create the one-click link.

Video podcasters should put their videos into .mp4 format. This format will play in QuickTime, iTunes, and on iPods, iPhones, and Zunes. What's confusing is that there are different kinds of .mp4 files and iPods play only specific types. To be sure a video will play on an iPod, podcasters can use an online converter service. I often use Zamzar.com. There's also Movavi Online. Simply add a video from your desktop and supply an email address. Within 24 hours Movavi Online will email you a link to download the converted video file.