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.

Article: Texas Schools Welcome iPods

The Dallas Morning News published the story Grand Prairie Schools Welcome iPods in Classrooms. It features Whitt Elementary in Grand Prairie, Texas where teachers are using 321 iPods "to teach kids about subjects they might otherwise find boring." The iPods have only been in use a couple of weeks at the school, but the media players have inspired teachers to have these ideas:

• Use GarageBand to produce a song about states of matter. Listen here.
• Help teach English Language Learners and foreign languages.
• Video students being revolving planets.
• Produce a podcast about the American Revolution.
• View video about season changes.
• Allow students to take the iPods home (as long as they are returned the next day).

Whitt's principal, Alisha Crumley is quoted, "This is tech generation. So, when we think of instructing students, we have to think of different ways of teaching, To get their attention in class, we have to keep up."

Whitt teachers are embracing change and are doing great things for students. The activities and teacher/student creation of media seem to be the most powerful parts of how teachers are changing instruction. iPods are not necessary to create these products--the content creation is done almost exclusively on desktop computers. But, the mere presence of iPods and the desire to fill them with something engaging is the catalyst for change and that's a good thing and probably worth the $73,114 price tag.

For more iPod uses click on over to learninginhand's iPods in Education page.

Student Podcasting Questions & Suggestions

Lyndon Domsten, Instructional Technology Specialist in Odessa, Texas, wrote to me, "I've actually written a grant with your Our City Podcast project as the center piece." That's a great idea! Our City makes for a great first podcast creation experience. Lyn is new to podcasting and has questions about it:

We are very interested in participating in an Our City Podcast project. We (magnet class of 4th, 5th, 6th grade students) are learning how to podcast and are using Audacity for Windows for recording voice and integrating sound. You're probably thinking it's too bad I'm not using a Mac but our district uses only Windows machines.

GarageBand's advantage is that it is slightly easier to use than Audacity and that it has its own jingles, musical loops, and sound effects. Audacity on Windows is a fine program. You'll just have to seek out your own copyright-friendly music and sound effects that you can import into Audacity.

Nevertheless, we are needing guidance in creating our first podcast. On our website, I have been teaching kids how to make MP3 files to upload to our site. Can you tell me what RSS is exactly and how it fits into the process of podcasting?

Here's my definition of a podcast: A series of audio or video on the Web that can be cataloged and automatically downloaded. Putting MP3 files online could satisfy the first part of that definition. However, just linking to an MP3 file on your site will not allow users to automatically download the new files in a program like iTunes. In addition, MP3 files online cannot be catalogued in directories like iTunes, Podcast Pickle, and Educational Podcasting. Being listed in directories is how much of your audience will find your podcast. An RSS (a.k.a. Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary) feed is necessary to be listed in those directories and essential for the MP3s to be automatically downloaded when new ones are posted.

A podcast has three parts: the MP3 file (or other media file), a webpage, and a feed. Posting just the first two online will probably reach much of your intended audience. While just a webpage linking to an MP3 file is not technically a podcast, I know many teachers who do call this podcasting. Just because it lacks an RSS feed doesn't mean that the activity lacks educational merit. However, we should strive to use proper vocabulary whenever we can.

We are going to work on an Our City script and record using Audacity. Can you offer any advice on that process.

I've recently written about the importance of listening to previous episodes before beginning the preproduction phase. Whether it's for Our City or for another podcast, analyzing example episodes (both good and not-so-good) help students make their own podcast better. Preproduction will take the most time--that's ok because it's the production phase where students are doing the most learning.

I've tried student podcasting with scripts and without them. My advice: have students script everything they will say and have them practice, practice, practice. The recording process will go more quickly with fewer mistakes. When recording, I suggest using a headset USB microphone. Students tend to be fidgety when they record. Be sure that students don't touch the headset, mic, or cord. Providing a stress ball helps students put that energy in places other than cord-twisting and paper-shuffling.

I find it much easier to edit out mistakes as students are recording than to go back to fix them later. Audacity has a quirk that when you stop recording and resume, the new recording appears in a separate track. This does not happen when you pause recording. However, pausing doesn't allow you to edit the audio. I like to keep the audio tracks organized--one track per segment. So when a segment is broken into multiple tracks because I've stopped and started recording a few times, I Quick Mix the tracks into one. Do this by highlighting the tracks you wish to combine and then choose Project > Quick Mix. This will help your Audacity project be a little more organized and manageable.

Your first episode will take you a long time to edit as you get used to the tools. In the future, editing takes less and less time. Before you exported your edited audio to an MP3, I suggest exporting as a WAV file from Audacity. Then use The Levelator. It's free software Macintosh and Windows. You just drop that exported WAV file onto The Levelator's window and it will level out the sound. That means that loud voices will be toned down and soft voice will be made louder. This is important for a podcast when you have many different speakers--all of whom speak with different volumes. The Levelator will output a WAV file. You can important that into Audacity or iTunes and then export it as an MP3.

When we are finished with the final MP3 product, what is our next step....do we upload it to your site so you can post it? Do we send you pictures as well? The Our City Podcast we are creating isn't something I'm sure we will update on a regular basis but when we send it to you how does that affect the overall distribution of the file. Are we subscribing to an RSS feeder?

The beauty of Our City Podcast is that I take care of the posting. I host the MP3 file and I maintain the RSS feed. You just send me the MP3 file. I prefer to receive the MP3 files through the free service YouSentIt.com since it is a large file. In an email, send me up to five photos and a paragraph about the episode. See the pages for previous episodes so you can see what information is included. Also send any web links you want included on the page for your episode. Don't forget to include a catchy title that uses alliteration for your city. Again, see previous episode for examples like Outstanding Omaha and Lovely Lexington.

Our City episodes aren't meant to be updated. You contribute one episode and that's the end of your involvement. You can of course subscribe to the podcast so your receive new episodes as they are added.

Lastly, can you offer application ideas on how podcasting can be used on the elementary level?

Educational podcasting offers many possibilities! I think that an easy way to start your own podcast is with book reviews. Each episode could contain a review or two by students. Remember, a podcast is a series of episodes. If you plan just one episode, no one really needs to subscribe to it. Read my blog post Podcasting Notes about a presentation by Dan Schmidt. He's the author of Kidcast: Podcasting in the Classroom. I wrote about many of the innovative ideas for podcast formats and topics he shared in his video podcast.

Lyn, best of luck with podcasting! Once you get past the technical mumbo-jumbo you'll find that podcasting is really enjoyable and not as techie as it first sounds. It's more about communication than feeds, MP3s, microphones, and audio levels.

Our City Podcast: Before Preproduction

I am working with two schools in USVI that have Palm handhelds for student use. Seventh graders at Moravian School are working on a St. Thomas episode of Our City Podcast. Our City is a great way to introduce podcasting. There are plenty of example episodes, the host/segment format is effective, and creation resources are available.

Before beginning preproduction on their St. Thomas episode, students are listening to existing episodes. We started with Outstanding Omaha. Not only could the seventh graders learn about the place I call home, but they could follow along and refer back to the script in eReader on their handhelds (a printable PDF format is also available). The class discussed what they learned about Omaha and what they noticed about the episode's sound, organization, and content.

Students are now in the process of listening to two of the nearly 30 episodes on their handhelds. I have 25 Multimedia Cards (cheap versions of SD cards) to which I copied random episodes of Our City Podcast. Each card is only 32MB so I could only fit three episodes per card. Nowadays you can get 1GB SD cards for pretty cheap, and 1GB can store all episodes with lots of memory to spare. I required students to choose two of the three episodes on their cards to listen to.

RealPlayer for Palm (free) is loaded on each handheld. RealPlayer can play MP3 files in the background while students work in other programs. I had students listen for certain information and type responses into a word processing document on their handhelds. I gave them a choice of answering two of these questions:

• List two things that the two cities have in common.
• List three things that are very different about the cities.
• Decide which city you would rather visit. Explain why.
• Decide which city you would like to live in. Tell why.
• Which podcaster would make a good friend for you? Tell why.

I bought 97¢ earbuds from WalMart for students to use with their handhelds. Headphones are necessary when students are listening to 30 different recordings at once. You can't beat the under $1 price tag.

The handhelds also have Plucker (free). Plucker enables you to put websites on handheld devices. I made a simple HTML document that links to the Wikipedia entries for each Our City episode. I used Plucker on my desktop to turn that into a file that can be read using Plucker (or FlingIt) on the handhelds. I do wish the school's handhelds had Wi-Fi. I could then just have students points their browsers to Wikipedia (or mobile-friendly versions like Wapedia.mobi). So, another part of the assignment for students was to find a fact about a city that was left out of that city's episode. Students also looked for any differently-reported facts between the podcast and Wikipedia. If there is a difference, it's an opportunity to explore which source is correct.

Although the students had responses to prepare as they listened, their main purpose for listening was to help them produce the very best episode possible. Analyzing other episodes is a great way to know what to do (and what now to do) in their own episode. The seventh graders are confident that they can do a great job. They are excited to educate their listeners about their island paradise. Subscribe to Our City Podcast so that you receive the St. Thomas episode when it debuts next month.

iTunes U Expanded

iTunes has expanded its iTunes U section with more free educational content. Previously iTunes U contained only lectures and videos from universities. Now Apple has included content from other sources and it's not just for university-types. They call the new offerings Beyond Campus. Now Macintosh and Windows iTunes users can download specially selected public radio broadcasts, Supreme Court discussions, science videos, and more from institutions like Smithsonian Global Sound, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, and KQED public television.

iTunes U's content looks very much like podcasts (and some iTunes U contributions are indeed podcasts) and are offered for free. Apple has hand-picked universities and organizations to participate. Most iTunes U content is very well produced. Unlike with podcasts, listeners and viewers can expect a high level of quality to iTunes U. Besides just audio or video, many iTunes U's productions are often accompanied by transcripts, educator guides, and discussion questions. When you get audio, video, or documents from iTunes U, iTunes might create a playlist in the Source panel where you can find what you downloaded. If the content is a podcast, it will show up in your Podcasts section of iTunes.

While all of this is available through iTunes, an iPod is not necessary to read, listen, or watch. You can do that on your computer. But don't forget you can drag and drop content from iTunes onto a memory card or player that is mounted as a flash drive or hard drive.As long as the player can deal with AAC audio and MPEG-4 video, it should play after copying the files to its memory.

To find iTunes U and the Beyond Campus offerings, launch the iTunes Store. Click iTunes U in the upper-left corner of the screen. The Beyond Campus offerings are limited, but more are on the way.

Professional Development: Teachers & Students Learn Together

As you know, I'm in the business of helping students learn. Most times that means training teachers in workshops. While I think workshops are valuable and necessary, I'd like to tell you about how nearly a dozen teachers in Fort Smith, Arkansas learned about integrating handhelds into their classrooms.

Tilles Elementary School was the lucky recipient of a grant to purchase Palm TX handhelds for each of their fourth, fifth, and sixth graders. I had worked with students and teachers in Fort Smith's school district before and they were kind enough to invite me back. George Lieux, Fort Smith Public Schools' Technology Academy Specialist and I worked on a plan to train teachers and students. Instead of teachers getting a subs and spending a day in a room with me, we did something different. Teachers and students learned at the same time! The first day involved other handheld-using instructors and seven 35-minute rotation sessions. Each class rotated to each instructor with their teacher to learn about care, operation, software, and rationale for their brand new Palm TX handhelds. My rotation period was all about MathAce. Others were about using keyboards, Graffiti, Memos, and beaming. All of this was preceded by an opening assembly I gave to all students to psyche them up about handheld computing (as if they needed to be any more excited).

George developed a schedule with 7 rotation sessions to orient teachers and students to the Palm TX.

The second and third days in the school expanded upon the first day's orientation with real curriculum-based activities. I did 45 minute lessons for math and language arts in each of the grades (10 different lessons in all). Teachers had subs and were able to join all of the classes I conducted. So, instead of me talking, demonstrating, or simulating lessons with teachers in a workshop, they saw it in action with Tilles' students. During their hour-long debriefing, teachers said they really liked this approach. Not only did they learn the technology, they saw it clearly integrated and they picked up essential classroom management techniques. Moreover, it was fulfilling for me. My strength is teaching kids and I enjoyed every second of it.

I did short write-ups of the ten lessons I conducted at Tilles. Additionally, you can read about the project in the short article Education Students Assist in Tilles Schools Project published in the UA Fort Smith News.

Currently I'm in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands working with two schools to integrate handheld computers. I'm taking the same approach as in Fort Smith: teaching students directly. It's great because I get to coach teachers, empower students, and continue to put into practice all that stuff I say about education and technology. And, it's so much fun!

Handheld Learning 2007 Nuggets

Handheld Learning 2007 conference in London continued Thursday and Friday. Over 800 attended this year's gathering. Here are just a few nuggets from the conference:

• Just before entering Central Hall, I was handed a flyer with "Voice of Sanity" written across the top. The flyer opens with, "Dear Delegate, learning occurs when brain cells are able to freely communicate with each other. Science now shows that Wi-fi signals disrupt inter-cellular communication† and impedes learning." Really? Just because they cite a source doesn't make that statement true. Read more from the Mast Sanity organization. Seems that some in the U.K. are fearful as Wi-Fi's presence is dramatically increasing.
• Two projects in Bristol have show three key benefits: high motivation and engagement, student ownership of learning; and bridge between teacher-directed and autonomous learning.
• RM released their Asus miniBook for £169 ($344). It has a 7 inch screen, Wi-Fi, keyboard, USB ports, microphone and headphone ports, VGA video out, and more. It may not be available outside of the U.K., but it's nice to know that inexpensive laptops (called sub-notebooks) are real. It's unclear to me if the miniBook runs Windows XP or Linux.
• Francesc Pedro from OECD spoke about today's learners. Most students have more access to more technology at home than they do at school.
• "Students aren't little us's anymore" -Marc Prensky. We can't teach them the same way we were taught.
• A theme of many sessions is that mobile in mobile learning refers to the student, not the technology.
• Online safety is just as important with mobile phones and devices as it is with desktop and laptop computers. 75% of British kids have their own mobile phone. 33% of them pay for the use themselves. 61% have their own PC.
• Robert Hart wants a RAPID: Really Affordable Personal Internet Device. This won't replace a powerful desktop, but it will let students get online and do 90% of the work they would do on the Web.
• Check out the Learning Everywhere project.
• Fellow American Mark van 't Hooft has written much more than I have about Handheld Learning 2007 in his blog, Ubiquitous Thoughts. Additionally, you can do a blog search for "Handheld Learning 2007" and "Handheld Learning" conference for more posts by various bloggers.
• Over two dozen delegates to the conference posted short Twitter updates throughout the conference. You can read the updates at twitter.com/hhl/with_friends.

Directory of Web Apps for iPod touch & iPhone

Apple has launched its official directory of Web apps for iPod touch and iPhone. Web apps are websites that are designed to "extend the functionality of iPhone and iPod touch." Apple does not allow software applications to be loaded on iPod touch and iPhone, forcing developers to use Web apps instead. Note: You can hack an iPhone to run native applications, but I do not recommend hacking. Although Web apps follow the latest web programming guidelines, I've found that many Web apps designed for iPod touch and iPhone often do not render properly on other devices like Palm handhelds and Pocket PCs. A definite disadvantage to Web apps is that they require a wireless Internet connection. No connection = no access to the Web app site.

Over 200 Web apps are currently listed in the directory. Categories include Calculate, Entertainment, Games, News, Productivity, Search Tools, Social Networking, Sports, Travel, Utilities, and Weather. About half of the Web apps are in the Games category. Perhaps we'll see an Education category in the future.

If you don't have an iPod touch or iPhone but want to give these apps a try, many will load right in your current browser. Mac users can download the free iPhoney application. iPhoney shows you exactly what a site will look like on a iPod touch/iPhone, matching the devices' 320 x 480 resolution. All desktop Web users can go to iphonetester.com and to see how a site will look on an iPod touch or iPhone.

There are other directories of Web apps. Two places to find them are everythingiPhone and iLounge. But, Apple's directory is my favorite.

Feeling really geeky or have advanced Web programming students? Apple has resources for developing your own Web apps.

Update: Apple has announced they will allow developers to make software programs for iPod touch and iPhone. This is great news as native software applications are far better than web applications. We'll have to wait a while as the kit for software developers won't be ready until February 2008. With useful software applications, iPod touch will turn out to be a very useful handheld computer.

Update #2: Kathy Schrock has posted a nice list of educational web apps she has tried out.

Learning while Gaming on Handhelds

Learning while Gaming on Handhelds is the first session I attended at Handheld Learning 2007 in London. It was lead by Marc Prensky. Marc's specialty is analyzing today's students. He is author of Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants.

Marc says that educational computer games are really "mini" games. Only a few things are learned in the 5 minutes to 2 hours spent playing a mini game. Complex games can be played for 8 to 100 hours and involve much more learning.

Complex games have the goal of "being a hero." Many times in school the goal is to master the material or score well on a test. Isn't being a hero a much more appealing ambition? Games also engage students because they involve frequent decision making, create an emotional connection, balance cooperation and competition, and are personalized.

Marc shared the numbers of kinds of computers sold. He admits that finding numbers was hard. I'm not sure about the first number either. But, we know that are definitely many more mobile phones out there than PCs.

• PCs 200 million
• PlayStations 100 million
• GameBoys 150 million
• DS 50 million
• Mobile phones 1.5 billion

Marc says that "we just don't have the imagination" to use all those mobile phones in learning. He is a fan of an "open phone test." Teachers who do this say they can ask better questions. Makes me think an open handheld test would be a great alternative. Fill your iPod, Palm, Pocket PC, etc. with the information you need. That's exactly what I did to prepare for my trip to London--it's a real-world skill!

One obstacle is getting games on mobile devices. For instance, getting software on a mobile phone is complicated and you often have to go through your cell phone carrier. Also, there are not yet many complex games for handhelds. When better games and software are available for handhelds and mobile phones, maybe we'll imvite them to be used in and out of school for learning.

Podcast Encoding Settings

MP3 is not the only format for digital audio. There's AAC, Ogg, WAV, WMA, AIFF, and lots more.

MP3 is the most popular format for audio podcasts. It makes for a fairly small file size and is compatible with all web browsers and portable audio players. AAC is a similar format championed by Apple and iTunes. AAC produces higher quality sound at the same files size as MP3. Additionally, AAC allows for chapter markers, changing artwork, and hyperlinks. Unfortunately, AAC encoded audio is not able to be played as universally as MP3.GarageBand 3 (part of iLife '06 suite of software), Macintosh software for creating music and podcasts, allows for exporting as AAC but not MP3. Of course other programs like iTunes could be used to convert the AAC file to MP3. That extra step is an inconvenience for those who want to publish their podcast as an MP3.Apple's new GarageBand '08 (version 4 and part iLife '08), has some improvements for podcasters. One of them is the ability to export directly to MP3. By clicking Export Podcast to Disk... from GarageBand's Share menu, podcasters can choose to compress using either AAC Encoder or MP3 Encoder. If your podcast is not enhanced with the extra features of AAC, you might as well use the more compatible MP3 format.

For both the AAC and MP3 encoders, GarageBand offers four preset compression settings: Mono, Spoken, Musical, and Higher Quality.

Below is the information GarageBand displays when selecting the various MP3 settings. I've included the size of a sample podcast for comparison. Notice that a sound file in the Higher Quality Encoder setting is six times larger than the same file exported using Mono Encoder.

Mono Optimized for spoken podcasts. Produces small file size which download fast. 32kbps, mono, optimized for voice. Size: 2.9MB	Spoken Optimized for spoken podcasts. Produces small file size which downloads fast. 64kbps, stereo, optimized for voice. 5.9MB
Musical Ideal for podcasts with voice and music. Download times are moderate. 128kbps, stereo, optimized for music and complex audio. Size: 11.7MB	Higher Quality Ideal for podcasts where music is the focus and even higher quality is desired. 192kbps, stereo, optimized for music and complex audio. Size: 17.6MB.

Shouldn't everyone choose the highest quality sound they can get? Well, the higher the quality the large the file size. Larger file sizes take longer to download and take up valuable megabytes on file servers, in iTunes, and on portable players. If you use a hosting service with limits on storage and bandwidth, larger episode files might use up your monthly allotment.

GarageBand's presets make a really handy reference. In fact, podcasters using Audacity and other recording programs could use these same settings when encoding audio. You'll have to manually input the settings after choosing Preferences > File Formats. Under MP3 Export Setup, change the Bit Rate to match GarageBand's preset. For example, set the Bit Rate to 64 for a Spoken podcast.

Whatever software you use to compress your podcast's audio, I suggest exporting the same sound file with different settings. Have a listen to each one and balance sound quality with file size when settling on a compression setting.

The Audacity Preference You Need to Change

Audacity is free audio recoding, editing, and encoding software. You can combine audio from many sources, including voice recordings, audio downloaded from the Internet, and music. By choosing Import Audio from the Project menu you can add MP3, WAV, and AIFF files. Audacity is a great choice for podcasters and others who want to produce quality audio recordings.

But look out! By default, Audacity only references imported files. That means that when making an audio project, you must not move or delete the original files you imported. If you do, Audacity will have a gap in its playback. This has happened to me before. The waveforms for an imported audio segment were still displayed in Audacity's timeline; however, no audio plays in that section. It was because I thought I'd tidy up my desktop and delete the files I had already imported, thinking Audacity did not need them. I was wrong.

Luckily, Audacity has a setting you can change so that instead of referencing imported files, it will copy the imported files into the master project file. That way if you move or delete imported files, it won't make one bit of difference in your Audacity project. I suggest all Audacity users change this preference to save themselves some possible pain and suffering in the future.

Go to Preferences and choose File Formats. Choose Make a copy of the file before editing (safer). Now enjoy piece of mind that the Audacity project file will play properly after tidying up used files.

Podcast Hosting Services Compared

A less complicated way to publish your podcast is to use a podcast hosting service. Services like SolidCasts, LibSyn, and PodOmatic allow you to upload your audio file to their site through a Web browser. Then you are prompted to enter information about your podcast. Podcast hosting services then generate the news feed and a website for your podcast.

Some hosting services are free and others charge monthly or yearly fees. While a hosting service is the easiest way to publish, if the hosting service goes out of business or you stop paying the fee, your podcast will be deleted from their servers and, thus, unavailable to your listeners.

There really are many hosting service options. I've created a chart with six selected hosting companies. The chart shows if there is a free version and what you get with the paid version.

My recommendations? If you are going to pay, I suggest LibSyn (short for Liberated Syndication). It's $5 per month and you receive 100 MB per month of storage and unlimited bandwidth (downloads). This is the service I use. I like the per month model because LibSyn archives all past episodes. I probably have close to a gigabyte hosted there by now. If you are going with a free service, I recommend SolidCasts.com. SolidCasts has no advertising and they give you 100 MB free "for life." Be aware, the 100 MB limit is not monthly and means that once you fill it up, you'll have to delete old episodes to make room for new ones.