Blog@Case Topics: podcastinghttp://blog.case.edu/topics/podcastingJeremy Smithjeremy.smith@case.eduhttp://blog.case.edu/jeremy.smithGeorge Klippelgeorge.klippel@case.eduhttp://blog.case.edu/ghk4Heidi Coolheidi.cool@case.eduhttp://blog.case.edu/webdev2006-10-04T01:09:41ZCase Wordnerds to discuss blogginghttp://blog.case.edu/webdev/2007/03/13/blogging.html2007-03-13T22:08:50Z2007-03-13T22:51:05ZThe Case Writers' and Editors' Forum, <a href="mailto:wordnerds@case.edu"><strong>WordNerds</strong></a>, will discuss blogging next Wednesday, March 21st, in room 2280 (2nd floor) at the School of Nursing. I'll be leading this discussion in which we'll cover a brief overview of blogging, then discuss ways to use blogging in our marketing, recruitment and other communication efforts. I've asked <a href="http://wiki.case.edu/User:Jeremy.Smith">Jeremy Smith</a>, Case's blog administrator, to join us to share his opinions and expertise.

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School of Nursing

The Case Writers' and Editors' Forum, WordNerds , will discuss blogging next Wednesday, March 21st, in room 2280 (2nd floor) at the School of Nursing. I'll be leading this discussion in which we'll cover a brief overview of blogging, then discuss ways to use blogging in our marketing, recruitment and other communication efforts. I've asked Jeremy Smith, Case's blog administrator, to join us to share his opinions and expertise.

About Wordnerds

For those looking for brainstorming partners, story ideas, or the chance to benefit from the best practices other Case communicators have developed, Case's WordNerds meets every third Wednesday of each month for lunch, networking, professional discussions, and general moral support. All university staff members involved in writing, editing, communications, public relations, marketing, and recruiting are welcome. Send e-mail to wordnerds@case.edu for more information, or to join the mailing list.

Blogging? What's to know?

Regular readers of the Web Development Blog are already quite familiar with blogging. For members of Wordnerds, who may not be as familiar with the topic, I've posted a very general introduction to blogs and podcasts below. I wrote this last summer as part of another project, but the principles still apply. Read this now to get a jumpstart on next week's discussion.

Blogs: Web sites with benefits

According to the Case Blog FAQ, "Weblogs, or blogs, are a way of publishing to the web one idea at a time. By simplifying the process of publishing, letting authors create posts easily, and making it simple to link to related ideas on the Web, blogs make it easy to update a Web site while still making sure your words retain a clear, personal voice."

While often thought of as online diaries or journals, blogs can be written by one or more authors and used in any number of ways. Here at Case, the Undergraduate Admission blog allows admission staff to share ideas with one another and give prospective students a glimpse into the way the admission process works. Because the blog system allows readers to make comments, prospective students can ask questions related to specific blog postings and receive answers not only from admissions staff, but also from other Case faculty, staff and students who read the blog.

According to admission's former writer—now director of media relations, Lisa Chiu "We launched our blog last summer as another way to connect with prospective students. Ours is a group blog, so we have several people who post—admission counselors, financial aid counselors, and marketing and communications staff. We post on a variety of topics, some serious, some silly. We love when high school students leave comments on our entries—it's always great being able to spark a stimulating conversation. It's exciting to see that high school students from all over the world are reading our blog and learning more about Case."

One of the greatest features of a blog is its ability to syndicate content. As wire services such as Reuters distribute news to media outlets around the globe, you as a blogger can distribute your content via RSS or Atom feeds. These feeds allow users to subscribe to a variety of blogs via aggregators such as http://www.bloglines.com.

What this means to you as a reader is that instead of visiting the 10 different Web sites where your favorite blogs are published, you can instead go to an aggregator such as Bloglines, subscribe to your favorites, then read them all in one place. Another example of an aggregator is Planet Case. Planet Case aggregates all the most recent postings from the Case blogs. I usually skim Planet Case at least once a day because it allows me to catch up with my favorite Case blogs as well as learn of new ones.

Highlights of the blogs on Planet Case today (last summer) include the latest updates—with photos—from Kelly, who is studying and doing community outreach in Uganda; a post from Weatherhead's Professor Piderit, in which she explores the nature of an "organization" and opens up the topic for group discussion; and part 4 of a series of insightful philosophical entries entitled "Why we must learn to see ourselves as others see us" written by Case's most prolific blogger, Mano Singham, director of the University Center for Innovation in Teaching and Education.

While content found on the blogs is easily viewed through aggregators, it can also be found elsewhere on the Case Web site. Our office uses the blog system to publish news stories about Case. The headlines from these stories are automatically pulled into pages such as the home page and the MyCase portal and can be repurposed in their entirety or by topic on pages throughout the Case site.

The blog system's ability to syndicate information is also what enables us to podcast audio or video content.

Podcast, both noun and verb

A podcast (the noun) is basically just an audio or video file that has been uploaded to the Web in such as way that it can be downloaded automatically through software—such as iTunes—that can read syndicated feeds. While users may also be able to download such files from regular Web sites, the ability to subscribe to a feed—as one subscribes to a magazine—lets users have their audio and video content delivered automatically to their computers. To podcast (the verb) is simply a matter of publishing your content to a system, such as a blog, that can disseminate the file via syndication.

This is much less complicated that it sounds. As I type this on my computer, iTunes is checking my subscriptions and downloading new files. The podcasts I listen to include radio shows from the BBC and NPR, lectures from the City Club of Cleveland, academic lectures as well as some very amusing videos on learning German. To subscribe to these I simply copied the addresses of their feeds from their Web sites and pasted them into iTunes. Now I can watch or listen to the files—at my convenience—by copying them to my iPod, burning them to CD or just using my computer.

Here on campus, it is also fairly simple to produce a podcast. For example, earlier last year Aaron Shaffer, formerly of the university's Freedman Center, gave a talk about blogs, wikis, and podcasting. Using a digital recorder, he recorded the talk, then—using software provided by the center—he added the slides from his demonstrations and saved the augmented audio file in the appropriate format. To podcast the file, he simply uploaded it to the Freedman Center Blog—which supports RSS and Atom feeds. Those who couldn't attend the lecture can listen online or subscribe to the podcast.

Podcasting has become so easy in fact that Silicon Republic.com announced in March 2006 that podcasts now outnumber radio stations.

On a different topic…

I will be out of the office tomorrow through Tuesday. Please direct any Web development questions to Kevin in my absence.

Heidi Coolheidi.cool@case.eduhttp://blog.case.edu/webdevSharinghttp://blog.case.edu/jeremy.smith/2006/10/03/sharing2006-10-04T01:07:23Z2006-10-04T01:09:41Z
I read Mark Pilgrim's Waiting for the revolution back when he wrote it and thought to myself, "that makes sense." But didn't think too much on it. Just not that into the subject matter of copyrights and licensing and such. Then I read Tim Bray's response, and I thought that it made sense, too:
I discover that my attitudes towards code and non-code are different. The notion of restricting anyone from using code I contribute to feels entirely foreign... But I have strong negative feelings about other people making money from my words or pictures without involving me.
At that point, I found myself being entirely too agreeable with everyone. So I started reading. I checked out all the people linking back to the entry specifically looking for dissenters because those people are more interesting than the yea-me-too's. I started going through the comments. I spent a lot of time reading all of the different opinions and such and began thinking in terms more like Tim Bray's notions as did many others. copyright1.png Of course, in all of the talking; there seemed to be a lot of people suggesting/speculating/claiming that the area between is much murkier and that some pictures and some words and (even) some code can fall on the side opposite than originally classified depending on a lot of things such as context, intent, expression, etc. copyright2.png And that got me thinking that maybe the delineating factor isn't code and non-code/"art"; rather, there was another criteria that separates what is one and what is the other. Intent? A desire for others to create more with it? Maybe something else? Then it struck me. I'm getting to be an old fogey. When I "grew up" as a programmer, the open source methodology was in full swing. It never seemed odd to me to release code. It has never seemed odd to me to release code because (from my vantage point) it's just always been done. It's more weird the other way around where no one would release code. And in this day of music mashups, sampling, "Web 2.0" mixins, Wikipedia, etc.; sharing for re- purposing and re- creating will become the norm and will rely on copyrights, licensing, and having the rights to do such things. Mark left this comment on the entry:
Where would Ubuntu Linux be if every single one of their 14437 packages required contacting the author for permission to sell a CD for $1? What the hell kind of "commons" is that?
So I took it more seriously after doing my reading and am now including a Creative Commons cc-sa license on the main page and each individual entry's page along with some appropriate metadata in my syndicated feed.
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This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 543 Howard Street, 5th Floor, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.

Hopefully the revolution does eventually happen so course material can be "podcasted", but I fear we're going to have to wait for another generation or two of old fogies like me to die off and make way for the "commons."
Jeremy Smithjeremy.smith@case.eduhttp://blog.case.edu/jeremy.smithListening to academic podcasts: Who would and why? Part Ihttp://blog.case.edu/webdev/2006/04/03/listening_to_academic_podcasts_who_would_and_why_part_i.html2006-04-03T17:46:34Z2006-04-03T19:58:35Z

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Friday on Management Professor Notes II, Professor Piderit wrote, "Jeremy Smith writes that Case has been accepted into Apple's iTunes University program, which sounds exciting... as long as it doesn't mean that students stop coming to my class." Instead of worrying about this, she (and her commenters) then focused on ways to make classroom attendance worthwhile, while I started thinking about ways in which students and others might use podcasts.

As our iTunes workgroup waits to learn more about the technical requirements for the iTunes project, now seems like a good time to consider how classroom (and other) lectures podcast via iTunes might be used by various listening audiences. I've thought about this primarily in regard to podcasts that are available to everyone. There may be circumstances in which a podcaster would restrict a podcast to a limited group, such as students in a particular class, but I think in most cases there are benefits to be found in reaching out to a wider audience.

What follows are some suggested reasons various groups might listen to a lecture/discussion via podcast. I've organized them by audience. Today I've focused on members of the Case community. Next time I'll write about listeners from outside the university.

Case students enrolled in the course might listen to that course's podcasts to:
  • Review material for exams.
  • Listen again to segments of discussion that were missed while taking notes.
  • Watch or listen to a lecture that demonstrated how to operate a certain piece of lab equipment, or that documented certain safety procedures.
  • Review material that was confusing during the first lecture. This could be particularly helpful in foreign language classes or in classes that introduce something new or challenging for the first time.
  • Listen to a lecture that was missed due to absence. While most students understand that class attendance provides benefits—such as participation in real-time discussion—unavailable in a podcast, there will be times when absences are unavoidable. At least this way—when students do have to miss a class—they will benefit from hearing the whole discussion rather than trying to make sense of a classmate's illegible notes!
Case students not enrolled in this particular course might listen to academic podcasts to:
  • Review material covered in a previous course that provides foundational elements to their current course.
  • Learn more about a specific topic—that is also studied in a different or related field—in preparation for researching a paper. For example, a history student writing a paper on the Renaissance, may gain insight by listening to a related podcast from a class in art history or literature.
  • Identify a professor's teaching style. When trying to decide whether to take a course from Professor A or Professor B, a student could listen to the podcasts to determine which professor's teaching style fits most closely with that student's learning style.
  • Explore new subject areas in anticipation of choosing classes for the following semester.
  • Learn more about topics outside the student's primary areas of study. Students may be interested in a variety of classes that don't fit into their schedules. By sampling subjects through podcasts they can satisfy their curiosity as time allows.
Case faculty & staff might listen to academic podcasts to:
  • Find out more about related research being done by faculty in other departments.
  • Listen to information—presented by colleagues—related to joint research projects.
  • Learn about a topic outside one's area of expertise—simply because it sounds interesting.
  • Gain insight into a subject related to a particular work project. For example, fundraisers looking to match donors to specific programs, writers looking to publicize a project, and others can augment their knowledge by listening ro relevant podcasts.

So far I've covered only a fraction of possible reasons members of the Case community might listen to academic podcasts. I'm sure those of you reading this will have many additional ideas, so please share them by commenting below or via the iTunes working group. If you are interested in becoming more involved in the development of iTunes at Case, we also welcome you to join our charter working group by subscribing to the iTunes@Case Mailing List.

Heidi Coolheidi.cool@case.eduhttp://blog.case.edu/webdevPodcasting macht Spa&szlig;! (Podcasting is fun!)http://blog.case.edu/webdev/2006/03/06/podcasting_macht_spa_podcasting_is_fun.html2006-03-06T16:55:16Z2006-04-06T21:47:08Z

iPod mit Übel Knübel der erste

Saturday afternoon I sat chortling on my couch as Übel Knübel (a teenage boy played by an Evil Knieval figure), flirtatious Gummi-Bears, and a pair of rubber shoes tried to teach me German. This was not the latest in children's progamming on WVIZ, but rather a new podcast from http://www.mygermanclass.com/. The primitive animation and kitsch story lines, were so amusing, and so distinctly German, that I was compelled to watch all 10 episodes at once. Having taken 2 years of German in college (much of which I have since forgotten) I was able to understand most of the plots, and while I am not yet sure if Übel's pet is meant to be a dinosaur, horse or dragon, it was quite clear that he has a freundin named Heidi mit blaue augen—just like me! Those unfamiliar with the language will still be able to follow along, as the "acting" is meant to underscore the meaning of the dialogue.

As I watched Uwe the red Gummi-Bear struggle self-consciously with romance, and young Übel suffer from the bad advice offered by his vater, Übel der Erste (pictured right on my iPod—no wonder he's a bad parent!), it occured to me that, as silly as it was, this was a great example of using podcasting for education. With a clever script, simple props or volunteer actors, and equipment borrowed from the Freedman Center, anyone at Case could create a video podcast. Whether you are teaching a language, demonstrating the use of lab equipment, or reviewing the disastrous results of a particular military strategy, the tools are now available to produce audio-visual aids more easily than ever before. While it might take experience and skill to draw an animation in Flash, almost anyone can talk into a microphone while moving Gummi-Bears around a table. Such videos—produced to achieve specific goals—can offer added value to your website.

Produced by Colorado Online Learning as part of a fee-based German class, the video podcasts are distributed—for free—from http://www.mygermanclass.com/. They are produced in German, with German substitles. Scripts, discussions, self-checks, oral exams, and teacher feedback are available to those who sign up for the course.

For those of you not already familiar with podcasting, I highly recommend Blogs, Wikis, & Podcasts for Beginners, Aaron Schaefer's recent presentation on this subject. Listen to the podcast.

Heidi Coolheidi.cool@case.eduhttp://blog.case.edu/webdevPodcast 411 Websitehttp://blog.case.edu/ghk4/2006/02/16/podcast_411_website2006-02-16T13:37:28Z2006-02-16T13:38:40ZGeorge Klippelgeorge.klippel@case.eduhttp://blog.case.edu/ghk4Aaron Shaffer and Mano Singhamhttp://blog.case.edu/jeremy.smith/2005/12/16/aaron_shaffer_and_mano_singham2005-12-16T09:03:29Z2005-12-16T09:04:26Z
By the way, if you haven't heard Aaron Shaffer's and Mano Singham's podcast, I highly recommend it.
Jeremy Smithjeremy.smith@case.eduhttp://blog.case.edu/jeremy.smithFreedman Centerhttp://blog.case.edu/jeremy.smith/2005/12/05/freedman_center2005-12-05T23:29:29Z2005-12-05T23:38:03Z
Today, I finally made my way over to check out the new Freedman Center and man is it nice. The equipment there is top notch (and plentiful). And there was some real wow! factor in their inventory management systems. Aaron Shaffer and I sat around and recorded some dialogue that Aaron is planning on cleaning up and posting as a podcast. I'll point to it once it's up. Hopefully, my long, acronym-laden techno-geeky monologues I regularly launch into somehow seem tempered. P.S. I also added RSS enclosure support to Planet Case. So if one wants to just subscribe to any and all podcasts coming out of the Case Blogging system, they are encoded into the RSS feed. Update: I mentioned it the same time it was posted — The Freedman Center in Kelvin Smith Library: RSS Feeds, Podcasting, & the Case Wiki. I haven't heard it yet (downloading it as soon as I get home), so I haven't been able to count the number of times I say "uhh" or "ummmmm" yet.
Jeremy Smithjeremy.smith@case.eduhttp://blog.case.edu/jeremy.smithFirst Case Blog Podcast!http://blog.case.edu/jeremy.smith/2005/10/07/first_case_blog_podcast2005-10-07T21:31:19Z2005-10-07T21:31:34Z

Awesome! Blog@Case's first podcast! — The Freedman Center in Kelvin Smith Library: Podcast. And, it worked!

Check out the RSS feed for the Freedman Center blog. It includes the following little snippet where the magic happens:

<item>
    <title>Podcast</title>
    <link>http://blog.case.edu/FreedmanCenter/2005/10/07/podcast</link>
    <description>Testing a podcast & learning how MoveableType enclosures work on our blog system......</description>
    <guid>http://blog.case.edu/FreedmanCenter/2005/10/07/podcast</guid>
    <pubDate>Fri, 07 Oct 2005 14:51:19 EST</pubDate>
    
<enclosure url="http://blog.case.edu/FreedmanCenter/podcasts/10-07-05.mp3" length="4412159" type="audio/mpeg" />
</item>

Go head. Check it out in iTunes. Just point your podcast subscriptions to http://http://blog.case.edu/FreedmanCenter/rss20.xml and watch the magic happen.

Jeremy Smithjeremy.smith@case.eduhttp://blog.case.edu/jeremy.smithPodcasts + iTunes + del.icio.us == Beautyhttp://blog.case.edu/jeremy.smith/2005/07/01/podcasts_itunes_delicious_beauty2005-07-01T21:31:11Z2005-07-01T21:31:50ZJeremy Smithjeremy.smith@case.eduhttp://blog.case.edu/jeremy.smith