Herrera Huskies are now on Twitter. You can follow our tweets of school updates. Many staff members have their own classroomTwitter page. My twitter page is sscent

Photo Story 3 - Enhanced Podcasting

Photo Story 3 is a great free software to teach kids how to create a digital story and make it into a enhanced podcast.

Some of my former 4th grade students were selected by their writing teacher to join my after school tech club. These students came to the tech club with their completed written essays and I taught them how to use Photo Story 3 to make their essays come alive! Once they published their PhotoStory 3 project as a windows media video file, I converted their wmv files to mp4 files using a free software tool called Jodix iPod Converter. It can be downloaded at the following link:
http://www.download.com/Free-iPod-Video-Converter/3000-2194_4-10498771.html

Click on the Jodix Ipod Converter icon below to view a short tutorial that I created on how easy it is to convert a wmv file to a mp4 file using Jodix Ipod Converter Software.

The following enhanced podcast was created by one of my former 4th grade students using Photo Story 3 and converted to mp4 format using Jodix Ipod Converter to make his narrative essay entitled "Best Day of My Life" come to life!

You can now upload and embed videos to Blogger using draft.blogger.com However, the feed
will not pick up embedded videos to iTunes. This is example of uploaded and embeded video using draft.blogger.com. It is still in Beta stage.

What is a Podcast?

A podcast is a multimedia file that is distributed by subscription (usually free) over the Internet using syndication feeds for playback on a personal computer or portable device, such as an iPod.
Craig Syverson of gruntmedia presents a simple overview podcasting.
Click on the podgrunt picture to view his video.

Three Types of Podcasting

• Audio Podcasting


• Enhanced Podcasting


• Video Podcasting (Vodcasting)

Using Audacity for Audio Podcasting

Most of the tutorials I found on Audio Podcasting recommended Audacity as the software tool to use to record, edit, and save a podcast as an MP3. I used Audacity to teach some of my former 5th grade students to create audio podcasts.
Audacity is a free download. You can dowload the program at http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/
In order to save your files as MP3, You'll need to download the LAME MP3 encoder - also a free download.
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/help/faq?s=install&item=lame-mp3

The following link will take you to an excellent tutorial on how to use Audacity:
http://www.how-to-podcast-tutorial.com/17-audacity-tutorial.htm

Make Podcasts in Classrooms using a PC

Podcasts are quite easy to create and teach on a PC. Students catch on fast and are excited to create podcasts of their work. The following posts will contain step by step instructions, links, and resources to use with your students to start podcasting. Have Fun!

Vodcasting - Windows Movie Maker

You can use Windows Movie Maker to create, edit, and produce a movie. Once you create your movie, then you can convert the wmv file to a mp4 using Jodix Ipod Converter to make it into a vodcast.
Click on the movie reel to view a Windows Movie Maker tutorial from Microsoft.