PoducateMe: Practical Solutions for Podcasting in Education
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Figure 102: Type the file extension and mime type in the form fields.
4.
As shown in Figure 103, you will be informed that the mime type was added
successfully. To activate the addition, click Apply in the Status column.
Figure 103: Click Apply to activate the mime type.
And that’s that. Your enhanced podcast files will now be correctly served as audio files.
Podcast Gateways
Assuming that you’ve managed to get your audio file uploaded and have verified that it
will play in a Web browser, we can move on to the business of creating a Web presence
for your production.
Many podcasters distribute their shows via a weblog (blog), a Web page(s) to which
people post news, articles, thoughts, musings, etc. WordPress.com (Free), Blogger.com
(Free) and TypePad.com ($4.95/mo) provide some of the most popular and easiest
methods of setting up a podcast blog.
CareerChat doesn’t use a blog. We simply present the CareerChat podcast page
podcast episodes from there. We prefer this method because it affords us greater control
over the look of the page, doesn’t force users to leave the site and we have someone on
staff that knows how to code HTML. We might look at deploying a blog (which would
provide tools for user comments and other enhancements) in the future, but for now the
CareerChat page serves its purpose.
If you’d like to take the blogless approach, you’ll still need to create an RSS feed to which
students can subscribe. Otherwise you won’t have a podcast, you’ll just have a bunch of
links to audio files for students to click on. While we use Reinvented Software’s Feeder
might want to check out twocanoes software’s VODcaster (Free, Mac,
tool such as WordPress, the application will automatically generate an RSS feed for you.
