June 2007 — News
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Podcasts: Improving Quality and Accessibility
Preproduction takes the longest time because a script is developed to fit a particular time length for the podcast. Rehearsal should take place so that the speaker learns to control his/her volume, speed, and fluency. Audio can be recorded in segments. This makes the recording process faster and minimizes the editing. At post production editing, unnecessary audio pauses are eliminated. Podcasters can also freely jazz up their casts with sounds from The Freesound Project and music posted at Podcast Audio, as both are Creative Commons licensed. Publishing involves posting the podcast to a web page and creating an RSS Feed. Will Richardson (2005) includes resources and describes the process for setting up your own RSS Feed Reader, how to find and add feeds, and using RSS feeds in the classroom in RSS: A Quick Start Guide For Educators.
K12 Handhelds includes suggestions for recording and editing software and how to publish a podcast. There are samples of podcast directories, devices for listening to podcasts, content that might be included, and the relevance of podcasts in education. You can learn to prepare, record, and publish your podcasts at Yahoo! Podcasts.
Text Equivalents for Accessibility
Schools are in the business of educating all learners. If the podcast is on a school Web site, or is hosted at another site and has potential for use in schools, then its text equivalent should be provided. Text equivalents help meet the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 508, which require streaming media to be accessible to the deaf and hearing impaired. There are also times when individuals who can hear would benefit from text, such as when silence is required in a room and headphones are missing for listening to audio, when audio might not be available on a computer, or when the listener is in a noisy room.
Automatic Sync Technologies, a captioning service for podcasts, reminds us that text equivalents also help content to be retained. Comprehension improves, which is particularly important for students with learning disabilities and those for whom English is a second language. Seeing the text equivalent also minimizes problems with understanding technical content, unfamiliar terms, non-native English presenters, or poor audio quality. Captioning enables traditional text searches to be used on the content because the text is synchronized with the audio material.
