http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/PortablePD/~3/281484915/

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Music

Podsafe Music Network: There is a great deal of free and legal music to choose from. You have to have your own podcast in place to sign up.

Kevin McLeod: He has made his music freely available to download.

Acid Express: Fun and easy way to create your own music compositions. It is sort of like painting with sound. And, as a bonus, your creations belong to you so there are no concerns about copyright.

Roger Nevin recommends:

http://incompetech.com/m/c/royalty-free/

Rodd Lucier (check out his Clever Sheep blog/podcast) recommends the following:

http://mp34u.muzic.com/publicdomain4U

http://www.garageband.com/charts

http://www.splicemusic.com/

http://www.jamendo.com/en/

http://ccmixter.org/

Authored by Nathan Toft. Hosted by Edublogs.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/PortableRadio/~3/282272537/

Yesterday, police near Maniwaki,  Quebec, captured a lion cub named Boomer who had escaped from his babysitter. Our classes had a discussion about whether or not people should be keeping lions or other exotic animals as pets. Listen to our opinions.

Download

Authored by Mr. Toft and Mrs. Smith. Hosted by Edublogs.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/PortableRadio/~3/284151963/

A few weeks ago, drum builder/musician Leo Brooks worked with the students to create frame drums similar to those used by the aboriginals. In this video, he demonstrates how to attach the goat skin to the frame.

Authored by Nathan Toft. Hosted by Edublogs.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/PortableRadio/~3/284747316/

- Interview with Mauler from Hot 89.9 who came to judge our public speaking contest

- William and Tahmoor’s “Are You Smarter Than a Canadian Fifth Grader” with special guest contestant Mme Leeder

- Sport Tip: Bradley, Stefan and special guest Ryan share a hockey tip

- How to Play Soccer/Baseball

Download



Music used in this episode:

WW - Greenroom (Podsafe Music Network)

Allright (dub) - Plastique de Reve

Salsa2Long - Kevin McLeod

DiscoA - Kevin McLeod

Authored by Nathan Toft. Hosted by Edublogs.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/PortableRadio/~3/285434070/

A few weeks ago, drum builder/musician Leo Brooks worked with the students to create tube drums similar to the African djembe. In this video, the students are learning how to attach the goat skin to their tube.

^{(If the video doesn’t play, chances are you need to update Flash Player.)}

Authored by Nathan Toft. Hosted by Edublogs.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/PortableRadio/~3/285606437/

On the front page of the May 7th Ottawa Citizen, there was a picture and story about 24 Sussex Drive. The NCC wants to do a major renovation of the building. This would take about 15 months and cost about 9.7 million dollars. Should Stephen Harper move out and let the NCC begin the renovations. Listen to our opinions.

Download

Authored by Mr. Toft and Mrs. Smith. Hosted by Edublogs.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/PortableRadio/~3/290554496/

Episode 16 is all about our drum project. Amanda, Robyn, Ruben, McKenna, and Charles talk about how the frame and tube drums were made. They also interview drum builder/musician Leo Brooks.

You will also hear Leo teaching everyone how to play their drums.

Download

Music used in this episode:

WW - Greenroom (Podsafe Music Network)

Authored by Mr. Toft and Mrs. Smith. Hosted by Edublogs.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/PortablePD/~3/290614980/

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Hi,

I am keen to get going further on the podcasting and have tried recording with a few students.

I am wondering about the issues about posting and parent permission. Do we need to get permission from the parents as we do for posting things on the webpage? If so, is there a form that I might be able to look at as a sample?

Cheryl

Hi Cheryl,

Like all schools in our board, we start the year off making sure our students’ parents have signed the following documents from the OCDSB:

• Acceptable Use of Computers and Internet/Intranet Technology Agreement


• School Web Site Permission Form


• Media Permission Form

These forms can be found on the board site. Our school has included them in the student agenda and made these forms available online.

Anyway, to get to your question, we don’t use a consent form specific to podcasting and blogging. In our opinion, podcasting and blogging is within the realm of computer use. However, we do make a point of advertising what we are up to through newsletters, emails and notes/stickers in agendas. Here’s a newsletter we sent out early this school year about collaborating with students from around the world.

For our regular podcasts and blog entries, we make a point of only using the kids’ first names on blogs, websites and podcasts. We also avoid posting any video or photos of their faces.

In the case of the article we wrote for ETFO’s Voice magazine and a video documentary Carleton University journalism students was made about the kids, we did contact the families for permission. We’ve been fortunate that all of our students’ families have agreed to participate.

We’ve found that it really helps to continually email parents whenever a new show comes out. Nothing sells what we’re doing better than parents getting to hear their kids voices at home or at work on their computers. I have to admit that having a few seasons under our belts makes selling the podcast to a brand new batch of students much easier.

Authored by Nathan Toft. Hosted by Edublogs.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/PortablePD/~3/293884107/

You will need:

• computer with internet access


• microphone hooked up to your computer


• audio editing software (we use Audacity and it is a free download)


• a blog (we got one for free at Edublogs.org)


• online storage space (Edublogs gives some storage space with their free blogs. Once your podcast grows you’ll want to explore other storage options. If you work in the Ottawa Carleton District School Board, NetCaster provides a means to store and share audio and video files online.)

Do your research.

Listen to as many podcasts as you can. Here’s a couple to get you started:

Portable Radio

Radio WillowWeb

HartBeat Radio

Studio 26

Record some audio

Hook up a microphone to your computer. We recommend you think cheap at this stage - use old computer mikes or buy them at dollar stores. Record some audio. Get some practice working with audio editing programs. Audacity is a free download and works very well.

Once you feel comfortable enough with the software get your students to do some recording. Think small. Two to five minutes is a great way to test the waters and figure out what works for you and your students.

Name your podcast

Give your podcast a memorable name. Sign up for a blog. We use free blogs offered at edublogs.org. The blog is a convenient way for people to find, listen to, and comment on your podcast.

Upload your sound file

Login into your blog and select “Write a Post”. Scroll down a little further to see a section that allows you to upload your audio MP3 file. After you have uploaded, click “send to editor.”

Write your shownotes

Now write a description (known as “shownotes”) of what happens in your first episode. Once you are happy with everything click “Publish”.

Spread the word

Congratulations! You now have an official podcast that can be accessed by anyone in the world with an Internet connection. Start advertising your podcast’s web address: send newsletters to parents, get a link to your podcast added to your school’s website, mention it in your emails - do whatever it takes to get the word out.

Tell Us!

We’d love to hear of any podcasts you put together. Leave us a comment or email us (Nathan.Toft@ocdsb.ca or Jane.Smith@ocdsb.ca) and we’ll let our growing Portable PD community know about it as well.

Authored by Nathan Toft. Hosted by Edublogs.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/PortablePD/~3/293889632/

OK.  It’s cool, but more than a little strange, to have children come up to you during yard duty saying “I saw your picture on the cover of a magazine.”

Jane and I are very happy with how the article turned out.  Click here to see it for yourself.

Authored by Nathan Toft. Hosted by Edublogs.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/PortablePD/~3/293884106/

Mark from Thunder Bay had a couple of questions about starting up a podcast:

How expensive are the voice recorders?

We’ve found decent/reliable voice recorders for under $100. Look here for more information about what we use or hope to use in the future. They kind of look like cellphones and uploading audio files to your computer works the same way as a digital camera.

How do you evaluate students?

We view podcasting as an extension of our Lanaguage Arts program. Look here for more information about assessment.

How much of each day is devoted to the podcast?

We’ve experimented with a variety of models for this. At the moment we have reserve one hour for podcasting every Friday. Also, whenever students have free time they often choose to work on their podcasts.

How many computers do you use?

Our classes each have a networked Windows XP computer. We also have access to a media cart that we wheel into our rooms. Our students visit our school’s computer lab (30 XP computers) once a week for an hour, but apart from a unit on using Audacity at the start of the year, we usually don’t use lab time time for podcasting.

A few weeks ago we received an Asus eeePC.  It’s less that half the size of a regular laptop but appears to be ideal for our students to use it for editing audio and word processing.  We plan to write about those machines in the near future.

Jane and I also spend time on our home computers for final editing.

How about software?

Audio-editing sofware: The main piece of software we use is Audacity. If you are on a Mac, we hear that GarageBand works exceptionally well.

What else will you need?

• online storage space: We store our audio files on our school website. Another option is to use storage space that comes free with Edublogs.org. They offer 100MB which works out to be roughly an hour and half of MP3 audio.


• a blog: This makes it easy to let people know everytime you have a new episode. We’ve had success using Edublogs.org, a free service offered to educators.

Authored by Nathan Toft. Hosted by Edublogs.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/PortablePD/~3/298057994/

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Our second episode includes a discussion about why we podcast with our students, Portable PD Podcast Picks Karen’s Mashups and 1-2-3 Listen 2 Me, our wonderful web resource Levelator and a lesson on making stations IDs with Audacity.

Portable PD Podcast - Episode 2

Lesson

Sound Effects and music to get you started

Links

Audacity (free audio editing software)

1-2-3 Listen 2 Me - a podcast made by a family in South Africa

Karen’s Mashups - a podcast that samples other podcasts

Levelator - balances the volume on your audio

Music

Hot Doggin’ - by DeerFoot (Podsafe Music Network)

The Kool-Aid Makes Itself - Psykosoul (Podsafe Music Network)

Mumbo Jumbo - BD Lenz (Podsafe Music Network)

Hook, Line and Slinker - Podington Bear

Bump and Run - Derek Audette

Other Audio

Sniffles and Sneezes (1955) - Prelinger Archives

Article

Nanotechnology paves way for super iPods

Authored by Nathan Toft. Hosted by Edublogs.