Publishing Podcasts from Studywiz

Podcasting has been around for quite a while now but it’s still a good way to publish content in an audio or video format, particularly where the content is being updated at regular intervals.

The definition of a podcast from Wikipedia is:

A podcast (or non-streamed webcast) is a series of digital media files (either audio or video) that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication.

Podcasting lends itself really well to things such as school newsletters, tutorials and episodic video programmes. Producing the actual media files is usually straightforward and makes for a great classroom activity which can be accomplished using free or reasonably cheap tools.

Podcast episodes don’t have to be audio or video, you can also podcast documents such as those in PDF format.

Although Studywiz doesn’t include tools to create the individual podcast episodes, it does help with the hard part, which is to create a published podcast feed that other people can subscribe to using an RSS reader. The podcast feeds that Studywiz produces can be accessed without the need for a Studywiz account so you can publish your podcasts to the entire world and publicise them through your school’s website or the iTunes Store.

Here’s a quick guide to setting up a podcast feed in Studywiz. Studywiz users can access detailed information on how to do this via the online help within Studywiz.

Step 1

Once you have decided on the purpose of your podcast, start by actually producing it. The planning and design stage offers many learning opportunities so take your time with this, your students will get a lot out of the process and you’ll produce better quality podcasts at the end of it. Do a web search for guides on how to create podcasts and you’ll come across several, including some of these:

• Teaching Ideas: Podcasting
• Podcasting in the Classroom
• How to Publish your Podcast on iTunes (eHow.com)

Step 2

Now, in Studywiz, create a Gallery Activity. When creating the Gallery make sure to check the option for **Publish as Podcast**.

When you do this, a message will appear informing you that by making the Gallery a podcast the contents will be publicly available. This only applies to this particular Gallery and since you’re deliberately making a podcast then you can go ahead and click ok.

Once you’ve saved the Gallery you will find that you are presented with two different podcast URLs. The two URLs are subtlety different:

The Podcast URL provides an RSS feed URL which can be used by your audience to subscribe to the podcast in any RSS reader such as the popular, and free, Google Reader.

Subscribe to Podcast is a URL which, when clicked, will open up the iTunes application on the user’s computer (if they have it installed). iTunes is a really nice way to subscribe to, and manage, podcasts with the added benefit that it makes it easy to add your podcasts to an iPod, iPad or iPhone so you can access them on the go. Imagine a scenario where parents can download your podcasts to their mobile device and listen to them during their commute to work. iTunes only works with certain podcast formats so it’s worth checking your intended format is iTunes compatible before you publish the podcast URL.

 Step 3

Now start to add your podcasts to the Gallery. Depending on how you want this to work you can either add individual episodes at regular intervals if you want your podcast episodes to be released over a period of time, which is really how podcasts are intended to be published, or you can simply upload them all at once which will make all episodes instantly available via the feed.

If you’ve kept the Lock Gallery option unchecked then your students can upload their own files.

Step 4

Finally, publish one or both of the URLs from Step 2 to your audience. You could put them on your school website, or send an email to parents with instructions and the URL. If you really want to promote yourself to a worldwide audience then you can add your podcast to the directory in the Apple iTunes store.

Remember, Podcast URL will work with any RSS reader, Subscribe to Podcast is iTunes specific.

If at any point you want to remove access to the podcast simply uncheck the Publish as Podcast option in the Gallery.

Here are a couple of example podcasts that are worth your time:

• Apple for Kids
• How 2 Video tutorials @ GHS (iTunes)

If you or your school uses Studywiz in this way then please let us know, we would love to hear from you.

Motivating Usage

One of the most motivating reasons for a teacher to use Studywiz, or any other learning platform, seems to come from their students’ willingness to engage with their learning outside of school via the platform.

We get so many teachers telling us about kids logging in at weekends, or during holidays, it’s clear that ‘anytime, anyplace learning’ is, for many, a reality. For teachers who see this type of activity it’s rewarding and an acknowledgement of the hard work that they have put in.

So, for those schools returning from a summer break, try looking at your usage statistics from the holiday period, you might just find something interesting and encouraging.

Studywiz Administrators can access their usage statistics from their ‘utilities’ menu and teachers can find a range of student and class reports from the ‘tools’ menu.

(Thanks to the staff at Hampshire LA who inspired this post).

Craigmount High School, Edinburgh

James (Jamie) Whiteside is a teacher of Computing at Craigmount High School in Edinburgh, and for the last few years he has been working hard to develop and embed the use of Studywiz in his own school and across Edinburgh.

Recently, Craigmount was inspected by HMIe and after speaking to Jamie, the students, and other members of staff, the inspectors highlighted the school’s use of Studywiz as one of two areas of good practice.

I met with Jamie recently and he said that, interestly, he felt the inspectors were not entirely sold on Studywiz after speaking to him alone, it was only when they spoke to the students that they started to understand the impact it was having on learning.

Here’s a paragraph from the report:

Young people can work with published materials at a time and place which suits them and their learning style. The system encourages innovative methods of supporting young people. For example, one teacher has set up an evening chat room to offer support. The system encourages peer evaluation of published work through gallery resources. It motivates young people by allowing them to access interactive flash games and self-marking assessments. Evaluation of the activities indicate that young people feel this facility is a valuable resource.

HMIe Inspection Report for Craigmount High School.

Jamie and the school are of course still developing the use of Studywiz and he has some ideas about how they can continue to move forward at Craigmount and the other Edinburgh schools.

We’ve asked Jamie to contribute to this blog so watch out for his posts in the near future.