692R-2008-Book-Podcasts

note: we have this as a google doc with different formatting and screen shots included!

Audio Listening and Sharing Tools

Tool History and Context

Podcasting, downloading, uploading — what do these words mean? And more importantly, how can they help you learn about and the share the gospel with others?

Sometimes words float around in conversations and it seems like everybody knows what they mean – everybody that is except for you. Podcasting is one such example. In past years, broadcast referred to transmitting either a radio or television program over the airwaves to the public listeners and viewers. In the new world of technology, people began putting (broadcasting) audio files out to the world by way of the Internet. They combined the common word broadcasting with the type of equipment most commonly used to listen to the broadcast (the iPod) thus coining the word “podcasting.”

When listening to a TV or a radio program, people can choose from several different brands of TVs and radios. In the early days of podcasting, Apple’s iPod was the first major brand of a portable media player (MP3 player) that was designed to capture and play those Internet broadcasts. As technology marched forward, other companies began producing their own brand of MP3 players and podcasting became less dependent on the iPod. Today, anybody can listen to a podcast on a wide variety of MP3 players or even just on a computer.

To download something means to 'receive and save." Information from an outside source on the Internet is accessed and then transferred and saved to a personal computer.  Here's an example to help you understand.  You invite your grandmother to visit you.  She leaves her home and comes to yours.  When she arrives, you show her to the guest bedroom, make her comfy and cozy, and she stays for a few days.

When you find something on the Internet that you want, you download the file. The file travels from the remote file server where it was stored (like grandma traveling from her home to yours) and saved in a folder on your personal computer (like you making grandma comfortable in the guest bedroom). Remember, download means to receive from a distant computer and save it to your personal one.

To upload a file to the Internet is like you going to visit your grandmother. You leave your home, travel to hers, and stay with her for a while. When you upload a file, you take that file from your personal computer (you leave your home) and send it 'out' to a remote computer that is not located within your home or office (you go to grandma's home). That file is saved on the remote computer and is made available for other people to access. So, upload means to send out to a remote computer.

Today, many tools are available that help you access, download, create, and share audio files. We will share a few of the tools that are free and fairly simple to master, explain how they are used, and provide you with ideas how you can use them to strengthen your testimony, build you intellectually, and help you share the gospel. In this chapter, we discuss four ways you can use audio content on the Internet.

1.     You can download audio files from the Internet

2.     You can upload audio files to the Internet

3.     You can subscribe to a podcast to regularly receive audio[1] files.

4.     You can create your own podcast so that others can listen to audio files that you regularly produce.

We will first discuss these four audio tools and then write about how these tools can be used to learn about and share the gospel with others.

Downloading audio files from the Internet

Why Should I Download Audio Files?

Why would a person want to download audio files from the Internet? Because it is a convenient (and often free) way to access great audio information. For example, a person could visit http://www.lds.org/conference/languages/0,6353,310-1,00.html and download selected talks from General Conference to play while commuting. These same clips could be used by a gospel doctrine teacher in conjunction with a quote on the screen to maximize impact in a classroom.

One need not be limited to General Conference talks however. If you are taking a long road trip you might visit http://librivox.org/ where classic books such as Sherlock Holmes can be downloaded free of charge. Want to get smarter? Download lectures from http://lecturefox.com/ or http://www.apple.com/education/itunesu_mobilelearning/itunesu.html and let your brain expand.

The key factor that the above examples have in common is that you decide what it is that you want to listen to, and then you actively go out and download it.

How do I do it?

This is probably the simplest way to access audio information from the Internet. If you find a link to an audio file that you would like to download to your computer, simply right click on the file. In the pop-up window, select Save Target As (in Internet Explorer) or Save Link As (in Firefox on both on a Windows and a Mac computer) or Download Linked File As (in Safari). Select a location in which to download the file, and you are finished!

Where Are Great Places Online to Download Audio Files?

http://www.lds.org/audio

This site has great content produced by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day

http://www.lds.org/broadcast/ces/0,7341,395,00.html

This site has broadcasts of Church Educational System firesides, which are primarily for people ages 18-30.

BYU Broadcasting http://www.byub.org

At this site you can access a variety of audio content. You can find broadcasts from BYU Women's Conference, Education Week, as well as listen to BYU Religion Professors discuss various books of scripture--and much, much more!

Uploading audio files to the Internet

Why Should I Upload Audio Files?

The scripture states, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35); therefore, recording yourself and posting your own audio files on the Internet is perhaps even more valuable than simply listening to content produced by others.

There are many reasons why you might want to create your own audio content for uploading. For example, you could make audio recordings of family history stories to disseminate to your descendants. You might want to make a recording of a talk you give in church to make available to others. Perhaps you and your friends have a band and want to share your music with others. Recording and uploading your music will allow you to share your content with the world.

Audio uploading entails the recording of an audio file and posting it on the Internet for distribution. This allows people on the Internet to either “stream” your audio file (listen to it from their computer while on the Internet), or “download” this file to their computers or other devices where they can listen to it while not connected to the Internet.

How do I do create and publish audio files on the Internet?

There are many ways to create audio files and publish them to the Internet. One tool that is remarkably easy to use is called Gabcast.

The idea behind Gabcast is simple. You dial a toll-free number and while you are talking on the phone Gabcast will record whatever you say. After you are done recording, you can “publish” your recording on Gabcast. This means that listeners will be able to find your new audio recording and download it directly from Gabcast. Or, you could download the audio file you just created and email it or link to it elsewhere on the Internet.

After signing up for an account, log in to Gabcast.

Create a new channel.

Get code to past it into your blog or website.

You can either copy and paste the link of the cod to your blog or website, in which case people will be able to link directly to the audio content. Or, you could download the audio file to your computer and email it to others, in the same way you would email any kind of attachment.

Where Are Other Free Online Tutorials?

Gabcast is particularly helpful because it does not require extra equipment—not even a microphone! However, if you do have a microphone there are many other ways to create audio files.

http://www.indstate.edu/cta/Tutorials/faculty/common/createAudio.htm

This site walks you through using "Sound Recorder" on a Windows-based computer. This tutorial includes lots of helpful screen shots.

http://www.smartcomputing.com/Editorial/article.asp?article=articles/archive/l0608/24l08/24l08.asp&guid=

This site also discusses using "Sound Recorder" on a Windows-based computer. There are fewer screen shots but more information that the previous site.

Subscribing to a “podcast” to regularly receive audio files.

Why Should I subscribe to a podcast?

Subscribing to and listening to podcasts can expand beyond gospel topics. Everyone should be involved in a lifelong pursuit of learning and listening to podcasts can assist you in your personal improvement plan. You could listen to podcasts to learn and improve foreign language skills, Increase your knowledge on a vast array of topics (economics, photography, technology, travel, science, medicine, health), and help you stay current with news and events.

Subscribing to a podcast does not mean that you have to have an iPod to listen to it. You can listen to it on a desktop or lap top computer. You can also use other portable MP3 players.

If you use a computer to download podcasts you are tied to it to listen to the podcast. But if you use a portable media player, you can listen to a podcast as you wait at the dentist office, exercise, drive to work, grocery shop, or wait for your child’s soccer practice to finish.

How Do I Do It?

Just exactly what does ‘subscribing’ to a podcast mean?

Think of subscribing to a newspaper. You have contacted the newspaper company and requested home delivery. Your newspaper is then delivered either into a special newspaper box similar to a mailbox or tossed on your front step (or under your bushes if the newspaper boy can’t throw very good).

In the early days of podcasting, ‘home delivery’ type of access was not available. People had to manually navigate to each different site to check for new episodes. This was like going down to the newsstand to buy a newspaper. With the advancement of technology, different software programs and different Internet sites have sprung up making ‘home delivery’ possible.

However, there are now so many ways to subscribe to podcasts that choosing between the myriad options can be a mind numbing experience to a podcast neophyte. The simplest and easiest way is to use iTunes. (Later, as you gain more experience, you may decide to branch out and try something different.) You can download the latest version of iTunes here: http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/. To install it, double click on the installer program and follow the installation prompts. It is straightforward and easy to do.

After you have installed iTunes, watch this excellent video tutorial that Apple has created for using iTunes to subscribe to podcasts. http://www.apple.com/itunes/tutorials/#video-podcasts

Now that you have installed iTunes, here's how to subscribe to podcasts. Open up the iTunes software program on your computer. Click on iTunes Store.

Then, click on Podcast.

Type your desired topic in the search box (e.g. LDS).

Podcasts in that category will be listed at the bottom of the screen. Click on the Subscribe button for the podcast of your choice.

Now, click on Podcasts.

Click the small triangle to the right side of the title of the podcast to see the available episodes. Click on Get to download the desired sessions.

The sessions will now be downloaded to your computer and will be available for listening through iTunes. You can listen to them on your computer or on your MP3 player when you synchronize your player with iTunes.

Where Are Some Good Podcasts that I should Subscribe to?

http://genealogyguys.com/

This is the oldest regularly produced genealogy podcast!

http://www.ldsvoices.com/ Great LDS talks from church leaders and others sent straight to you! http://www.mormonmomcast.com/ Three LDS moms got together and created podcast called "Mormon Moms" -- it's like chicken soup for the Mormon mother's soul!

Creating your own podcast

Why Should I create a podcast?

The reasons for creating a podcast are similar to those for uploading media. You have content to share and you want to share it on a regular basis--hence, the podcast! Creating a podcast is not difficult, but neither is it easy. In this next section we will discuss first some things to consider in the creation of a podcast, and then talk about the technical aspect of actually publishing your podcast so that others can subscribe to it.

How do I do it? -- Creating a podcast

What sets “podcasting” apart from this more general creation and accessing of audio files is that a pdocast is set up to have a device (like an iPod) connect to the Internet through your computer and automatically download new audio files.

Before creating your own podcast, it is best to listen to several different types to become familiar with how things are done. Listen to professional ones done by companies or organizations and ones done by individuals. Jot down your thoughts and impressions about them, the way the podcast is organized and presented, and what you liked or didn’t like about them. Keep these notes in mind as you create your own podcast.

After you have done this, you may be eager to immediately begin recording. There are several things to consider before you actually sit down with your microphone and computer.

Purpose. What is the purpose of your podcast? Is it mainly for family members? Will you want to post it on the Internet? Will you make only one or two? Or many? Do you want to discuss Church doctrine or just share personal experiences? While your purpose may change and evolve over time, it is good to have a firm purpose in mind to guide you as you first start out.

Place. Select a place for recording your podcast that is free from external noise and is relatively quiet. Pay attention to things such as air conditioner or fan noise. Is a window open that let’s in the outside sounds of cars driving by or dogs barking? If possible, select a room that has carpet and furniture to help absorb sound. This will keep it from sounding like you are recording in a tin can. Shut the door and put a note on it requesting that people do not interrupt and disturb you. Use the same room for every recording.

Script. For the first few times that you create a podcast, it is best to write out a script of what you want to say. A script will keep you from having awkward sentences and poor grammar. You will be sure to say exactly what you mean. Your words will be easy to understand and you will eliminate all of the ‘ums’ and ‘uhs.'  Practice reading your script out loud. This will help you sound natural as you record and help you become comfortable hearing the sound of your voice. Have enthusiasm and life as you speak. Add appropriate pauses and emphasis. Nobody wants to listen to someone talking in a droning monotone voice.

Music. Consider having a music intro and outro (music at the end). This adds auditory interest and gives a little extra polish to your podcast. The sound loop (music clip) should be about ten seconds long. Music that lasts longer will annoy listeners. They will either fast-forward through it (which will frustrate them) or they will quit listening to your podcast altogether.

Be very careful about the music you use. There are serious legal issues involved in using music from a CD that you purchased or music purchased online. Use royalty free music, which is known as ‘podsafe music.’ Podsafe means that you are not infringing on copyrighted material and you don’t have to pay royalties to use it.

There are many places on the Internet that have royalty free music. Some sites require that you purchase the music. Some sites will allow you to download them without any charge but will request that you give credit to the artists whose music you are using.

Here are several places to get podsafe music

·      Jamendo http://www.jamendo.com/en/albums

·      SoundSnap http://www.soundsnap.com/

·      Podsafe Music Network http://music.podshow.com/music/listeners/unsorted.php

·      CCMixter http://ccmixter.org/view/media/samples/browse

Practice. Create several short trial podcasts. The purpose for doing this is to become familiar with your equipment and the recoding process. When you feel comfortable, delete the trial versions and begin the actual recording.

Length. As a beginner, keep your podcast between ten to fifteen minutes long (or less). Cover only one topic per podcast. As you gain experience, it is fine to combine several topics into a longer podcast. Make sure it stays under thirty minutes and use short musical jingles to transition between topics. Only the most dedicated listeners will be willing to listen to a longer podcast. (And, longer podcasts require more work to produce.)

Introduction. Include an introduction at the beginning of your podcast that states the title, your name, the date, and the episode number. It doesn’t matter in which order you say this information. Just craft your wording so that your introduction feels comfortable for you to say.

Example: Welcome to the fourteenth episode of My Fabulous Podcast. Today is January 1, 2009 and I am Jane Doe.

File names. If you plan on doing several podcasts, decide on a naming convention for your files. Once you’ve established the convention, stick to it and be consistent. This will help your listeners find and follow your podcasts. It will help you organize and keep track of them on your own computer.

A good file-naming scheme should include the name of your podcast followed by the episode number. Put zeros in front of your single-digit episode number (e.g. MyPodcast001.mp3). If you don't add the zeros, some operating systems won’t list files in the correct order so episode 11 would be listed before episode 1. Keep file names as sort as possible.

Organization. If you are going to do several podcasts, create a document to track the topics you cover. This keeps you from repeating topics. Listeners will quit downloading your podcast if you talk about the same things over and over.

Technical notes. During your recording session, maintain the same distance between your mouth and the microphone. This will ensure that the volume of your voice will be consistent throughout the podcast. Your voice won’t fade in and out or be difficult to hear.

This list of suggestions is just that – suggestions. While they may help you create a polished podcast, it may not make sense to use all of them in your personal situation. Carefully select, adapt, and use the ones that make sense for the purpose and intent of your podcast.

How do I do it -- publishing the podcast Before explaining the process of making your podcast available in iTunes, you need to understand something about podcasts in relationship to iTunes. Audio files are not uploaded directly into iTunes. iTunes is NOT a repository for audio files. iTunes is more like a traffic controller. It directs people to where podcasts are stored on the Internet and allows people to subscribe to them.

Once you create a podcast, upload it to a webserver. Note, because of space issues, blogging websites such as WordPress and Blogger do not allow people to upload audio files.

After your audio file is uploaded to a webserver, you will need to add an RSS feed to your blog [see chapter ___ on RSS feeds]. For Wordpress, you add an RSS widget and for Blogspot you add an RSS Gadget.

Once you have the RSS widget/gadget on your blog, you need to create the RSS feed that you will use in iTunes. FeedBurner is the most popular, the easiest, and the most widely used site for doing this. Feedburner is found att http://feedburner.com.

To burn a feed, type the URL of your blog in the text box and click in the checkbox that you are a podcaster. Click the Next button and follow the remaining directions on the Feedburner's site.

When your RSS feed has been created, click on Edit Feed Details.

Copy the Original Feed URL to your computer’s clipboard.

Next, open up the iTunes application on your computer. Click on iTunes Store and then on Podcasts.

Then, click on purple and white Submit a Podcast icon that is in the middle of the screen.

Follow the directions on the screen and paste in the original feed that you copied from FeedBurner. Now your site is available for people to subscribe.

Tutorials There are many tutorials on the Internet that explain how to podcast. A beginner could be overwhelmed at the number and overwhelmed at trying to decide the one with which one to begin. Here are a select few that are simple to follow and will give you a good basic understanding of the process and of the software.

Audacity Audacity Recording tips http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php?title=Recording_Tips. This is the place to begin learning how to record with Audacity. This tutorial goes through the fundamentals of setup, acoustics, microphone techniques, and basic configuration.

Working in Audacity http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php?title=Tips. This provides information about managing and understanding the technology, recoding tips, and some help with troubleshooting.

Creating a simple voice and music Podcast with Audacity http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php?title=Creating_a_simple_voice_and_music_Podcast_with_Audacity. This explains how to create a voice track, how to get music into Audacity, how to edit, and how to export and publish an MP3 file.

How To Podcast http://www.how-to-podcast-tutorial.com/00-podcast-tutorial-four-ps.htm. This tutorial takes you through things you should think about before starting a podcast.

Audacity tutorial for Podcasters http://www.how-to-podcast-tutorial.com/17-audacity-tutorial.htm. This site has easy to follow video tutorials about Audacity. It might take a minute or two for the videos to load so be patient.

GarageBand The most logical place to start learning about using GarageBand for podcasting is on Apple’s website. This very brief introduction gives an idea of what you will be doing rather than teaching you any of the specifics. (It doesn’t go into much depth or detail and might seem to go too quickly through the process.) http://www.apple.com/ilife/tutorials/#garageband-podcast-51 Apple’s Getting Started manual (http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/GarageBand_3_Getting_Started.pdf) for GarageBand. Chapter 11 deals with creating podcasts. While the information about podcasting in this manual is good, it’s rather skimpy. You will get more information from some of the resources listed here.

Podcasting with GarageBand 3 with Scott Bourne http://movielibrary.lynda.com/html/modpage.asp?ID=223 lynda.com provides training materials on a vast assortment of software products. Access to most of their material is by subscription. However, they do give free access to their video tutorials on using GarageBand for podcasting. These tutorials are excellet!

There are thirty-five tutorials that last anywhere from under two minutes up to just under half an hour. You could easily listen to several in one sitting. You can listen to them in order or start with topics that interest you most.

GarageBand 3: Creating a Podcast (by Pen State Univrsity) http://podcasts.psu.edu/files/GarageBandPodcast.pdf Sometimes it is difficult to watch a video tutorial and then remember the steps you were supposed to do once you opened up the software program. If you are one of those people, you might prefer to have a paper copy of directions to which you can refer. This twelve page PDF document takes you through the basics of creating a podcast episode with GarageBand. These step-by-step directions are easy to follow and have helpful pictures of what your screen should look like as you go through the process. And, it is printable.

How Can I Use These Audio Tools to Expand My Gospel Knowledge and Share the Gospel With Others?

Downloading audio files is a great way to expand your knowledge of the gospel. Nearly all materials produced by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are available for audio downloads. This include General Conference, church magazines, and even the lesson manuals for priesthood an relief society! (No more excuses like, “I didn’t get the manual!”)

In addition http://speeches.byu.edu and http://byui.edu/presentations post audio versions of weekly addresses given to students at BYU and BYU-Idaho. These powerful spiritual messages can be a great source of inspiration.

Once you have downloaded the file it is very easy to share it with others. Do you have a friend who could use a comforting message from General Conference? E-mail them the file you have downloaded and you may be sharing the gospel in deeper ways than you realize. Uploading audio files is a great way share your knowledge of the gospel. You could use this tool to share your testimony with others, to record family history stories for posterity, or to keep an audio record of spiritual experiences that you have.

When you hear someone bear her testimony or share a spiritual experience, the Spirit can touch your heart, testify to the truthfulness of what was said, and strengthen and uplift you. Generally, those words are only heard by you as an individual or heard within confines of a church meeting. Now, with the use of technology, sharing these feelings with many people has become much easier.

The following are other ways that you can share the gospel with others by using the audio tools that we have dicussed:

•   Share experiences that have touched your life and made you a better person. •   Explain how the gospel has given you strength to deal with difficult times and situations in your life. •   Tell of a time when your prayer was answered. •   Share an experience when people showed kindness to you and how that affected you. •   Tell of an experience where your family performed service for others and how that experience affected your family. •   Explain how you used gospel principles to handle a challenging experience with your child. •   Share how you use technology to keeping in touch with loved ones far away. •   Share insights that you’ve had about gospel topics. •   Record family history experiences – especially conversion stories. •   Use podcasting as a way to keep in touch with young single adults or seminary aged youth in your branch or ward who do not live very close to other ward members. (This could be especially valuable in the mission field.)

Examples of people already using these audio tools online

Whitney Ransom decided to record her testimony in Romanian (her mission language) and uploaded it iTunes. She talks about this at:

http://www.whitneyransom.com/using-podcasts-for-educational-purposes-and-to-share-the-gospel/

The creators of http://www.bookofmormonpodcast.org/Main.asp have made it possible for anybody around the world to receive an audio daily delivery of the Book of Mormon.

LDS Women's book review

A. Loyel Shaw created a LDS Scripture mastery podcast that can be accessed through itunes. In this way seminary students (or other interested indivdiuals) could have scripture mastery beamed directly to them!

Some LDS women organized their book reviews into a podcast (http://www.ldswomensbookreview.com/mambo/index.php).

How Can This Tool Affect My Family?

Audio content can certainly affect your family for good or bad. One of the dangers of audio content is that much of the available content is negative. Children (or adults) could access music with filthy lyrics or inappropriate humor. Similarly, while trying to find a podcast promoting faith one could inadvertently stumble across one designed to destroy faith. Another more subtle danger is that "tuning in" to podcasts could potentially lead one to "tune out" family members if everybody in the family is continually listening to music or other audio content instead of talking to each other. On the other hand, there are many positives to how this tool could be used to affect a family. Much of the content we have discussed in this chapter is of an uplifting nature. For example, listening to a John Bytheway talk downloaded (for free) at http://byub.org could be a part of a fun family drive. Hearing the words of living prophets will enrich family gospel discussions on the Sabbath.

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