Today I was able to podcast using the Blackboard Content Collection.

I had tried this once before… maybe I jinxed it because I went in assuming that the SSL would stop iTunes from being able to ‘catch’ my podcast. That test ended with iTunes giving me an error message that seemed to confirm my thoughts.

I moved on.

Today, I decided to look into links between Podcasting & Blackboard. There must be some schools doing it, right? Maybe with the help of a building block… I found a set of instructions that were similar to the ones I had followed earlier. I thought to myself ‘Heh, they’re probably not using SSL’, but I did feel a glimmer of hope – so I looked at their site. HTTPS.

That’s it. I’m trying this again.

I uploaded my media file to the CC. I took the address of the file from the properties section and added it to the enclosure tag of a quick & dirty “ready-for-podcasting” XML file I had worked with before. I uploaded the XML file and shared it with the users of my ‘classes’ (not that I needed to, for this test — I already have access to my own files).

I got the BBCC URL of the XML file & pasted it into iTunes….

No error message.

I got a login popup.

I quickly entered my Matrix username & password & watched as iTunes downloaded my test media file. I would like to say that I nearly cried, but seeing how this test only took 5 minutes the anticipation didn’t have enough time to build.

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Now that I’ve gotten this to work, here are my initial thoughts:

PROS

– this will work well for those concerned with intellectual property rights & don’t want their materials being publicly posted (BBCC podcasts are password protected)
– this will also work for those who want to target a specific group, as any of the users they share with will be able to access it by entering their passwords. BBCC has a pretty decent permissions set
– can allow individual users, full courses, full organizations, certain roles in certain courses, etc. etc.

CONS

– you still have to make up the XML file. this is the biggest hurdle I can forsee with podcasting in general. this is why i like the blog-mediacasting idea — no worrying about XML, the blog creates the code, you just have to get the URL and distribute it

… if someone could make a good podcasting building block that will generate the xml for you IN BLACKBOARD and allow for the CC storage, etc, that would be fantastic

I’ve been using this blog software (Roller) to try podcasting.

I’ve tried about a million ways of podcasting and this seems to be the *easiest* (not necessarily the most flexible, but easiest way to get your media out there).

PROS:
– combines two types of net-media: podcasting and blogging. this can be beneficial for faculty who are interested in adding these kinds of things to their courses, but don’t want to deal with two completely separate systems.
– no need to learn about XML! XML is a special code that is required for a podcast – it gives all of the information needed to tell your “Podcatcher” software (like iTunes) where to find the files & episode information, etc. some software will generate this code for you, but there is no standard ‘fantastic’ software to get — and the good ones cost money. blogging can be free… you just need to pick a blog that gives a link to a ‘FEED’… look for terms like RSS 2.0 feed, or XML feed (if seeking blog software for yourself — blogs like Roller and Word Press do give the right feed links, Roller being my fav of the two)

CONS:
– doesn’t include the iTunes specific tags (i suppose you could try to type them in yourself, but do you really want to bother?). this isn’t likely a big deal, unless people want to add their podcasts to the iTunes podcast directory. Not having this DOES NOT prevent your podcasts from being subscribed to or played in iTunes.