Recently, Ryerson played host to ‘Podcamp’, a conference on Podcasting. While I didn’t hear about it until after it had happened (actually *during* – I walked past RCC and saw a sign on the door), they’ve posted all sorts of materials on their website.

http://podcamptoronto.pbwiki.com/

When I have some time, I’ll have to start watching some of their many videotaped sessions.

Thought you might find it interesting too!

It’s been a while, and although it looks like things aren’t happening on the podcasting front , you couldn’t be more wrong. We are moving ahead with all of our testing, producing, etc. in conjunction with a handful of podcasting pilots that are starting on campus. I can’t really say much about the pilots, since it’s not my story to tell.

Here are MY updates:

Podcasting using Roller (this blog software!) – This will be a portion of a DMP Taster session on Wednesday October 18th! Come to find out about blogging and podcasting using the Roller software. See the DMP Workshop Registration page for more details. This session will be led by myself (Stephanie Goetz) and DMP Instructional Designer Restiani Andriati.

iTunes U – a group of Rye folks met with the Apple Canada rep to get the ball rolling. Does this mean we’ll definitely be getting iTunes U at Ryerson? Not necessarily. It’s certainly not up to me. Papers to be read have been passed, some decisions need to be made by those ‘in the know’… Should be an interesting time. I would like to see us bring iTunes U in – I’m sure it’s no perfect system, but it has many of the bones to become one (from what I’ve read, since I haven’t seen much of anything).

Podcasting using Blackboard – more testing with this option was done by the DMP, and a few things came out.

1. We need to find an easy way for users to generate the XML, since this option assumes you already have your XML. We’re looking into building our own simple XML generator for people to use.
2. There was a problem subscribing to podcasts posted in the BBCC… on all computers but mine! I realized that these other machines, not being avid Blackboard users themselves, did not have the ‘root certificate’ installed on them, while my machine did. Went to this page: http://www.ryerson.ca/courses/Common/CompSettings/browser_setting_instructions.html#Certificate, downloaded the Security Certificate and all was golden. This will be added to my set of instructions before we start any real pilots of this process.

Almost ready to podcast – Over the last few months, I’ve been preparing some video tutorials of Blackboard with the intention of eventually creating a podcast. Why didn’t I just start a podcast right away? Well, I wanted to make sure I had enough content to actually call it a ‘podcast’ (a single media file does not a podcast make) AND I wanted it to be delivered on a production system. We were only testing Roller over the summer — it is now in production, and soon my podcast will be unveiled. I’m just working on a few last ‘intro’ podcasts, and some minor technical details. Very exciting for me!

We’ve been testing some blog software called ‘Roller’ (mentioned here a few times already). In preparation for our move into production with Roller, I’ve started a new ‘How to use Roller’ blog, which is currently a vehicle for some video tutorials.

Here is a link to the blog: http://weblogs.ryerson.ca/roller/page/usingroller

Subscribe to the “How to Use Roller” blog’s podcast by pasting this URL into iTunes:
http://weblogs.ryerson.ca/roller/rss/usingroller

WHY DO WE CARE?
Aside from offering info on how to start using Roller to blog, I’ve also covered using Roller to deliver your podcasts.

** NOTE: As of August 1, 2006. the video tutorials are fairly rough, with horrendous sound. I will be posting new ones at some point.