What is podcasting?

Podcasting is the method of distributing multimedia files, such as audio or video programs, over the Internet using syndication feeds for playback on mobile devices and personal computers.

Podcasting implies the ability to deliver programs like other broadcast media and has some advantages to education:

• Students can download their podcasts from their classes and view them wherever they go, whenever they like.
• New episodes of a podcast are automatically downloaded when students “subscribe” to that particular podcast.
• Instructors can limit the audience to students in their course.
• Instructors can produce and publish their own podcasts.

For educational purposes, a podcast could be:

• course audio files (example: classroom lecture, music, etc.)
• classroom sessions where a professor lectures while showing PowerPoint slides, transparencies, and screen captures (voice over video, training sessions, etc.)
• audio or video containing interviews with experts or other speakers
• multimedia presentations created by students

What makes podcasting special is that it allows individuals to publish (podcast) files that interested listeners can subscribe to. Before podcasting you could, of course, record the audio or video and put it on a website, but now it is possible for people to automatically receive new shows without having to go to a specific site and download it from there.

Unlike traditional radio or other Web-based streaming media, podcasts give listeners control over when they hear the recording. Podcasting makes use of the Internet’s Real Simple Syndication (RSS) standard. It differs from broadcasting and webcasting in the way that content is published and transmitted via the Web. Instead of a central audio stream, podcasting sends audio content directly to an iPod or other MP3 player.