Becoming a Millennial

145. Google

One of my colleagues has been raving for a couple years now about Google Desktop -- how he absolutely could not live without it.  Yesterday I had some time to "play" on the computer and I installed it.  It's pretty cool.  It indexes all the files on your computer, including Outlook emails (even archived emails!).  You enter a search word and it instantly locates what you're looking for regardless of where on your hard drive it was stored. 

I also created a Google account so that now when I go to http://google.com it gives me my customizeable home page (pictured above) including Google search box, weather, newsfeeds, and also the RSS feed to a couple blogs that I'm reading.

Speaking of RSS feeds, I just installed the Feedburner widget onto my blog (over on the left under my picture).  Simply click on the "Subscribe to this blog's feed" link and it will enable you to add my blog to whatever newsreader (aggregator) you want to use -- Google, Bloglines, Netvibes, Yahoo, etc.  I really haven't used an aggregator up to this point but I'm going to see how Google's works for me.  I know that if you begin to have too many feeds coming in you can get inundated.  I'll keep you posted.

106. ETC Podcast

Back in July I discovered RSS Buddy, a utility to create RSS feeds for a podcast.  This week Steve Curtis and I used RSS Buddy to publish our first Educational Technology Center podcast.  Steve and some of our ETC staff & students have been talking about publishing a regular podcast featuring a wide range of topics. 

Several days ago they recorded the first episode and Steve edited the MP3 file down to 35 minutes.  We used RSS Buddy to create the RSS feed and then submitted it to iTunes.  Within a couple days it was approved and appeared in the iTunes catalog under Education/Technology. The name is ETCpodcast.

To subsribe to the podcast open iTunes ... Music Store ... Podcasts ... and enter "ETCpodcast" in the Search box ...  You'll enjoy it.

88. RSS Buddy -- What I've Been Looking For

You may recall back in June that I was trying to figure out podcasting.  How do you create an audio file and get it into iTunes so the world (or at least a few family members and friends) can download it to their MP3 players?

I learned how to write the XML code for the RSS feed, but who wants to write code?  I knew there must be a simpler method.  Today I found the tool I was looking for -- Podcast RSS Buddy for Windows. 

Disclaimer:  I have only played with RSS Buddy for one afternoon.  I don't know if it has flaws.  I don't know if there are better tools out there.  But it has a nice tutorial video, has a free trial period, is inexpensive if you decide to purchase it ($19.00), it's easy to use, ... and it hasn't crashed my system yet.  You basically fill in some blanks in a web form and it generates the code.  Just what I was looking for!

The RSS file that it creates complies with the iTunes specifications, so your podcasts can be posted into iTunes' catalog for all the world to access.  I'll keep you posted as I get more familiar with RSS Buddy.

BTW, you Apple users will want to use Garage Band for creating your podcasts.  It is the slickest tool out there for creating and publishing podcast.  One piece of software does it all.

37. Streaming Media Task Force

I am part of a task force that is investigating the use of streaming media here at Taylor.  We met for the first time two weeks ago.  We meet again this morning, and will meet every two weeks through the summer and fall.  On our campus there are demands for streaming coming from every direction -- admissions, athletics, academics, resident life, ... How do we facilitate all of this?

You may have heard about Apple's iTunes U.  Apple is offering to universities free hosting for the streaming of academic content -- half a terabyte of server space (that's 500 GB!)  Yesterday I talked to an Apple rep on the phone for half an hour, and then she sent me a formal application.  We'll discuss it more in our meeting today.  Some high-profile schools such as Stanford and University of Michigan have been early partners with Apple on this venture. 

I have been so impressed with the cross-platform functionality of iTunes.  Apple seems to finally be "getting it", that if they support the Windows world it will be to their advantage and everybody else's.  Now that Macs are being shipped with Intel processors it is really getting interesting.

To TU faculty -- if you have an idea of how you might use streaming media (either audio or video) in any of your courses please let me know.  If we were to go with a service such as iTunes U we need to document a carefully thought-out plan.

36. The Dynamic Nature of the Web -- Great for Fixing Things

When I listened to my four podcast recordings (see entry 32) I knew the volume was too low.  Today I was thinking about re-recording them from scratch. Then I remembered Audacity, the free sound editing software that I heard about at the CCCU conference.

I downloaded Audacity ... installed it ... opened the first MP3 file ... highlighted the clip (it looks like a wave pattern) ... went to a menu item and amplified it (the waves were now double in height)... saved the file back to my web folder.  I repeated the process for the other three MP3 files.  I was done!  Nothing else had to be touched.  It only took 15 minutes from start to finish. 

If you now go to iTunes and search for Gary Friesen's Becoming a Millennial Podcast it will open the same RSS feed on our web server which will play the new MP3 files.  And you'll now be able to actually hear them because the volume has been doubled.  They're still not very engaging, but keep in mind this is just a test :)

The above illustrates the beauty of the web.  It is all dynamic. You fix one piece and everything is fixed.

33. Multiple Casts Under a Single Pod

Yesterday I successfully got one podcast posted in iTunes.  I wasn't sure how to add additional audio files to my RSS feed.  That was my challenge for today.  It's amazing what a simple search in Google will produce.  I entered something like "RSS feed" and I quickly found a web site that gave me the information I needed. 

Remember the XML file I was working on (entry 24)?  For each additional feed I simply added a block of 8 lines.  You programmers will eat this up (Angie, are you hanging in there?).  The rest of you will say, "There's got to be an easier way!"  I'm sure there is, and that's my next challenge -- to find a piece of software to automatically create this RSS code for me.  I just want to fill in some boxes on a form and let the computer figure out all the syntax.

<rss version="2.0">
<channel>
  <title>Gary Friesen Becoming a Millennial Podcast</title>
  <link>http://faculty.taylor.edu/grfriesen/rss/</link>
  <description>A podcast of Gary's foray into the digital world of today's youth</description>
  <language>en-us</language>
   <copyright>Copyright 2006 Gary Friesen</copyright>
   <lastBuildDate>Mon, 26 Jun 2006 08:00:00 EDT</lastBuildDate>
 
  <item>
<title>Podcast #4</title>
  <link>http://faculty.taylor.edu/grfriesen/rss/podcast4.xml</link>
  <description>This is an experiment investigating the possibilities for faculty at Taylor.</description>
<enclosure url="http://faculty.taylor.edu/grfriesen/rss/gary4.mp3" length="1044480" type="audio/mpeg"/>
  <pubDate>Mon, 26 Jun 2006 10:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
  <category>Education</category>
  </item>

  <item>
  <title>Podcast #3</title>
  <link>http://faculty.taylor.edu/grfriesen/rss/podcast3.xml</link>
  <description>This is an experiment investigating the possibilities for faculty at Taylor.</description>
  <enclosure url="http://faculty.taylor.edu/grfriesen/rss/gary3.mp3" length="1044480" type="audio/mpeg"/>
  <pubDate>Sun, 25 Jun 2006 10:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
  <category>Education</category>
  </item>

  <item>
  <title>Podcast #2</title>
  <link>http://faculty.taylor.edu/grfriesen/rss/podcast2.xml</link>
  <description>This is an experiment investigating the possibilities for faculty at Taylor.</description>
  <enclosure url="http://faculty.taylor.edu/grfriesen/rss/gary2.mp3" length="1044480" type="audio/mpeg"/>
  <pubDate>Sat, 24 Jun 2006 10:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
  <category>Education</category>
  </item>

  <item>
  <title>Podcast #1</title>
  <link>http://faculty.taylor.edu/grfriesen/rss/podcast1.xml</link>
  <description>This is an experiment investigating the possibilities for faculty at Taylor.</description>
  <enclosure url="http://faculty.taylor.edu/grfriesen/rss/gary1.mp3" length="1441792" type="audio/mpeg"/>
  <pubDate>Fri, 23 Jun 2006 08:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
  <category>Education</category>
  </item>

</channel>
</rss>

28. One Step Closer to a Successful Podcast -- Found the Bug!

Evan, our TU webmaster, helped me figure out the problem with my XML code (see entry 24).  He pointed me to a website called FeedValidator that checks RSS code for errors.  It showed I had a wrong date format in two of my lines. It was easy to fix.

I went back to iTunes and submitted my podcast.  iTunes puts it through some kind of a screening process.  They sent me an immediate email letting me know they had received my submission.  They will notify me within a few days whether or not they will post it on their site.  Stay tuned ...

24. Podcasting -- Trying to Figure Out the Middle Piece

I'm still trying to create my first podcast, but I've been having some trouble figuring out the "middle piece".  On the front end I can record the MP3 file using my Olympus digital recorder.  This is simple and anybody can learn how to do it (see entry 12).

<<  The middle piece involves creating an XML file that will function as the RSS feed to supply my MP3 file to iTunes.  I created such a file (revising some sample code I found on the web) and saved it to my TU personal web folder, along with the MP3 file.  However, when I ran the XML file it gave me an error so I must not have done something right. >>

On the tail end (if I can get the XML file to work right) I have figured out how to submit it to iTunes so anyone can access my podcast.  I open iTunes ... select Music Store ... Podcasts ... Submit a Podcast ... and copy in the URL to my XML file (the pocast RSS feed).

But something is not working, so I'll have to get some help from our campus webmaster.  So there you have my little discourse on RSS, XML, URL, and MP3.  I could have added PWF (personal web folder) but that would have made it confusing. 

From what I've written above it sounds like you have to be a programmer to do this type of thing.  You don't.  There are utilities to automatically create the XML file.  But I have done quite a bit of programming in the past (BASIC, Pascal, C++) so I am having fun trying to make some sense out of stuff like this:

<rss version="2.0">
<channel>
  <title>Becoming a Millennial Podcast</title>
  <link>http://faculty.taylor.edu/grfriesen/rss/</link>
  <description>A podcast of Gary’s blog describing his foray into the digital world of youth</description>
  <language>en-us</language>
  <copyright>Copyright 2006 Gary Friesen</copyright>
  <lastBuildDate>Sunday, June 18, 2006</lastBuildDate>
<item>
  <title>Becoming a Millennial Podcast #1</title>
  <link>http://faculty.taylor.edu/grfriesen/rss/podcast1.xml</link>
  <description>This is an experimental podcast. I'm hoping to be able to help TU faculty begin to post their own podcasts.</description>
  <enclosure url="http://faculty.taylor.edu/grfriesen/rss/gary1.mp3" length="1441792" type="audio/mpeg" />
  <pubDate>Sunday, June 18, 2006</pubDate>
  <category>Education</category>
  </item>
  </channel>
  </rss>