Note: This section is taken in part from Carolyn Foote's wonderful podcasting resource at:

http://connectedlibraries.pbwiki.com/Podcasting

What is podcasting?

A podcast is like a radio broadcast that can be stored online, downloaded to an iPod or an Mp3 player or listened to directly from a computer. Some of them are created by students, teachers, or speakers, while others are professionally produced.

Three basic ways of using podcasts in the classroom:

1.  For your own Professional Development-There are TONS of great educational Podcasts, or maybe you have ideas and want to start one!

2.  Playing a podcast or video podcast for the class as an instructional tool

3.  Creating a podcast and sharing it online

To locate podcasts:

1. Open iTunes.

2. Go to the iTunes Store and click on Podcasts.

3. You can browse through the available podcasts by categories, providers, popularity and many other convenient groupings.

4. To preview any podcast in the Music Store, just double-click an episode for a sample. If you like what you hear, click the Subscribe button at the top of the podcasts page. Or, if you’d rather download only certain episodes, click the Get Episode button next to the episode you want.

Managing Podcast Subscriptions:

1. Once you subscribe to a podcast, iTunes checks for new episodes at regular intervals. In time, the list of available episodes could grow out of control. To hide or reveal all available episodes, click on the display triangle for that podcast.

2.You may subscribe to podcasts that update more often than once per day. Just go to podcast preferences and edit the rate at which iTunes checks for new podcasts to Once per hour.

3.Time to unsubscribe.

Podcasts are like audio or video magazines. Once you subscribe, you can expect a new “issue” of that podcast at a regular interval. But if you find you have more than you can handle, it’s easy to unsubscribe. Just highlight the podcast you want to unsubscribe from, and click the Unsubscribe button in the lower left hand corner of the screen. To unsubscribe and delete all files related to the podcast, simply press the Delete key after selecting a podcast.