Blogging, Podcasting and YouTube for Music Educators


Blogging represents the fastest and most efficient way to post audio and video files to the Internet without being an web master. While blogging techniques may be simple, free and readily available, strongly suggest you investigate www.tumblr.comfor creating blogs because it may be the only blog that allows you to post 10 MB audio filedirectly on the blog daily with no limit of the number audio files posted. And if you use their free third-part application, Tumbltape,you can have your entire Tumblrlibrary of daily audio postings in one standardized index for immediate playback for your students.

Most popular blogging sites are:

  1. WordPress.com
  2. Blogger.com
  3. Tumblr.com

Podcasting can be also be multimedia treat. See: Welcoming Podcast: Meet Mr. Cruse and Dr. Data

  1. Podcasting entry-level clinic at: http://www.kuzmich.com/podcasting/Podcasting_short.html
  2. Check my daughter's library at: http://www.tumbltape.com/onebrickshy and my media blog at: http://kuzmichmediablog.tumblr.com/ for examples on how audio and video files can be loaded and used seamlessly on a blog. Note: all audio files can be stored on Tumblrfor free if posted on different days and not exceeding 10 MB in size.

CamtasiaStudio by TechSmith is a must multimedia applications for creating videos by recording anything you see on your computer screen with along with webcam and audio with a capacity of three different tracks to mix and edit. You can convert PowerPoint slideshows, web pages, digital photos and videos all with narrations that can be customized. You can convert the videos to a multitude of file formats, most notably FLASH which is compressed and runs promptly over the Internet. Examples of exclusive use of FLASH is located at YouTubeand Vimeo. Special educator price is 50% off.

Examples of Camtasia Studio in action:

  1. http://www.kuzmich2.com/Camtasia_Videoconferencing/Intro.html
  2. http://www.kuzmich2.com/carmody/carmody/Carmody.html
  3. http://www.kuzmich2.com/Masterpiece/Masterpiece.mp4
  4. http://www.kuzmich2.com/Church/Flash/Moulton Lecture4.html
  5. http://www.kuzmich.com/employment/Untitled3/Untitled3.html

Here's more information on Tumbr.com that incorporates lots of multimedia features perfect for music educators. 

TUMBLR blogging (http://famusictechnology.tumblr.com/) web site with advantages outlined below plus allows us to embed all multimedia directly into the podcast presentation.

  1. Its free with advantages over other blogging web sites/services
  2. Offers a larger screen display for the podcasts than its competitors.
  3. Store audio files (podcasting .MP3) on their web site free which is not the normal in the blogging industry so you don't need an external source for podcasting file storage.
  4. Very Clean interface
  5. Offers flexible layout capabilities
  6. Very user-friendly in recording, mixing/editing and airing the podcast on their blogging site.

More blogging information below

Wordpress is somewhat technical.  My daughter likes Tumblr.com for uploading audio files and the interface is incredibly clean. It has no comments feature, which blogger and wordpress do, but you can use the free www.disqus.com program and with some HTML knowledge of cutting and pasting, you have comments.

Blogging and YouTube

Princess Reva Kuzmich Blogging Presentation: What, How and Why!! at: http://kuzmichclass.blogspot.com

Class Dashboard: http://www.blogger.com, Username: kuzmichclass@gmail.com password: jkuzmich

RSS Feeder: http://www.mypodcast.com

The elementary school music teacher in NYC that has used blogger and YouTube to skyrocket his school to fame (Over 21 million views!):
http://ps22chorus.blogspot.com/

Here's his YouTube page with all the videos:  392 videos thus far.
http://www.youtube.com/user/agreggofsociety
 
Here are the family blogs for you to bookmark and check out that my family uses.

  1. Mine: http://onebrickshy.tumblr.com
  2. My family: http://neverdrinkthewater.blogspot.com
  3. Dallin: http://phatfiddle.blogspot.com
  4. Liz and Rhys: http://isnowagoodtime.blogspot.com
  5. Quinn (he uses wordpress): www.centralcore.org
  6. My youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/princessreva

Podcasting

A podcast (or non-streamed webcast) is a series of digital media files (either audio or video) that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication. The word usurped webcast in common vernacular, due to rising popularity of the iPod and the innovation of web feeds.

Video podcast (sometimes shortened to vodcast) is a term used for the online delivery of video on demand video clip content via Atom or RSS enclosures. The term is used to distinguish between podcasts which most commonly contain audio files and those referring to the distribution of video where the RSS feed is used as a non-linear TV channel to which consumers can subscribe using a PC, TV, set-top box, media center or mobile multimedia device. Web television series are often distributed as video podcasts.

Podcasting is the latest method of posting audio or video programs over the Internet for listeners can easily access. It is fast, personal, convenient and cool. Podcasting is fast becoming a regular part of contemporary teaching strategies. In this workshop, you will learn the tools of creating a podcast. The process consists of three separate steps:

  1. Digital-Audio Recording,
  2. RSS Feeding
  3. Posting the RSS Feed file to the Internet.

The basics of a podcast is an MP3 file. In order to transform a simple MP3 file into a podcast, you must use an XML text title technology called RSS (Really Simple Syndication). The RSS text file looks to the MP3 file to include information about the date the podcast was recorded, the title of the podcast and the description of the recording. This enables listeners to use various software applications to look for new RSS 2.0 text files and automatically download the newest episode of their favorite podcasts. Freeware software will be featured for various platforms with Audacity, GarageBand, RSS Publisher and others.

RSS (most commonly expanded as Really Simple Syndication) is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format.[2] An RSS document (which is called a "feed", "web feed",[3] or "channel") includes full or summarized text, plus metadata such as publishing dates and authorship. Web feeds benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content automatically. They benefit readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from favored websites or to aggregate feeds from many sites into one place. RSS feeds can be read using software called an "RSS reader", "feed reader", or "aggregator", which can be web-based, desktop-based, or mobile-device-based.

An RSS feed icon, commonly used to indicate the Web feed for a podcast
 The logo used by Apple to represent Podcasting

Podcasting Instruction

  1. http://homepage.mac.com/mac_cast/time/project/podcast.html

Articles on the basics of podcasting:

  1. November, 2006
    Podcasting for Music Educators, Part 1
  2. December, 2006
    Tools to Get You Podcasting, Part 2
  3. In-Depth Podcasting clinic using Audacity, a freeware application: http://www.kuzmich.com/podcasting/Podcasting%20Web%20Site.html

Top 10 Free Windows RSS Feed Readers / News Aggregators

Examples of podcasting:

  1. Podcasting (Click Here, Wait for Download and Listen)

Examples of vodcasting:

  1. http://web.me.com/wcruse/Carmody_Middle_School_Instrumental_Music/Podcast/Podcast.html
  2. http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=305086595

Best digital sequencers for podcasting and vodcasting:

  1. For PC platform: Mixcraft version 5 digital/MIDI music sequencing software that makes podcasts with multi-track recording, built-in sound bites, opportunities to edit tracks, mix volumes, import sound bites and much more because it is a full digital sequencer that is fast and easy to use,   Their new version is completely multimedia savvy (video, links embedded videos, dand igital photo).
  2. For Mac platform: GarageBand 09 is a digital/MIDI sequencing software application that allows users to create music or podcasts. It is developed by Apple Inc., and is included in all shipments of iLife. Features: audio recording, virtual software instruments, MIDI editing, and looping. It is completely multimedia savvy (video, links, embedded videos, and digital photo). GarageBand comes free with iLife, Apple's multimedia suite.

YouTube

YouTube is a video-sharing website on which users can upload, share, and view videos. YouTube uses Adobe Flash Video technology to display a wide variety of user-generated video content, including movie clips, TV clips, and music videos, as well as amateur content such as video blogging and short original videos. Most of the content on YouTube has been uploaded by individuals, although media corporations including CBS, BBC, VEVO and other organizations offer some of their material via the site, as part of the YouTube partnership program.[4]

Before the launch of YouTube in 2005, there were few easy methods available for ordinary computer users who wanted to post videos online. With its simple interface, YouTube made it possible for anyone with an Internet connection to post a video that a worldwide audience could watch within a few minutes. The wide range of topics covered by YouTube has turned video sharing into one of the most important parts of Internet culture.

Here's some very interesting stuff about YouTube, go to a clinic posting at:;  http://www.kuzmich.com/St.Louis.pdf and you will find blogging and YouTube besides appropriate web multimedia info, digital recording and more.

Three files to peruse: for YouTube information