Zencastr is Great

So I used Zencastr yesterday for the first time when I connected with Michael Redfearn for Ep17. Very easy to use on my end and on Michael's end. After we finished recording the site even took care of some simple post-production stuff for me. After post production the audio was sent to my Dropbox and I had the option to download it to my computer. I downloaded it to my computer, did some editing in Audacity, added music, and then uploaded it to Podbean (the audio host that I use) - ready to be pushed out to the world! Looking forward to continued use with Zencastr until the next evolution of my journey.

And the Learning Continues with Zencastr

Ever since the Blab website went away, I have been using Google Hangouts on Air to connect with my guests. After the hangout I take the audio from the video and then edit it using Audacity. Well, earlier this month Google Hangouts on Air moved over to YouTube. It now lives within the "Live Streaming" section over there. At first I wasn't very happy about this but after some investigation I realized that it is essentially the same thing, just in a different place.

Last night, while I was surfing the net I got a FB message from my Jedi Podcasting Master, +Brian Briggs. He had found a 'new' podcasting option and was letting me know about it. Less than 2 minutes later, we are chatting on this new platform!! Talk about making my day! As Brian and I were chatting and soaking in the features/options on this site I had to wipe the drool from my face before it hit my keyboard. 

Zencastr is the name of the site and you can read about all its amazingness at the site. I just listened to the short audio Brian and I recorded yesterday and it's great! There is no video option with Zencastr but that is ok because video uses up a lot of bandwidth which reduces the quality of the audio when people are using wifi (and even when people are hard wired) to connect. 

Looking forward to using Zencastr right away. Stay tuned. 

Life's No Fun Without Obstacles, Right?

Not happy. I just got back from an awesome family vacation and super pumped to connect with +Toby Price. Toby and I have been going back and forth to find a good time to chat. I have been using Blab to connect with my podcast guests. Blab WAS an awesome way to capture video and audio - I would start the blab and then send the link to my guest. They would them pop in via video, I would hit "record" and we would chat. At the end, I would stop recording and Blab would send me an email of the audio and video file of the chat. It was amazing.

I go to log into Blab tonight and find this:

While this is happening, I am going back and forth with Toby on Facebook messanger about what is going on and next steps!! Of course he is gracious and offers to give this a go another day but I am determined to make this happen, tonight.  We set up a Google Hangout and record it, which works but not as good as Blab did!! As I write this post I am using an online video converter to grab the audio from the video. Word up to +Brian Briggs (my podcast Jedi Master) for listening to my rant about Blab being gone and offering me advice on how to proceed. Brian has been my go to guy for all things podcasting so it's really important that acknowledge the support and advice he provides me with. 

As I sat there, pouting, Brian tweets me and says that this "Keeps us on our toes and continuing to learn". So true, but you know, I wasn't in the mood to "learn" at that moment in time. Anyway, I just got the notification that I have stripped the audio from my video. I'm going to listen to it now and relive my great chat with Toby so I can get it published for the rest of the world to hear.  

"If you're not learning, you're dying" - +Tonya Reesor. 

Learning to Podcast - Part #2

The learning continues....I have had some time to play with Audacity on my PC. I recorded a short blurb about the podcast and then took some time to play around with it. The 'playing' is all about making mistakes and discovering how to do things like making my recorded audio sound better, how to add some music fading in at the start, and fading in at the end. Not sure if that is the route I will take but it is good to know how to do it.

This is what things look like at the moment:

Here are some YouTube clips that helped me out:

Audacity | Best Vocal Effects | Improve Your Vocals/Commentaries

Mixing Voice and Music Audio in Audacity

Learning to Podcast

I have this idea (which I think is great), it involves talking to people (particularly those that work in Education) to find out what inspires them and how they innovate in their day to day work.

I will post more about my idea, where it came from, and my vision moving forward in another post. For now, I want to keep track of the people and sites that I have come across to assist me in learning how to create a podcast and publish it.

I have spent some time communicating with Brian Briggs and  Bill Selak - both of whom have been quite helpful. They have provided me with their experience and some resources to get me started. David Theriault kick started things when I tweeted him to see if he has written a blog post about podcasting...the answer was no, but he tweeted out to some of his people who ended up providing me with some great leads. 

Here are the sites that I have gone back to several times for instruction and reference:

How to Make a Podcast by Justin Jackson

How to Publish your own Podcast on iTunes by Amit Agarwal

How to Embed a Podcast into a Blogger Post by Patty Savage

Special shout out to Michael Redfearn who used the work 'podcast' in a conversation we had years ago at TEDx Waterloo. He interviewed me at that event and then created a podcast around it. I remember thinking, this is crazy...I am finally joining his ranks!