Project Summary:

The Podcast/Vodcast Project asks students to develop episodic audio or video content and a corresponding website to deliver it. Podcasts and vodcasts (video podcasts) are relatively new media, but already they cover a dizzying range of topics, and most are created by amateur enthusiasts. Something that effective podcasts and vodcasts have in common is that they communicate a specific topic to a specific audience in a specific context for a specific purpose.

Each student will create a complete podcast or vodcast including both an episode and a corresponding website venue. Students will analyze existing works to determine effective and ineffective features. Existing podcasts and vodcasts may be found through iTunes, Odeo, PodcastAlley, and other services.

Each student's final podcast or vodcast episode should be over 3 minutes in length and in an appropriate file format. The corresponding website should offer a properly formatted and functional rss feed to distribute the podcast or vodcast and a way to play the podcast or vodcast on the page. Podcasts and vodcasts may include talk, music, interviews, sound effects, jingles, etc., but the majority of the content in each episode should be original. This means that students can't, for example, make an episode that contains only unoriginal music.

Project Resources:

• Audacity download
• Portable Audacity download
• Embeddable audio player code:
  <embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" src="http://www.google.com/reader/ui/3523697345-audio-player.swf?audioUrl=PUT_THE_LINK_TO_YOUR_MP3_HERE" height="27" width="320"></embed>

Deliverables:

1. Example Analysis (10% of project grade)
2. Design Plan (10% of project grade)
3. Podcast/Vodcast and Corresponding Website (60% of project grade)
4. Materials Analysis (10% of project grade)
5. Postmortem (10% of project grade)