podcasting webinar overview

Here is the podcast of the event.

The notice was short but we did get one of our screencasting early adopters Jane Huggins to join John Morris' IRT crew and myself at the Educause podcasting webinar yesterday. Cyprien Lomas and Jennifer Reeves reported on how they used podcasting to record conference presentations and hallway conversations. They reported that podcasting is 22 weeks old and new applications are being reported on a weekly basis. Their presentation reflected the enthusiasm of early adopters of a new technology.

An important point was made by Jennifer that the success of podcasting is based on simplicity and convenience. Some people who have not experienced podcasting find it difficult to understand what the excitement is all about. After all people have been putting links to their media on websites for years. The only difference in podcasting is that the files (usually mp3s) are automatically downloaded to your mobile audio device or laptop. But that is the critical step that makes this technology naturally integrate with the workflow of most people that commute. If you are going to listen to something anyway, and the audio files are just sitting there a click or two away, it becomes just as easy as turning on the radio. The added effort of having to manually download the files from a number of sources on a daily basis is not something most people (including myself) can put up with for prolonged periods of time.