A Model for Podcasting Educational Conferences

Developed by Allan Carrington, Online Learning, The University of Adelaide.

Project Aims and Objectives

Define the aims of your project, e.g.

The aims to publish podcasts of the insights and experiences of participants at the conference. This record of the richness of knowledge that is exchanged at the conference will be available during and post-conference for both the participants and people who were unable to attend. These podcasts will provide a valuable resource for further conference promotion and for use as learning objects.

Establish the objectives to achieve this project aim, such as

• interview keynote speakers and key thinkers at the conference
• capture through interviews the community wisdom shared by presenters and participants
• prepare these interviews as podcasts for upload, preferably on the same or at least next day
• to annotate and publish these podcasts to a blog site
  (if possible these should include photos of interviewees or other images for visual appeal)

Podagogy

No this is not a spelling error. This new word coined by Randy Meredith of www.podagogy.com is gaining acceptance in both the USA and UK. Randy is developing a Podagogical Framework which considers many of the issues related to designing educational podcasts. An explanation of how this pedagogical framework can be used to inform the design of educational podcasts can be found in the CLPD learning module From podcasting to learncasting. This is recommended as a guide to assist you in the development of your educational conference podcasts.

Team Makeup

The optimal number of members required for a podcasting team will depend on both the size of the conference and the number of interviews expected to be published per day. To really maximise the outcome of a podcasting project a team of at least three people is recommended.

Project Manager/Interviewer

• podcast interview organiser and interviewer

Interviewer/s

• one or more additional interviewers with instructional/learning design experience
• they would also be able to assist with podcast production

Podcast Editor and Publisher

• post production and publishing of the podcasts to a blog (an ICT and multimedia background would be desirable)
• they would also be able to assist with interviewing

Fewer team members will mean less deliverables and the publishing cycle will be longer.

Team Recruiting Strategy

Learning and teaching centres/units at universities and TAFE colleges may be open to an approach for suitable team members to volunteer to join your project. You can invite interested instructional/learning designers and educational technologists to join the podcasting team. You can firstly approach learning and teaching centres/units within close proximity to the conference and then try centres radiating further away from the conference location.

Pre-Conference Training

Once a podcast team is recruited a number of online live events/meetings are recommended where all aspects of the project can be brainstormed and discussed. Particular emphasis should be given to the techniques for developing questions which probe for knowledge.

Physical space and equipment needs

Organise for a quiet room to set up as the podcasting production centre. Team members return to this 'base camp' with audio files for the editor/producer; it can also be used as a recording booth when needed.

Podcasting technology is constantly developing and improving. Here are some recommendations based on experience gained from conference podcasting and one item just recently (Jan 2007) released by Belkin

A portable and efficient set up for recording, editing and publishing podcasts would include:

A mobile recording device for each interview team member (e.g. latest iPod or iRiver etc mp3 player) with a microphone. For ASCILITE 2006 in Sydney iPods with Micomemo microphones attached were extremely effective.
	For multiple person interviewing, panel discusssions and round tables a recently released iPod based recording studio has great possibilities. The Belkin TuneStudio, a new four-channel audio mixer designed for the fifth generation iPod with video that allows users to plug in up to four different instruments or audio sources and record the audio onto an iPod for instant playback plus two or more lapel mics should give excellent balanced levels results.
For above average, almost professional, results the Rode Podcaster microphone which can be connected by USB to your laptop and makes for "sound stage" like results

The podcast booth or room at a conference should have two or more laptops, with broadband access to the Internet, for capturing, editing and publishing of podcasts as they are assembled with photos and blog content

Podcasting Content Strategy

Plan to create podcasts pre-conference and during the event. Impressions and reflections of the conference experience may also be recorded after the live event via technologies such as Skype.

Pre Conference

Plan one or more podcasts for before the conference and publish well in advance of the event.

• Interview someone with a lot of conference experience, preferably of similar conferences. The subject matter of the podcast would be to inform potential participants about how to get the best out of the conference, how to create knowledge from the event, and then share this with colleagues at their institutions - to 'transfer the vision'.
• You could interview one or more of the keynote speakers on the issues they will talk about at the conference and why their subject is important/relevant. This can be recorded online if face-to-face interviews are unfeasible. This would be very much a teaser podcast but educational and interesting.
• Finally, you could interview a present or past participant who is an experienced blogger and discuss how to blog and its advantages to the individual and the conference. This can be particularly powerful and useful if an online learning community is planned or available (see below).

During the Conference

You should plan to have enough human and technological support to achieve the following:

• Podcast all the keynote speakers and key thinkers at the conference. Book 15 minute interview time slots with them in a podcast booth or room. It is recommended that all the podcast team attend the keynote presentations.
• Strategically divide the conference presentations between the interview team; have them attend and ask the presenter for a 10 minute podcast after the presentation. In addition, a participant could sometimes be invited to contribute reflections about what was presented. It is important that the podcast interviewer be at the presentation to become familiar with the educational context for the interview.
• From day two onwards one or more of the team should rove the conference floor, talking to participants, looking for good educational exemplars and narrative worthy of capturing in a podcast. As an example of this, at the EDUCAUSE 2005 conference many people had great stories and hopes and dreams to tell. This 'capturing of the community wisdom' had an attentive audience nearby, while the interviewee valued being asked to contribute.

You could also interview award recipients on their achievements and the conference organisers for the subsequent conference.

Podcasting Production Strategy

Provide each interviewer with:

• a clipboard
• a podcast summary form
  • for comprehensive note taking for an oral review (summation) at the end of the recording; the notes also provide content for a textual lead-in for a blog entry on the podcast
• an audio/photo release form for copyright clearance
• a (digital) camera is recommended for photos of the person being interviewed (if approved)

Return to 'base camp' as soon as possible after every presentation with the recording.

Keep post production to a minimum:

• a quick listen and editing of any serious section of the interview which need attention (this will be highlighted from the interview notes). Add an 'intro' and an 'outro' (with music if available) to the podcast.
• write an intro blog text and, if available, add a photo of the interviewee. The text should be informational in format, teasing people to listen to the podcast. It should also provide bullet highlights of the podcast content to help listeners know what's in the recording.

The production person/team should use their choice of audio editing software; the important thing is to use familiar software to get reasonable quality quickly. Two common programs are Garageband for the Mac and Audacity for the PC platform.

The travel record of my 2005 EDUCUASE trip (http://connect.educause.edu/blog/allanadl) is an example which illustrates the relationship between blog entries and podcasts.

Publishing Your Podcasts

The simplest way to publish your podcasts would be by using a public blog web site with an RSS or syndication feed capable of handling podcasts e.g. edublogs.org. Server space for storage of the podcast files will need to be established separate from the public blog site.

Building A Community of Practice

You might also consider establishing an online 'community of practice' whereby conference participants and others, e.g. educators, academics and those interested in education using technology, can share and contribute on the issues raised by the conference. EDUCAUSE CONNECT is a recommended model for this type of community. It was launched for the EDUCAUSE 2005 conference and matured quickly, with more people encouraged to blog and create knowledge at the next conference in 2006.

EDUCAUSE CONNECT was built on the open source platform Drupal. Since its original installation the EDUCAUSE team have customised it by adding many plug-ins (see the colophon page). EDCAUSE mention on this colophon page that they are open to approaches to share what they have built under the open source licensing, so it may be worth contacting them about it. Other open source solutions are available and a good review is 'Comparing Open Source CMSes: Joomla, Drupal and Plone'.