What are SniteCasts? - Ideas for Podcasting

What are the SniteCasts?

Whether you're on the bus, at the gym, or in the park it feels like everyone is plugged into one of those tiny MP3 players with white ear buds. Usually they're grooving to their favorite music, but listeners at the Snite Museum of Art just might be learning about Abstract Impressionism.
Students in Chris Clark's "Applied Multimedia Technology" class, offered through the Computer Applications Program (CAPP), have produced a series of twenty "SniteCasts," three- to five-minute audio programs about paintings and sculpture in the museum. Sudents produce five projects in Clark's course, including a podcast, an audio program designed to be published online on a free subscription basis.

To begin this project, students received the title of an artwork and a printed description. The goal was to learn about audio recording and editing, so students were not expected to do extensive research. They did make a personal commentary, though, and questions were provided.

Prof. Clark required his students to make high quality recordings. Thanks to a production grant from the Center for Creative Computing, he was able to loan out portable digital audio recording equipment. Students were allowed to recruit someone else to do the actual reading out loud, and some chose friends with radio experience. The podcast project also demanded a background music track that could be shared legally. To meet this requirement, most of the students downloaded music from GarageBand.com, a popular source of "podsafe" music. Students recorded voice segments, transferred digital recordings to a computer, and then used software to incorporate the soundtrack.

The SniteCasts are available at this web site and through iTunes. and other services. Listen on a computer or get the series and transfer it to a media player, such as an iPod. Compatible players display a small image of the art work.

Fall, 2007 - ITS Course Requests

Instructional Technology Support @ PhilaU is now accepting requests for Summer and Fall, 2007 Blackboard, eRes and iTunes U Course Sites.

If you plan to use any of these three content management systems during the summer or fall semester, please complete the ITS Course Request Form located at:

ITS Course Request

Notes:

• Reusing Material from a Previous Semester - Faculty who wish to reuse material from a previous semester are asked to indicate the Course Name, Semester, and, if known, the Course ID in the Course Import section.
• Using One Course Page for Multiple Sections—If you are teaching more than one section of a course, but would only like one site, please indicate this in the Special Instructions/Requests section.
• iTunes U Course—Creation of an iTunes University course is also located on this form. If you are interested in possibly trying podcasts for the spring semester, please indicate this on the form and I will also create a course on iTunes University for you.

If you have any questions regarding this process, please review the Blackboard Policies and Procedures (http://www.philau.edu/ITS/bb/bbpolicy.htm) or contact me via phone (215-951-6332), e-mail (gallb@philau.edu) or stop by my office in the Gutman Library

GrammarGirl - A resource for writing students

With the help of our Director of our Writing Across the Curriculm program and Assistant Director of our Midwifery program, I found a new resource that I would like to share with our community and other higher education and K-12 institutions.

Grammar Girl is a podcast about, guess what, Grammar!!!

In under five minutes, you'll get a fun and friendly dose of writing advice. Grammar Girl covers everything from punctuation and grammar to style and voice.

To subscribe to Grammar Girl in iTunes, click the following link:

Subscribe to Grammar Girl

iTunes will open and you will receive the current episode and all future Grammar Girl episodes. To listen to previous episodes, click on Podcasts and download the episodes you would like to listen to.