Podcast from your FirstClass Account
One of the things about FirstClass that makes it an exceptional product for education is undoubtedly the ease of use that it affords. If you can click a mouse, you can use it for email, calendaring, blogging, personal web page publishing, etc.
The designers have kept schools, teacher, and students in mind as the product as evolved over the years. One of the hottest things in education and communication in general right now is podcasting. FirstClass has this functionality built right into it and it's so easy to get started.
From the File Menu, select Open and the Web Publishing option. Alternatively, you can select Web Publishing from the quick links tab on the left.
Now, from the File Menu, let's select a New Document. A graphical representation of all of the web documents that you can create is presented to you. Select Podcast.
On the left of you screen, you should now see an entry for your podcast. If your left menu bar doesn't appear, select the dividing bar and drag it open.
We're ready to start. In the menu, notice that you have a button to start a "New Episode". You'll be prompted to provide details about your Podcast. Go ahead and fill in the fields.
Finally, plug in your microphone or get close to the built-in microphone on your computer click Record Episode and then press the record button beneath your timeline. Carefully, record your podcast into your microphone.
When you're done, click stop. You can preview your masterpiece by pressing the play button. If you're like me, you might have to do this a few times until you get it perfect. Once perfected, go ahead and save it and you're now published.
You may wish to additional details and that's available by highlighting your podcast and select the button that says to "Edit Podcast Details". Heck, you can even add your own album art to the production.
How do you let your audience know where your podcast it? The URL will be:
http://fc.gecdsb.on.ca/~your.name/podcast/
where your.name is your login name to FirstClass or an alias if you've chosen to go that route.
As you wander your way through the GECDSB website, you'll probably note the number of teachers who have posted their own or their students' podcasts in this manner.
Why not? That's yet another reason why FirstClass remains such a powerful utility for education.
The latest FirstClass Client downloads are always available here.
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