If you would like to podcast your lectures or presentations, we are ready to help. We have found a recorder (Sansa e250) that hangs around your neck and records what you say. We have documented a process to transfer the recording from the recorder to your computer. We have found a free program that will quickly convert the file to the appropriate format. You can place your files either on Blackboard or on another server that we have set up. If we (finally) sign an agreement with iTunesU, you will be able to use that, if you would rather. Note that UM will provide the recorder and support, if you agree to podcast one or more of your courses.
Students at UM are really pushing for podcasts of their lectures. There is a group on Facebook called “Bring iTunes U to the University of Miami!” with 615 members. I don’t think they want podcasting so they can stop attending class. I think it is because the material that you teach is challenging and they can benefit from being able to hear it over and over, until they master it.
We have set up three identical training sessions to explain how to create podcasts of your lectures. They are scheduled for Monday, August 13, 3:00 PM – 4:30 PM; Thursday, August 16, 3:00 PM – 4:30 PM; and Tuesday, August 21, 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM. If you would like to try podcasting a course, sign up for a training session.
If you will be teaching exclusively in one of the new classrooms (all 13 rooms in the LC and rooms 100-106 and 200-205 in Memorial), then you won’t need to attend this session, since those rooms are enabled automatically.
Bill Vilberg
