EDUCAUSE 2005: The Merging of My Worlds - Sharing with Colleagues from Spring Arbor University

The podcast attached to this blog is the first time I used my new podcasting recording equipment. When I knew I was to visit the USA and be part of the excitng Educause 2005 podcasting project, I began to research how to best produce quality podcasting. This four week around the world expedition has been a journey of discovery and I know I will continue to improve in how to best plan and make educational podcasts. Please read on to see the equipment I chose to get good sound quality and in futher blogs I will continue to share what I have discovered and hope people will comment and give me further hints and of course share even better ways ... as there is always a better way.

About this podcast - I was living in Hawaii when I first developed an interest in the Internet and the amazing possibilities it allowed in education. My family and I lived there for nine years and were volunter missionaries with a very special Christian Missions Organisation called Youth With A Mission (YWAM). We had run a print shop and pubishing house for years prior to our nine years in Hawaii and were training people from around the world in Print Production. The Christian Church had no trouble embracing the opportunties presented by the invention of moveable type with of course the world famous Guttenberg Bible being the first major work using this process. As I entered university to get the first of my masters degrees and undergo a complete career change at the age of 51, I couldn't help but wonder how the Church was going to embrace and use this new revolution in communication and education. Over the years I have worked at the edge of the education revolution and have been on a learning adventure. I have not worked full time as a Christian missionary for a number of years but I know my heart lives in two worlds, that of online education and that of Global Christian missions. The podcast attached to this blog was a very encouraging encounter at the conference which helped my worlds merge for a short while. I was able to take a break from the rigorous podcasting schedule to chat with Dr Reed Sneard and Randy Meredith from the well known Christian institution, Spring Arbor University. We talked about the importance of the Church using educational technology to get on with the job of missions and how the local church can better educate and train its community family.

My Approach to Podcast Production: I have to thank Steve Gilbert again for a strategy he shared some years ago and I have adopted a LTA worldview into my approach to learning and teaching (L&T) with technology. The Low Threshold Application or Approach (LTA) is simple yet applying it to any area of L&T can have profound implications. Steve defines LTA this way in his article The Beauty of Low Threshold Applications dated 2/2/2002

• They have a low entry cost. That means low hardware, software, technological infrastructure entry cost and no major structural changes. LTAs are characterized by technology that is already almost ubiquitous, essential for the academic discipline, and/or inexpensive. In other words, the technology components of LTAs have low incremental costs for the institution and for individual faculty members and students who will be using them. Low incremental cost can result from the institution or individual already having invested in the necessary resources ("sunk costs"), or from the technology components having low, fully loaded, fully amortized costs.
• LTAs are easy to learn, and based on using technology applications and teaching/learning techniques that are already known by or easy to learn for both faculty and students.
• LTAs are not intimidating. Faculty and students do not perceive LTAs as requiring major re-adjustments in their roles or in their lives. The LTAs are based on technology applications and teaching/learning techniques that do not intrude into the classroom or disrupt the course. LTAs require activities that already feel familiar within the usual course work.
• Teachers and learners believe that they can rely on the technology underlying a particular LTA. LTAs usually work as expected, especially when used during classes that cannot easily be extended or re-scheduled. But reliability depends as much on the quality and robustness of the technology infrastructure of the particular college or university as on the LTA technology itself.

With the help of Brian Yuhnke a colleague on the Podcast Team, I went looking for LTA recording gear. i.e low cost, easy to learn and easy to use. What we discovered and I subsequently purchased when I arrived in the USA is worth sharing. Others may find it helpful if they want to do regular Educational Podcasting. It all started when I discovered that the iPod with all its cool features and style and unquestionable popularity only records audio at low quality 8khz - well the iPod I own. During the trip there was a new video iPod announced which appears to have customized voice recording settings of Low (22.05 KHz mono) and High (44.1 KHz stereo) but at the time of writing this users are not sure how this works.

My Choice of LTA Podcasting Equipment ... it works for me!

I was faced with finding an alternative recording device to get the quality of sound needed to start with CD quality then sample down if required. Then I needed more than one good microphone so I can record with myself and one or two others in interview. (interview is my recommenation for all educational podcasting if possible - but more on the pedagogy in later blog entries). Here is what I purchased and used for the first time in the podcast attached to this blog:

Recording Device: An iRiver iFP 799 1 Gb MP3 player. I chose this because it has a line in socket and can record at 44.1 Khz no problem. Here is a description of the unit but look around as there are some great deals on these things. They range from US$ 100 to 160+

A Microphone Mixer: I stumbled onto a great device used for video production. It is small and portable and can take two microphones including professional XLR plugged mics. It is a XLR Adapter and the product is called a Studio 1 XLR-BP™ Basic. This cost US$120 but as well as needed for multiple mic podcasting, it can be used to add multiple microphones to a computer for live webinar events - something else I do a lot of of. I actually added a third microphone using a double mini plug adapter which seemed to work as well.

Two Good Microphones: I wanted clip on mics so they were less intrusive and help the relaxed genre of podcasting. I chose Sony ECM-C115 Omnidirectional Lavalier Microphones @ US$50 each

Bottom Line: A very flexible professional quality recording system with two microphones and mixing capability for approximately US $350 (A$470)

I know I have a lot to learn about post production and will share the "ah ahas" in this blog. Please listen to the podcast and if you have any questions about this, or the sound gear I have described, please add your comments to the blog or email me directly.

Regards
Allan