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What is Podcasting?

Podcasting can be used to broadcast many things, such as serial episodes, company profiles, news bulletins and other periodic or non-periodic audio-visual presentations or document files. In short, you can broadcast and receive anything that is on your mind! With podcasting, the possibilities of the kinds of things that can be shared are endless. You can share or download daily sitcoms, company presentations, weekly horoscopes, your favorite sports updates and interviews, live performances and what not.

Software like iTunes, available via Apple products such as the iPod, is a rapidly-spreading application that supports podcast. Now days, it is a regular feature in countries where bandwidth limitation is not an issue. Podcast can be used to view weekly interview series with a new person being interviewed every week. You just need to download the application of the particular program to receive regular updates of the same.

How Podcasting has Revolutionized Technology

Podcast allows the user to both send and receive clippings. Another important application used earlier was Radio Userland. Radio Userland also allowed live tours to be broadcast. Important experiments and discoveries, such as those of NASA, can also be telecast. The best thing about podcasting is that, unlike webcasting, things do not need to be streamed online all the time, and can be downloaded for future viewing, so that most of the things you need to view from the world of entertainment – news, sports and television – can now be easily viewed. But that’s not all; Podcasting can also be used for a variety of teaching and educational purposes.

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Teachers can record their lectures for fixed durations of time and podcast them to each and every student. There are many advantages of using this strategy. Firstly, it allows the teacher flexibility and time-independence; and if anything goes wrong, cuts and re-takes are allowed. Secondly, a student, who may be there in a different part of the world can access (or rather attend) the session. And if they are in different time zones, they do not have to wake up and spoil their night as the podcast can easily be saved, downloaded and accessed at any time.

Another major advantage of podcasting in teaching is that, since the clipping or presentation has been saved, the student can look up the lecture again and again, unlike conventional teaching, where the teacher just takes one class for a topic or a lesson, gives a limited amount of time to clarify any doubts and if the student is not good at retaining things, he or she might forget vital things taught in the class.

Students can also podcast their doubts or feedback and give the teacher enough time to emphasize the common issues as well as solve each student’s doubts individually. One might argue on whether so much dependency on technology is good or not, but the thing is when most of the things in today’s world are dependent on technology, and god knows what the scene will be some five years on, why not make the learning process simple as well? This way, students will also get to learn how to use podcast and similar technology to make things simpler for them.

Other Uses of Podcasting: The Possibilities Are Endless

A variety of content in order to increase likes on youtube  like marketing promos, political speeches, health awareness campaigns, and tours of places you can just dream of visiting can be telecast through podcasting. Podcasting also allows many new and independent aspirants or entrepreneurs to showcase their talent and popularize themselves, and make a way into other people’s pockets.

There are numerous uses of podcasting and it is for you to decide how it can be helpful for you. A very important feature in podcasting though is podcast editing. For software like Apple’s iTunes, the Garage Band is one of the applications that can be used for Podcast Editing. It is like an audio-visual workstation, which allows the users to edit pre-recorded or self-recorded podcasts at any time to help them make it innovative and creative. Also, if they want, the user can make the files in such a manner that only the person for whom it is meant can understand what is going on. Garage Band allows the user to create templates, add musical touches, record audio at different resolutions and mix waveforms. Volume levels can be balanced and altered to serve the purpose of the podcast.

If you have something useful on your mind, podcast it and let others know!