Webcast Academy
Earlier this summer, a colleague of mine, Liz Drake, and I started learning about webcasting as “interns” with the Webcast Academy. The Academy is set up to train us interested folks in the “art” of webcasting. A webcast is like a live radio show streamed over the web. Others can listen in, and participate, sometimes in the live Skypecast or through a chat room.
Over the course of the last several weeks, Liz and I have struggled with the complex technical issues involved in running a webcast. Well this morning we had our first live streamed “show.” We streamed to Sandbox A (a sort of play/practice area for us interns) fairly successfully. We were discussing an article found online—a presentation to the Education and Technology Committees of the New York City Council by Ellen Meir from the Center for Technology and School Change at Teachers College, Columbia University.
We didn’t get to start on time because of some technical issues. We resolved those about fifteen minutes after our start time. A few minutes into the show, the chat room let us know that I was coming through but Liz was not. I had forgotten to set the sound capture in SimpleCast to the sound card, so no Liz. We fixed that and were good until the end.
You can listen to our conversation at this link (or below). It was recorded in Audacity since the SimpleCast recording was only half there. (Remember, no Liz.) Despite the glitches, this was really fun! We are both looking to do more with this in the future. If you are at all interested in trying out webcasting, I would suggest signing up for the upcoming Class of 1.3!
Our first webcast! (18.5 MB, 20:18)
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