Saturday, December 18, 2010

Start a Radio Talk Show with Your Cell Phone

I’ve been interested in podcasting for some time now. I have attended workshops, even workshops at the Apple headquarters in New York. I have sat down with experienced podcasters. I have had staff who consider themselves to have expertise in podcasting offer professional development which I've attended, but through all of this, one thing is missing. While creating the audio seems rather clear cut, we never get to actually publishing the podcast. Despite what I’ve heard, this IS NOT easy to do.

Well, with BlogTalkRadio creating your own radio show, which basically a podcast, just got easy. Anyone, anywhere has the ability to host a live, Internet Talk Radio show, simply by using a telephone and a computer. BlogTalkRadio provides seamless integration with leading social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and Ning, empowers citizen broadcasters to create and share their original content, their voices and their opinions in a public worldwide forum.

BlogTalkRadio is the largest and fastest-growing social radio network on the Internet. A truly democratized medium, BlogTalkRadio has tens of thousands of hosts and millions of listeners tuning in and joining the conversation each month.

For ideas on how you might use this forum, visit Ten Ideas for Educating Innovatively with Phone Casting.

BlogTalkRadio provides thousands of shows for free without needing to download software. Here are some additional features provided.
  1. Live Chat: Lets listeners connect with a community surrounding a show
  2. Show Archive: Listen to live streams or take them with you as MP3, RSS subscription or iTunes
  3. Reminders: Customized alerts by email or phone for upcoming shows
  4. Friends and Favorites; Collect listeners and add your favorite shows
  5. Customizable Profile: Add video, a blog, links to other sites or other widgets
  6. Multiple participants: Receive up to 5 simultaneous guests/listeners on your show
  7. Show Archive: Saved automatically and available as MP3, RSS subscription or iTunes
  8. Friends and Favorites; Collect listeners and add your favorite shows
Just like with podcasting, you can subscribe to a favorite BlogTalkRadio show using iTunes. Just visit the show profile page that you would like to subscribe to. At the top of every profile page is a show name. Next to the show name, there is an orange RSS button and an iTunes button. Clicking on the iTunes icon will open the iTunes software on the computer, and bring up the podcasts section on the iTunes store. Available for viewing is the show information for that particular show, along with a "Subscribe" button right at the top of the iTunes page. Simply click the "Subscribe" to subscribe to the show. A confirmation pop-up window will prompt you to confirm your wish to subscribe. You can then listen to the podcast in your iTunes by visiting your Podcast section of your account. If the arrow next to the show is pointed to the left, click that arrow so it points down and then all of the subscribed podcasts for that show will expand down the page for as many shows as they have available.

Social media is rapidly changing the way we discover, consume and share information. Transforming online monologues into engaging dialogues, social media platforms enable people to connect and communicate in new and innovative ways. Innovative educators and their students can join the discussion and leverage this emerging and highly-effective channel to grow engage and empower learners. The power of BlogTalkRadio can easily enable educators and students to connect with authentic audiences and the school community in new ways.


To participate:

2 comments:

  1. I've used Blog Talk Radio and more recently iPadio which allows phonecasts, both are great tools.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I use GarageBand for the audio, Keynote for the visuals, iWeb for the site text and MobileMe to broadcast the finished podcast.

    ReplyDelete