Podcast Reflection

I actually finished up my podcast last week but I didn't get around to recording my thoughts about the process. I have to say, I definitely felt empowered when I re-posted my web page with my podcast and it worked- I feel like the techno-savvy queen! So, the first problem that I encountered while trying to get my podcast to work was finding a microphone that functioned. I have a headset of my own with a microphone. It work wonderfully with my original computer- a super-awesome high-performance machine which recently bit the dust thanks to a motherboard failure. I've been meaning to fix it but I haven't had too much time and the little Gateway desktop I have seems to do the job so far as word processing and internet searching goes. So, my headset did not work with the Gateway, a fact that was revealed only after hours of unplugging, re-plugging and failed recordings. I ended up swiping my roommate's USB microphone. Success...sort of.
My next problem was that every recording I did, even when I was practically screaming, was super quiet. It turns out I needed to go into the Control Panel and adjust the output on the microphone. Finally, I was set to go! I recorded my little intro a couple of times before settling on the final one, even though I sound like a dork and the words "Freedom to Read Statement" came out with entirely waaay too much emphasis on the dentals. Sounds like I'm totally angry at the Freedom to Read Statement. Like we're going through couples' counselling together or something. Ah, well.
After this point, everything went well! I picked out some background music that sounds like the beginning of an action sequence in a movie. I did this for a reason. I am trying to engender a more activist feel in my portfolio and I wanted music that was motivating and active but didn't have any vocals. After perusing through freeplaymusic.com's alternative selection, I settled on this one. The first thing I noticed was that the music clip was much louder than my vocal clip. I had to play around with it in Audacity in order to fade it out enough so that it didn't overpower me. My other challenge was moving my vocal clip to the center of the music clip so that there would be a nice musical introduction and end. It took me forever to find the little "move-it" tool but I did. After I played with the crescendo and the decrescendo, I was pretty pleased with the result. Now, to embed it into the web page.
I was glad that I messed around with the template web page because now I'm fearless when it comes to webpage editing. I was careful initially to include the exact same line of code that the sample webpage did in order to make sure my player was embedded in the webpage, eventhough it was held there by a dummy mp3 file. I double-checked it against the web instructions, however, just to make sure I knew all the possible play options. I certainly didn't want my short introduction looping on in the background so I made sure the loop was set to false and then inserted my podcast. I also embedded the podcast onto my original portfolio page, though I'm toying with the idea of creating another podcast with an entirely different tone for my other page, seeing as it is a little more laid back than my template portfolio page. We'll see, I guess. Anyway, I was pleased with the outcome after I re-posted my webpage. I checked it on a couple of computers that I didn't work on, just to make sure the podcast was working for everyone.
I have to say, I can definitely see how much of a tool podcasts are for instruction and information. I never had too much experience with them before but having done one myself, my interest is peaked. You know, I think is vocabulary that isolates people from new technology. I, myself, had heard of a podcast but never thought to figure it out because it sounded so space-agey. If someone had told me it was a way to make audio files available over the internet because they are compressed and downloadable, I probably would have been more open to them. I did a little research into them and found USF's own library podcasts, Library Guy and Library Girl. Wonderful and informative. I also like the supposed mobility of podcasts. It is entirely possible to download them and take them with you. I think it would be so helpful to have instructions you can download and take with you to the library, whether it be research guidance or microfiche instructions. It's another way to empower the patron.