Final Podcast

Rachel and I convened in G-17, as always, for our final podcast. We've come quite a long way from that first experience. Instead of plotting what we plan to discuss beforehand, one person starts with a statement and the rest of the podcast follows from there. However, we've never scripted our recordings, and I feel that's important; spontaneity is interesting and can actually allow us to come up with connections that we hadn't thought of previously.

The first podcast took several days. We began with a lunch session of planning topics to discuss. Then we had other sessions of figuring out GarageBand, doing the podcast, editing and checking over it, and finally uploading it (and praying that it would safely find a home on iTunesU). Our final podcast took perhaps half of an hour. We said what we wanted to say, cut out the awkward pauses at the beginning and end of the sound clips, added some sweet jingles, and that was that.

The podcasts should definitely remain in this class. Honestly, I enjoyed that we were essentially free to talk about what we wished. I think that Rachel and I did a good job of staying "on task" in relating our discussions to the class. The time limit was the most difficult aspect; we found that we had a good deal to say, but had to limit it. However, the time limit steers the recording from meandering too far. As some classmates have suggested on the course blog, creating a system in which the class has to listen and provide feedback to the podcasts would be useful. This would ensure that everyone listens to each other, and allow people to learn from other's opinions of their podcast.

Is there any sort of career that utilizes podcasting? While I can't exactly imagine corporations throwing money at me so I can produce their podcasts, it sure is fun to do.