In the quest for the easiest way to record podcasts, I discovered Gcast and am LOVING it. I actually found Vicki’s on the sidebar of her blog and mentally filed it for the future - Iuckily I remembered where I saw it!

Gcast allows you to create your own podcast channel hosted right at Gcast - here is how the site explains the ways to do so:

Option 1. Record by phone. You can record a podcast entry via a toll-free call to 888-65-GCAST (1-888-654-2278). You just need to select a numeric ID and PIN first. Whatever you record will automatically appear in your Playlist Manager, and you can even publish to your podcast channel directly from the phone.

Option 2. Upload MP3 files from your computer. Record and mix an audio recording on your software of choice, then upload it to us from your computer.

Option 3. Find “podsafe” songs on GarageBand.com. The web’s leading source of “podsafe” music, GarageBand.com is our sister website and fully integrated with our podcasting platform. Every GarageBand song page contains an “ADD TO PLAYLIST (+)” button which will add that song to your Playlist Manager.

The feature that made this stand out from all of the other services I tried was that it is SO easy to create a podcast by phone (I used my home landline) - it’s as easy as making any other phone call! This is really important for me, as I’m trying to find a really simple tool to use for classroom teachers and want them to be able to create audio recordings with no downloads or special equipment. This is perfect! I don’t want the teachers to have to buy microphones or download Audacity, as those add yet more barriers to entry into the world of podcasting. I also love that I can embed the player right in a Moodle course - this is one of the requirements that I had and it works great.

I included my test recordings here so you can hear the sound quality (not perfect, but adequate for a short podcast lecture if needed) and see what the player looks like. The content is NOT anything I’m all that proud of, but it serves the purpose…………

If you’re looking for an easy way to podcast, Gcast is it! If you have experience with this tool, let me know how it’s gone for you…………

Nothing very wild and thought-provoking today, I’m afraid. Just want to let everyone who uses my keyboarding site know that it has moved and the old link will be dead fairly soon, as my district will remove my school site when I leave the district. I moved the links to a PBwiki site and plan to keep updating it - right now all that’s on it is a copy of what was on my old site. Make sure to bookmark the new one! My plan is to set it up with a diigo feed so that whenever I bookmark a keyboarding link it’ll automatically update the wiki - we’ll see how it goes!

I know this is a sign of my infatuation with the shiny toy called Twitter, but I miss it working all of the time and all of the connections it brings to my otherwise small world. So, here’s my show of support for my favorite (well, tied with Gmail and Firefox) free thing:
Twitter, I won’t bash you, I won’t leave you in your time of growth…..I just hope everyone else sticks around with me……

Reading this New York Times article (An Upstart Challenges the Big Web Browsers) this morning made me gasp - it says 75% of all internet users use Internet Explorer!

Seriously? As an IE user myself not so long ago and a devoted, die-hard Firefox user now, I just can’t fathom this! I’ve seen the light! I haven’t tested out Firefox 3 yet, but once it’s released next month, I’ll surely be using it. Here’s what the NY Times article says about FF3:

“That notion has helped to rekindle the browser wars and has resulted in the latest wave of innovation. Firefox 3.0, for example, runs more than twice as fast as the previous version while using less memory, Mozilla says.

The browser is also smarter and maintains three months of a user’s browsing history to try to predict what site he or she may want to visit. Typing the word “football” into the browser, for example, quickly generates a list of all the sites visited with “football” in the name or description.

Firefox has named this new tool the “awesome bar” and says it could replace the need for people to maintain long and messy lists of bookmarks. It will also personalize the browser for an individual user.

“Sitting at somebody else’s computer and using their browser is going to become a very awkward experience,” said Mitchell Baker, chairwoman of the Mozilla Foundation.“

Questions about WHY you should switch from Internet Explorer to Firefox? Check out BrowseHappy - they’ll tell you ALL about it……………

And for the record:

1) Apple - no, I do NOT want Safari loaded on my computer whenever you install updates for iTunes. Stop asking. Seriously.

2) I tried Flock, but I’m too in love with twhirl to be able to use this browser consistently - when they’re both running (with Twitter in the Flock sidebar), it maxes out the API requests for Twitter and causes twhirl to say my request for updates has been exceeded. That’s a deal-breaker for me. The blog writer was neat, but not neat enough.

If you’d love to convince me to change my views on any of the above, I’ll surely listen………….

Related Reading:

Are You Getting the Most Out of Your Web Browser? - The Edublogger
Slimy Tactics Won’t Earn Apple Any More Safari Users - Mike Bogle