Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Project Play, Semester 2, Week 6

Week 6 assignment is an introduction to podcasting.

I have a Creative Zen Microphoto mp3 player that I puchased in June 2006. I wanted to subscribe to a podcast service and have the audio files downloaded to my mp3 player. So, logged onto the Creative site and found the section dedicated to podcasting. Creative use the ZENcast program which can be assessed online or downloaded to a computer, which is the recommended option.

So, I downloaded ZENcast Organizer and installed it on my computer. Unfortunately, the choices on this software aren't as detailed as the ones at the web site. Back to the online site. Finding the podcast component isn't intuitive. One has to select "Support- MP3 Player- Family Suites of Sites- Zencast". I selected the "Books" section and then the NPR Books podcast service. One cannot just download files, one needs to first register at the site. After registering, I was able to access the NPR Books site and download files to my computer.

I use the ZENcast organizer to transfer files from my computer to my Zen Microphoto player. One problem encountered was trying to find where the transferred ended up on the player. This mystery remains unsolved and thus I haven't been able to listen to the downloads on my player.

Following the instructions in the exercise, I logged onto the Podcast Alley site, located the NPR Book site and copied the address into Google Reader. I immediately was able to hear a reading of James McBride discussing his recent book Song Yet Sung.

After looking at a few of the listed library sites, the Denver Public Library sites is most impressive. The layout is clean. The podcast component is easy to find, just click on "DPL Downloads" and then "DLP Podcasts". It has a podcasting help page and one can subscrbe to the service using the RSS feed button.

While I don't see myself creating a podcast in the immediate future, I will be subscribing to some sites to kept abreast of current discussions. I envison others might setup a podcast for things like book talk programs.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Thanks for the story about your podcast woes, RDmpl. I had similar frustrations with podcasts with my old MP3 player. Not to sound like an Apple Commercial or anything, but once I got an iPod, it was so easy to get podcasts through iTunes that I'm now officially addicted! It's amazing how much the hardware (and it's associated software) can impact experiences with these types of tools.

RDmpl said...

stef:

I am going to spend a little more time exploring options with my Zen Microphoto player to get it to properly work.