Here are the slides that I used for the two podcasting workshops that I gave at HoBid 2023.
Hobid 2023 is the international summer school Approaches to Research on Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, now in its 3rd year, this year from September 11-15, 2023 in Paderborn, Germany.
I created the Markdown file PodcastWorkshop.qmd in Visual Studio Code and translated it into a revealjs presentation using Quarto (version 1.3.450). The Quarto documentation can be found here. The result (i.e. the slides) can be viewed at
https://denkspuren.github.io/hobid2023/
The two hours scheduled for each workshop proved to be too short. I was barely able to get past the second exercise in that time. I guess the workshop would take more like 3-4 hours.
Unfortunately, it is not possible to create a usable PDF from the slides, because the Unicode characters are missing.
Technically speaking, podcasts are just audio files for download that are declared by an RSS file for distribution. In principle, a podcast can be anything you want to listen to. Usually spoken language dominates, but it can also include music, sounds, or sonic experiences.
There is an overlap with the audio formats you hear on the radio. Anything you hear on the radio could be considered a podcast. Even an audio book or a radio play could be called a podcast. However, podcasts are usually different from radio shows in that they do not have to fit into a schedule, they do not have to be limited in length, they can be very specific, narrow and very limited in their audience, they do not have to follow rules, they can be experimental.
I think the most defining characteristic that distinguishes podcasts is: A podcast is a conversation someone is listening to.
It's a conversation with all the characteristics that a conversation may have: it may be structured or wandering, associative or focused, funny or serious, interesting or annoying, etc. in any kind of mix.
The key point is: A conversation is something humans are drawn to. That's why people listen to podcasts. Either you are a listener to a conversation, or you are the other person in the conversation.
Storytelling can add to the mix, an interesting topic can draw attention, a clear narrative structure can help with understanding. But the key is to have a conversation. Even a seemingly boring conversation without a story or a storyline is interesting in itself. A conversation is, by definition, communicative and social; that's why it will find its listeners. Don't care who might be interested, someone will.
Press record and speak into the microphone. Some preparation helps, but it's not mandatory. Talk to an imaginary person or a real person to make it a conversation.
Reading a speech script to an audience is not a conversation even if its a scripted dialogue. It's acting, it's role-playing. You may be simulating a conversation, but you're not actually performing a conversation.