Apple’s iTunes U(niversity)

Apple iTunes U “puts the power of the iTunes Store to work for colleges, universities, and other education organizations, so users can easily search, download, and play education content just like they do music, movies, and TV shows.”

This is Apple’s service for faculty to provide content for computers and portable devices.  Something to look into for podcasts and other online video/audio/PDF delivery services for classes.

PodShifter – Your podcasts; shifted faster.

PodShifter lets you listen to your podcasts with the sound shifted faster.

Speed up those painfully slow podcasts with this online service!

Procaster: Broadcast Your Desktop

MakeUseOf has a post on Procaster, which lets you Broadcast Your Desktop Over The Web.

Procaster “is a free tool which lets you broadcast your desktop live over the internet. It currently runs on Windows and has got a simple and easy to understand user interface. You can broadcast using your webcam or digicam, chat in real time, broadcast high quality 3D games, promote your stream on Twitter and much more. You could even mix multiple inputs in real time and produce great effects.”

Features

• Broadcast your desktop live.
• Record & play service available.
• Use any camera or webcam to broadcast.
• Broadcast your screen or a game.
• Fully moderated real-time chat.
• High quality broadcast available.
• Promote your stream on twitter.
• Free and easy to use.

ManyCam for your webcam

Kim Komando recommends ManyCam provides webcam graphics, plus you use your webcam with multiple programs simultaneously.

- Use your webcam with multiple programs simultaneously.
- Add text to your webcam video window with any application.
- Add cool animations to your video window.
- Show your local day and date in your video window.
- Add live CGI graphics like fire and water effects. You can even make it appear as if it is snowing inside your house!

Freeware.

CamStudio is Free Screen Recording Software

CamStudio is freeware and “able to record all screen and audio activity on your computer and create industry-standard AVI video files and using its built-in SWF Producer can turn those AVIs into lean, mean, bandwidth-friendly Streaming Flash videos (SWFs).”

This is a sort of open-source alternative to commercial software such as Camtasia or Captivate.

“Here are just a few ways you can use this software:

• You can use it to create demonstration videos for any software program
• Or how about creating a set of videos answering your most frequently asked questions?
• You can create video tutorials for school or college class
• You can use it to record a recurring problem with your computer so you can show technical support people
• You can use it to create video-based information products you can sell
• You can even use it to record new tricks and techniques you discover on your favourite software program, before you forget them”

Jing videos from your screen or presentation

Jing is freeware from the people at TechSmith who also make the commercial Camtasia.

Jing is a sort of “lite” version of Camtasia (without some of Camtasia’s features), that still lets you create useful/entertaining videos.

Freeware, for Windows or Macs. Bear in mind that video software needs a lot of RAM to run well — check the requirements against your computer.

Podcasting advice

Here We Are. What Now? has a post with advice on Podcasting.

Link to the CommonCraft video, advice on hosting, software, and some useful links.

How to Embed Almost Anything in your Website

How to Embed Almost Anything in your Website is a Digital Inspiration post with practical instructions on how to handle RSS feeds, videos, audio, photos and slideshows, web albums, events from Google Calendar, very large photos, charts and graphs, animated gifs and screencasts, chat functions, Word documents, PowerPoint presentations, spreadsheet data, PDF files, Flash (SWF or FLV files), LinkedIn profile, Google Maps, another webpage, Windows Media or QuickTime movies, other fonts, and FriendFeed lifestreams.

Whew!

Podcasting on the cheap

Library Journal’s netconnect (paper) for Winter 2009 had an article (page 12-13) on screencasting, a.k.a. podcasting.

Screencasting is the specifically video part of podcasting, and may or may not include audio capability.

Resources listed which you might want to check out:

• Screencast-O-Matic is a Java-based screen capture tool.  Posts a watermark at the start.  Can host here or download for use elsewhere.  Output in .mov format.
• CamStudio is a freeware creation tool.  Outputs in .avi or .swf formats.  Lots of options in video and audio recording and editing.  Helps to use advance planning if you want to have annotations.
• CaptureFox is a Firefox addon for that browser, but you don’t have to be online to use it — you can use .html files on your computer.  Outputs in .avi format but may scale it down.  No editing is possible.
• Jing is currently freeware from the makers of Camtasia (a commercial program) and is intended to create videos to post free (up to 2GB) on Screencast.com or exports to .swf format.

TipCam 2.0.1 for your own screencasts in FLV

ZDNet has a post on TipCam 2.0.1.

This is a “Free screencast recorder for Windows. Record your screen and voice in a flash video (FLV format) and share it instantly at uTIPu.com or via e-mail. It’s easy to use and has many features: fixed and auto-panned zooming, real-time encoding, voice-over and annotation. Optimize video quality and size for embedding into blog, vlog and wiki pages. It can even record activities on a remote computer via the built-in VNC support.”

Freeware.  December 2008.  Windows XP/2003 Server/Vista.

Make Use Of Podcast #43: How to Podcast

MakeUseOf has a tutorial called Make Use Of Podcast #43: How to Podcast

“Here’s a very broad overview of how to create a podcast from scratch.  In future podcasts I will delve more deeply into various aspects of podcasting (software, feeds etc.) but for now, you’ve got a general idea of how it’s done and can at least get started.”

CoverItLive for podcasts, now and later

MakeUseOf has a review of CoverItLive freeware, which is a “live blogging service that allows you to stream live commentary onto your web pages or blog so your readers can follow you in real time. In addition to commentary you can also post polls, youtube videos, images, get real-time reader feedback, accept questions from viewers, monitor poll votes, etc. Extremely useful for live coverage of events, conferences, interviews etc.”

“Once your live blog is complete, the embedded Viewer Window instantly converts itself into an Instant Replay. If some of the readers missed it live they can always read the live blog later.”

Sketchcast pairs voice with drawings

The Librarian in Black has a list of cool tools for webmasters, including Sketchcast.

“Sketchcast (sketchcast.com): This tool lets you draw and your digital drawings pair up with a voice file for a “cast.”  This reminded me of the Common Craft “Plain English” videos.”

Podlinez for podcasts on your phone

Podlinez is a free service that lets you listen to podcasts on your phone.Enter the RSS feed URL for a podcast in the box on their site to get a phone number you can call to hear it, or browse their directory for a number to try. If your favorite podcast isn’t already in the directory, you can add it immediately and it’ll be available to call within minutes.

Recommended by SmartComputing magazine.