Podcasting In The Classroom Article

So Exactly What are Podcast Feeds Anyway?

Podcast feeds have taken quite a jump in their popularity within the recent months. They are used to share all types of information and entertainment files and are extremely easy to find and use. Podcasts are made available via RSS feeds, which keep track of the location and updates made to the files. The location of the podcast file is inserted in this RSS feed which a podcast client uses to retrieve and download the file.

When someone refers to podcasting at this point in time they are generally speaking about using the method to share media files. Podcasting started off as a way of sharing mp3 files amongst audio lovers. Podcasting has now also become a very popular way of sharing video files. The great thing about using podcasting is that it is not limited to simply sharing MP3 audio files and video files. This technology may be adapted to share and distribute nearly any time of files in the near future.

At the present time the term podcast feed is used in reference to feeds with our used to share and distribute media files. The majority of pod cast are created for audio files. Individual files which are created and distributed are referred to as episodes. It is possible for an audio file to contain several different types of material. Podcasting is used to distribute many types of audio files. There are pod casts of new news, music, technology issues and generalized information files.

Because of the low cost of generating pod casts it is a technology which allows almost anyone to begin distributing pod cast files of their own material, be it music or general information. Podcasting is not just for individuals. More and more radio stations are beginning to offer pod casts of their morning shows and other parts of their programming on their web sites. The stations offer their listeners the opportunity to hear portions of the show they may have missed for one reason or the other. These pod casts are a very popular means for those listeners to get caught up on their favorite radio personality when other parts of their life intrude on their listening pleasure. Radio stations have also been able to increase their listening audience by placing podcasts of the show on the web site. Those individuals who cannot receive the show by radio signal can now download the show and listen to it at their leisure.

Of course one of the more popular uses for pod casting is the video blog. These web sites will use pod casting as a means of showing the editors rather than distributing an audio file. In this manner subscribers can not only hear what's going on but they can see it as well. This is very popular among the broadband Internet users, which is a group that is growing steadily.