BIT Mobile brings podcasting class
By Michele Linck Journal staff writer | Posted: Thursday, October 26, 2006
SOUTH SIOUX CITY -- Podcasts will be popping up on some South Sioux City Web sites soon. And then they'll appear in e-mails.
Eight staff members from the city of South Sioux City, South Sioux City Police Department and South Sioux City Community Schools spent Wednesday evening in the University of Nebraska's BIT Mobile huddled over MacBook computers, learning how to produce podcasts and unleash them on the world.
Although they may sound like some Halloween Internet virus involving aliens, podcasts are actually a burgeoning new medium. It involves posting audio and video content on the Internet in a way that makes it not only available on individuals' computers, but downloadable and portable.
Consumers can take a podcast jogging, driving, on a tour of a historic site -- virtually anywhere an MP3 player, such as the popular iPod, can go. In fact the term "podcast" is a hybrid of "iPod" and "broadcast."
The BIT Mobile -- that's Business Information Technology Mobile -- is staffed by Extension educators Dewey Teel and Connie Hancock. They hit the road with the traveling classroom in March, teaching technological skills to all ages of Nebraskans.
Their South Sioux City class was eager to learn podcasting. The city, police and schools each has plans to use the format in a variety of ways that promote its own varied missions.
The possibilities are endless.
"We see it as a way for communities to really market themselves," Hancock said of podcasting. That's certainly on South Sioux City's to-do list. It will create a podcast featuring buildings and land available for new development and boasting of the city's infrastructure and amenities.
Tourist attractions, historical sites and events such as River-Cade could all become podcast subjects. There could even be a podcast for bird watchers, informing them of the bird species that can be seen in the city, City Administrator Lance Hedquist said.
"The neat thing about a podcast is it's free and updatable," he said.
The city's communications coordinator, Lance Martin, said he plans to make City Council meetings, library story hour and other events available in podcast format.
"The real power of a podcast, in my opinion," said Martin, "is the ability to subscribe to it. That way any time they update it, you automatically get it (via e-mail), so you don't have to go out and look for it."
Lance Swanson, technology director for the public school district, said he's been listening to a technology podcast produced in San Francisco for a bout a year and has learned a lot. He wants to use the format to accomplish the same thing for teachers and staff at the schools -- sort of an in-service-to-go, but specific to the schools' technology.
"We see it branching out," he said. Informative podcasts for parents, safety instruction for staffers, band concerts, pep rallies, even to get information to non-English speaking parents in their native language, are among possibilities.
South Sioux City Police Officer Greg Koinzan said he will create podcasts both for officer information, but also for the public. They'll feature such things as gang resistance education, drug awareness, tips on how to secure your house when you're on vacation -- things that are already on the department's Web site, but that could then be used on the go.
The BIT Mobile podcasting course takes two sessions. Hancock and Teel will be back in South Sioux City next Wednesday to see how students did on their homework and teach them more podcasting production skills.
Eight staff members from the city of South Sioux City, South Sioux City Police Department and South Sioux City Community Schools spent Wednesday evening in the University of Nebraska's BIT Mobile huddled over MacBook computers, learning how to produce podcasts and unleash them on the world.
Although they may sound like some Halloween Internet virus involving aliens, podcasts are actually a burgeoning new medium. It involves posting audio and video content on the Internet in a way that makes it not only available on individuals' computers, but downloadable and portable.
Consumers can take a podcast jogging, driving, on a tour of a historic site -- virtually anywhere an MP3 player, such as the popular iPod, can go. In fact the term "podcast" is a hybrid of "iPod" and "broadcast."
The BIT Mobile -- that's Business Information Technology Mobile -- is staffed by Extension educators Dewey Teel and Connie Hancock. They hit the road with the traveling classroom in March, teaching technological skills to all ages of Nebraskans.
Their South Sioux City class was eager to learn podcasting. The city, police and schools each has plans to use the format in a variety of ways that promote its own varied missions.
The possibilities are endless.
"We see it as a way for communities to really market themselves," Hancock said of podcasting. That's certainly on South Sioux City's to-do list. It will create a podcast featuring buildings and land available for new development and boasting of the city's infrastructure and amenities.
Tourist attractions, historical sites and events such as River-Cade could all become podcast subjects. There could even be a podcast for bird watchers, informing them of the bird species that can be seen in the city, City Administrator Lance Hedquist said.
"The neat thing about a podcast is it's free and updatable," he said.
The city's communications coordinator, Lance Martin, said he plans to make City Council meetings, library story hour and other events available in podcast format.
"The real power of a podcast, in my opinion," said Martin, "is the ability to subscribe to it. That way any time they update it, you automatically get it (via e-mail), so you don't have to go out and look for it."
Lance Swanson, technology director for the public school district, said he's been listening to a technology podcast produced in San Francisco for a bout a year and has learned a lot. He wants to use the format to accomplish the same thing for teachers and staff at the schools -- sort of an in-service-to-go, but specific to the schools' technology.
"We see it branching out," he said. Informative podcasts for parents, safety instruction for staffers, band concerts, pep rallies, even to get information to non-English speaking parents in their native language, are among possibilities.
South Sioux City Police Officer Greg Koinzan said he will create podcasts both for officer information, but also for the public. They'll feature such things as gang resistance education, drug awareness, tips on how to secure your house when you're on vacation -- things that are already on the department's Web site, but that could then be used on the go.
The BIT Mobile podcasting course takes two sessions. Hancock and Teel will be back in South Sioux City next Wednesday to see how students did on their homework and teach them more podcasting production skills.
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