Creating a Podcast with Elementary students requires a closer look at FERPA/COPPA.
The explanation of the sample page is at the bottom.
G Suite for Privacy
Before starting, I would advice you to ask your School Organization if you can make your student podcast public. Otherwise, I hope this helps.
Using G Suite for Education is the best way to ensure privacy. The G Suite tools we need are:
- Google Drive
- Google Sites
- An account for your podcast (not required)
Start by creating a folder. Share the folder so that
- Anyone at your School Organization with the link… Can view only.
- Prevent editors from changing access and adding new people (if you let your students edit).
Alternately, you can keep it more private by Inviting people to View Only instead.
This will ensure that only those who are meant to see this will have access to it will.
Recording & Editing
Option 1
Use WeVideo and export as audio. If you can’t afford that…
Option 2
The Google Recorder app, is an excellent way to record and transcribe your podcast. This makes it easy to create show notes.
Sound can be edited using TwitstedWave Online. Use the Podcast School account for this website. Although, they claim to maintain privacy, I am not sure that it is COPPA compliant. Thus, to maintain privacy, do not allow students to use their accounts.
HOWEVER, if you do not have a School Account for your Podcast, you can edit the files without login in. They will not be saved online and the risk of losing the files increase.
Option 3
Screencastify now has an MP3 export option. Since Screencastify can record system audio, you can queue (and cue) some sounds that can be used for the podcast.
- Use YouTube Audio Library for music and sound effects.
- Use the pause recording feature to gather thoughts and take breaks.
- Use Hangouts Meet for interviews
- 5 minute Limit
- Paid version is limitless
- Use mrg.fyi/DonorsChoose to pay for the subscription
Embedding Audio on Google Sites
Now that you have saved your podcast episode on Google Drive, we need to embed it.
Here’s a Sample of how a website can look. To embed an audio file from drive, it requires a minor URL hack. After you create your Podcast Website:
- Select the Audio file and click on
- Copy the share with others link
- Create (or go to) the episode page
- Insert – Embed – By URL
- Paste the link, BUT don’t insert yet
- Change the URL as follows
- Instead of: /view?
- Replace with: /preview?
- Insert
Google Slides as Podcast Player
One key difference in podcast websites is the audio player. With the new audio feature of Google Slides, you can embed it as an audio player. See Sample Site.
Embedding Slides in Sites is simple. The main concern will be:
- to keep recent episodes at the beginning
- only MP3s are allowed
- no Google Recorder app
- how it looks
This idea comes from a VirtualGiff Post. Similar points of view with different perspectives.
Download Button
Downloading files may not be intuitive. This is how you can Force Download directly from a Google Drive link (URL):
- Select the Audio file and click on
- Copy the shareable link.
- Insert – Button
- Type Download and paste the link BUT don’t insert yet.
- Change the URL as follows
- Instead of: /open?
- Replace with: /uc?export=download&
- Insert
Download Button in Slides
Here’s how:
- Insert a shape. Example, Bevel.
- Type Download.
- Deselect & select the shape.
- Insert – Link.
- Use the same URL as explained above.
Conclusion
Once published, it may be difficult to remember the URL. Try a URL Shortener that you can customize (example, bit.ly).
I hope this helps. If you still have questions, send me a Tweet
