Podcasting Help

Table of Contents

1. How do I subscribe to the School of Medicine podcasting feed?
2. What is Podcasting?
3. How do I subscribe and listen to a podcast?

1. How do I subscribe to the School of Medicine podcasting feed?
   Watch the screencast
   

   
   1. Before you can subscribe to a podcasting feed, you will need to have software installed that will allow you to subscribe and download podcasts. The most popular option for listening to podcasts is iTunes, which is available for free download on Apple's web site.
   
   2. Once you have downloaded and installed iTunes, log into MEdTech Central. Click on the link to podcasting page which can be found in the sidebar on the Dashboard and the Learning Events page.
   
   
   
   3. Click on the image of iTunes on the podcasting page to subscribe to the feed. If you are using Firefox, a dialogue box will appear confirming the link and you must the click Launch Application button to continue.
   
   
   
   
   
   4. iTunes will launch and you will be prompted to enter your MEdTech username and password. Once you've been authenticated, the podcasting feed will appear in the Podcasts directory and the episode for the latest learning event will automatically start downloading. To download a specific episode for a learning event, click on the Get button beside the episode.
   
   
   
   5. Now that you have successfully subscribed to the feed, the episodes of this podcast will now be accessible each time that you open up iTunes. New podcasts of learning events will automatically be listed as they become available and can be downloaded by clicking on the Get button beside the episode name.
2. What is Podcasting?
   Podcasting is a new form of audio broadcasting that allows individuals to subscribe to a group of audio files over the Internet and listen to them on their personal computer or portable media player. Although audio files by themselves have been available on the Internet for some time, the ability to subscribe to a feed and have new audio files automatically downloaded to your computer for you has made podcasting an extremely powerful and popular form of audio distribution.
   
   The term podcasting is closely associated with Apple's iPod, however, it is important to note than an iPod is not required to listen to a podcast. All that is required is a podcasting client (such as iTunes) and a high-speed Internet connection.
3. How do I subscribe and listen to a podcast?
   
   In order to listen to a podcast you will need a podcasting client, which is a software program that is capable of reading and downloading syndicated media content. The most popular and easy to use application for accessing podcasts is iTunes, which is a free audio program available for both PCs and Macs (download here). From iTunes, you can subscribe to Podcasts by entering the URL of the podcast feed or through the iTunes Store, Podcast directory.