In this podcast from the road, I compare the available features, limitations, and relative benefits of using the web service drop.io compared to Gabcast for cell phone (or regular land line phone) digital recording. Gcast is another available option for phone-in recording, and I discuss it a bit as well. Both Gabcast and Gcast became commercial-only phone recording services in the spring of 2009, but drop.io still offers 100 MB or about 450 minutes of free phone recording to anyone. In the podcast I provide an overview of a lecturecasting via cell phone pilot project I helped facilitate this past spring with a local university using Gabcast, and also describe how participants in our Celebrate Oklahoma Voices digital storytelling project have used Gabcast in the past to permit relatives in different towns to record and share oral history interviews digitally. Cell phone digital recording can be used to create “no-edit” podcasts which are immediately available on the Internet for others to access. When students are asked to provide summary podcasts of instructor lectures for class, these types of solutions can be ideal. It is also wonderful to be able to empower ANYONE with access to a phone to be able to provide audio input or feedback for a project. I am loving drop.io and highly commend it to you. Check out the shownotes for this podcast for extensive links to the resources mentioned in this episode.
Show Notes:
- Drop.io
- drop.io voice: leave voicemail on a drop
- Sony ICD-UX70 MP3 Digital Audio Recorder
- Gabcast
- GCast
- Duke Digital Initiative
- Duke Digital Initiative – Evaluation of 2004-05 Academic iPod Projects, June 2005 (PDF)
- Echo360
- 2009 Mother’s Day Podcast (created free with GCast – no cell phone recording used tho)
- Audacity (free, open source audio editor)
- Celebrate Oklahoma Voices
- StoryChasers
- Apple OS X Server Podcast Producer
- MidDel Public Schools
- MidDel Public Schools PodSquad
- CNAME Registry Change: Helping more teachers and students access a Ning website via a subdomain and a CNAME entry in DNS
- Digital Video Instigators (mini-lessons) from Celebrate Oklahoma Voices
- Scribe Posts by Darren Kuropatwa
- Pick-A-Prof
- University of Central Oklahoma
- Liz Kolb’s blog: From Toy to Tool: Cell Phones in Learning
- Cell Phones as Classroom Learning Tools – Liz Kolb’s 2007 presentation for K-12 Online
- Dean Mantz on Classroom 2.0
- Dean Mantz on Twitter
- PodStock Conference Ning
- BlastCast podcast (our post today inviting parent feedback via drop.io phone recording)
- The Dirty Thirties by Jeanette Hale (a digital story example which used Gabcast)
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On this day..
- Learn From Mike Wesch How to Create Better Videos for Students – 2020
- Clear Signs of Digitally Connected School Leaders – 2015
- Remove Disqus “Around the Web” Ad Images and Links from Your Blog – 2014
- Register to attend June and July 2011 Storychaser Workshops – 2011
- Web-based, Open Source Project Management Software Options – 2010
- BoxBe Courtesy Messages Discontinued – 2009
- An evening when DNS knowledge came in handy – 2009
- Military bloggers: Operational security risks or information warriors for transparency and truth? – 2009
- links for 2008-05-17 – 2008
- Web-based animation, video and storytelling options grow – 2008
Comments
3 responses to “Podcast317: Comparing Drop.io and Gabcast for Cell Phone Digital Recording”
[…] recorded a fifty minute podcast today comparing the features of drop.io to Gabcast, and also shared a little about a lecturecasting project with which I was involved this past […]
Hi Wes,
I am the tech coordinator for a small all-girls independent school in Buffalo, NY. It’s just beginning to be “grass-cutting season” here in the north! My grass-cutting ritual for the last few seasons has included your podcasts and my ipod! I just finished the backyard and your podcast on dropio. I have been using dropio for over a year to share short videos with my daughter who lives out of town. She redecorated her living room and wanted me to have a quick tour, so the flip video and dropio made it quick and easy! After my own experience (which is of course how it always happens) I gave some ideas to my teachers. One of my French teachers had his students use their cell phones in class to record their version of a spy reporting into the organization. Then they all could listen in class and enjoy each others recordings. He has also used it to have them record from home for homework. My math teachers use it to post all of the math worksheets in .pdf format so that they can be downloaded easily from home. I also wanted to share a new way we are using it. A few years ago I decided that we needed to record school history by those who lived it. (hmmmm…. did you influence that idea??? ) I started by having a live session with a few people and editing it to put on our website. We tried to encourage other alums to come in to share stories, but many live far away or are older or too busy. We recently launched a new website and I had a great idea. On a website form page,(Sem Stories) I posted a dropio phone number. I offered the alums a way to record their story from home. When they fill out the form telling me that they are recording, the form generates an email to me. I can then download their story and edit it in audacity, save it as an mp3 and post it back to my own website. Since the site was just launched, I haven’t had any takers yet, but I expect to have some soon!
Thanks so much for sharing your passion with us. I always look forward to your podcasts! Now cutting the grass isn’t as much of a chore!
Beth Adamczyk
Technology Coordinator
Buffalo Seminary
[…] 450 minutes of free recording time to users. To learn more, check out my May 17, 2009, podcast, “Comparing Drop.io and Gabcast for Cell Phone Digital Recording.” Kansas educators Dean Mantz and Brian Richter also discussed drop.io on May 2, 2009, at the […]