Podcasting in Sakai & Some Annoyances

I've changed my mind about podcasting in Sakai. Mostly because Shelley got them to increase the limit from 10mb to 20mb. That was the same limitation with Wimba Podcaster in Blackboard and why I never used it. So with the increased size limit, I will be able to upload most of my podcasts. What's nice about having a podcasting tool built into your CMS is that it's all right there for students. They don't have to go anywhere, i.e. iTunes, to listen. That's not saying that I don't like iTunes U; I do. But for instructors who want to keep it simple, that's what you'll get. So I posted a podcast, and this is what students see:

Podcasts

Subscribe now by copying this RSS feed address and pasting it into your favorite podcatcher:

http://sakai.mc.maricopa.edu/podcasts/site/6276b28b-2fbd-44d8-80ad-4f1b3f7aa12f

Tuesday, 15 January 2008 05:13 PM MST
ENG101_ Module I-Week 1.mp3
This podcast is the Module I, Week 1 information podcast. I will cover the activities for Week 1.

Download (2.7MB MP3)

Posted by Alisa Cooper at 05:13 PM MST on 01/15/2008

I can create a link to this podcast in the Lessons area, but the link only allows for students to download the mp3 to their computer. I really want for the file to open up and play right in the browser. I'm not sure it will do that. I really like Odeo for this reason. They give you the option of several players that you can embed into blogs, webpages or your CMS that will play the podcast right there when you click the play button. Unfortunately Odeo Studio is not working properly right now. So for an alternative I'm using the Internet Archive because they have a pop up player that doesn't force students to download the file to their computers.

So that's my first impression of the podcasting tool in Sakai. I have a few other annoyances to discuss. For one, if you don't "finish" a process on a page and you leave the area, your old business pops up when you return to that area. I don't know why that is annoying to me, but it is. I could see how others might like that. For instance, if they left on accident, you would love for your previous work to still be there because you didn't get a chance to save. I'm in too much of a hurry for that. If I leave, I'm leaving for a reason. And when I go back, I want to start fresh. So I get lost often trying to figure out how to get out of places.

Not having access to stats is driving me crazy, and having to ask an administrator for not only that, but also to reset passwords is a pain. I'm just feeling like I don't have enough control. Maybe I'm a control freak and I want to be Sakai God like Shelley. Who knows. I just like doing stuff myself I guess.

What I learned today: Each student has his/her own blog in the My Workspace area, but it is not public and I can't see it as an instructor. That would be nice if I could.