22 December 2009

Podcast Plan

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*Mrs. Wilson, I forgot to add the plan on the blog.... I kept it in my flash disk after I created it, and I totally forgot about it :( i'm sorry for posting it late*

14 December 2009

Podcast Designs

My design specifications – The podcast…

  • It Must be published
  • The topic should be related to adolescence
  • The podcast should have a picture that describes the topic
  • Should have background music – quiet and smooth
  • The length of podcast should be between 5 to 10 minutes
  • I should speak clearly so the audiences will understand my podcast well
  • Audio format
  • No offensive words
  • Tone of my voice – calm and relaxed, but sometimes strong to emphasize some points

Design 1
“Teenage Suicide”

  1. Greet people in a formal way with relaxing music (sort of classical type)
  2. Play the recorded interviews of teenagers how they think of teenage suicide – it will give audiences to get some ideas for the topic
  3. Give some examples of the ways teens commit suicide – I can research online for this information
  4. Question the audience about teenage suicide (ex. “Do you think it is a right way to end up your life?”)
  5. State my opinion of the topic, and give some supporting reasons
  6. Provide some preventions – for further information, I need to research on this topic as well.
  7. Pause after talking about preventing suicides (music volume a little bit louder) Then sum up my ideas on teenage suicide and finish podcasting.
  8. The music is playing for a few more seconds afterward

Design 2
“Being Wild and Dangerous”

  1. Start playing the background music and greet people (the music would be better if it has a fast tempo to foreshadow the topic)
  2. Question audience in a casual tone about the wild habits of teens (ex. “Have you ever tried smoking or drinking?”) – caution: be careful not to be offensive
  3. Examples of dangerous activities that teens undergo. Give brief explanations of them
  4. List the consequences of doing such things, such as teen pregnancy, alcoholic, types of chronic diseases…
  5. Suggest my point of view on teenagers going wild and provide reasons
  6. Interview some teenagers and adults about the topic to show different views on this subject
  7. Summarize my topic and make a final comment
  8. Background music plays a few more seconds after the podcast is over

Design 3
“Stereotypes”

  1. Start the background music and greet people in “nerdy” way – using professional vocabularies, etc.
  2. Ask audiences about how they felt about the way I greeted them
  3. Response to the question and state that stereotypes are wrong and biased
  4. List some common teen stereotypes
  5. To give information of those stereotypes, make a short improvising theater scene of them – I will need to ask for other classmate to help me with it
  6. State my opinion on stereotypes and try to persuade audiences
  7. Play voice records of some teenagers talking about stereotypes – 2~3 students
  8. Make a final comment on the topic and finish the podcast
  9. Background music plays a few more seconds after the podcast is over

My Final Design

I’m going to choose my first design to create a podcast because the topic “teenage suicide” seems a very interesting topic to me. I think teenagers should be aware of committing suicides by encouraging them to think positively and being happy and satisfied. I also want to give an advice for those who tried to finish their lives that it is wrong, and not a proper time to end up their precious lives. I think I will be able to work hard on researching some causes and preventions of teen suicide.
Even though all these three designs tend to be related much to the design specifications, I think the first design fit to them the most. For this design, I will be able to change the tone of my voice very effectively when I’m recording the podcast because there are parts that I should give audiences some warm words as well as a bit harsh and rational thoughts with strong voice.

Audience

Since my topic is based on adolescence, teenagers will be my general audiences. It does not mean that teenagers only in Mongolia, but teenagers all around the world. This is because I think teenagers have similar feelings and thoughts that can be shared by other teens. Therefore, I do not think that many teens will have difficulties to understand my topics. Even though it is mostly for adolescents, any grownups can listen to my podcast as well.


Podcast Design Possible Topics

I started creating a list of possible topics that I may use for my design as well as for the final podcast. They are not directly related to teens in Mongolia, but I think I can create connection between the topics and lives of Mongolia teens. My topics are:

Teenage suicide
These days, the number of teenagers committing suicide is getting larger. Whenever I saw some articles on news or magazines on teenage suicides, I wondered “what made them to end their life so easily.” In Korea, for example, some teenagers commit suicide because of peer pressure, or stress of grades, and some family or friend relationships. I think these factors are not only the causes of teen suicide in Korea, but worldwide causes.
Personally, I’m against teenage suicides. I, as a teenager, think that I’m too young to end up my life. We are not fully grown up, and we haven’t experienced other parts of the society yet. I believe that there will be a lot more fun stuff that we can do after we become adults. Therefore, I would like to encourage students to think positively and try not to give up their lives easily.
In this topic, I would like to talk about some main causes of teen suicide, and ways to prevent committing suicide.

Stereotypes
Adolescence is the time period when we, the teenagers are easily get influenced by different stereotypes. However, stereotypes tend to be biased most of the times. Without knowing the fact that stereotypes are wrong, some of students put others into these “groups” and make fun of them. Those who get stereotyped often feel depressed and excluded from others.
Overall, I would like to talk about some stereotype examples and giving advice to teenagers that stereotyping people is not a good thing to do. I think having some interviews would work well for this topic since I’d like to give some valid supporting details for my statements.

Hobbies and Interests
The way we (teens) spend our free time has changed due to the development of technology such as computer, cell phone, TV and some game devices like playstation. Our hobbies and interests tend to be different to our parents’ generation’s interests or hobbies.
For this topic, I would like to talk about some reasons of changed hobbies and interests, and then compare the way how teenagers in the past and now spend their free time. Interviewing elders such as teachers or my parents would work well for this topic.

Family relationships
Since teenagers tend to have emotional changes very often, they sometimes have arguments with their family members. I also argue with my family, mostly with my mom. After we fought, I always feel uncomfortable and sorry to my mom. I think many other teenagers would feel like me after any arguments. In this topic, I would like to talk about some ways to have a good relationship between teenagers and their families, such as how to suppress their anger and try to understand others’ feelings.

Being Wild and Dangerous
Teen pregnancy, smoking, drinking, going on drugs… These are some of factors that some teenagers have or have not experienced in their lives. They sound very wild and dangerous to me. I’m one of those who have not experienced these stuff, but I sometimes thought how it would feel like doing those things.
Basically, this topic will focus on some wild teenage cultures, and the consequences of undergoing dangerous teen cultures. I may need to research a little bit more on this topic if I’m going to choose it. Still I think it is also a very interesting topic to talk about on the podcast.

07 December 2009

Additional Interview

*Soo Yeon turned in her interview questions note this weekend=)*
Interview with Soo Yeon (Age 17)
What does ‘being a teenager’ mean for you?
To me, being a teenager means preparing for my future getting to know myself better. It’s when I come to maturity. It’s a time when I have more chances of learning new things, such as language and sports and fun activities. I think being a teenager is like being free, being wild when necessary.
Are you enjoying your life as a teenager? Why?
I don’t know whether I’m enjoying my life as a teenager because I’m always in a safe place. I want to go wild at some times like some other teenagers, but I can’t. My parents would try to protect me or set rules on me. I have to do things within the limit of their protection. I think I myself am setting too much rules on my behaviors and actions.


Is there anything that you get influenced more after you become a teenager?
I think friends influence many teenagers very much. But not me. I get influenced most by my parents’ advice or stories of life experience.

How would you define your teenage life?
hmm... Finding a role model and feeling safe in a community would be my teenage life for now.

Is there anything that has changed after you became a teenager?
I began to care about my appearance and what people think about me. I noticed that I have personality flaws sometimes. I began to think about my future career and what I should do in order to get into college.


What should a teenager do in order to enjoy his/her life?
I think teenagers shouldn’t play all the time. There should be a balance between playing and studying. Going to a lot of places would be good, too. I’ve done a lot of traveling with my family and it was a great experience for me as a teenager. Challenging or trying out new things is good, too. Or developing your own hobby can be fun.

Do you often feel emotional changes? When and why?
-I feel depressed sometimes with NO reason. I become edgy and I make sharp retorts at people.

-Sometimes, I go mad inside if my parents bring in guests without informing me. I feel like my privacy is revealed when the guests just walk in and I’m in my pajamas or my room is messy. I hate it when children come into my room and play. I hate it when people don’t close my room door when I’m doing something in my room. I think it’s all about privacy, I think.
-When I’m tired, I become edgy and depressed.
-When there is a big change in the climate or anything else, I become excited. Changes make me feel excited.

Have you ever thought of trying bad things (ex. Committing suicide, smoking, etc)? Why?
I don’t know if going to a night club would be a bad thing. But I wanted to go to a club with my classmates sometimes when they talked about it. But I never go. And I imagined what it would be like to drink and get drunk. People always drink in dramas or in movies. It would feel funny.

What is the most important thing in your life? Why?
For now, I think it’s my belief as a Christian and my study. Being a Christian would guide me through life and help me to form my life standard. I have to prepare to go to college or university, so I have to study hard.

Adolescence is a time to be prepared to become an adult. Are you prepared enough?
Not yet. I’m still not used to life outside of my parents’ protection. I have to become more independent in order to fully become an adult.

Any comments you would like to make about being a teenager?
hmmm..... I think it’s a time when you can make mistakes and do wrong things but can still correct them. So try new things~!

Podcast Investigation 5

In order to record a podcast, I come up with two methods. The first one is using voice recorder. This is the general way that people record voices because it can record voices clearly without any noise. I think it will work well when I'm going to make an audio podcast. The second method is to use a video camera and record the voice while I'm recording a video as well. This will spend less time if I'm going to create a video podcast. However, a video camera has higher possibility that it can catch some other sounds that I do not require to make my podcast. Other than these two ways, I do not think there is another one unless I can buy a professional recording equipments =)

After I record voice, I need to edit the records to make a better podcast. For this process, I can use podcast websites. They are really easy to utilize, so I can make and publish a podcast easily. However, I also think that using windows movie maker will also help me edit the podcast, especially when I'm going to make a video podcast. After that, I can go to the podcast websites and learn now to publish the podcast on websites. Some good podcast websites are:
www.mypodcast.com and www.podomatic.com They both include some tips of creating a podcast, and they also have creating podcast system online, so people can create a podcast without big difficulties.

I have not decided if I'm going to make an audio or video podcast. Despite of that, I came up with an idea to test my podcast. When I'm done with creating it, I'm going to put it on Facebook, and Youtube since I have accounts for both of them. Then I would ask people to make a comment on my podcast whether it came out well or not. I have some friends that I am not that familiar with each other on facebook, and I think they can be my guests to make a comment on my podcast. If I asked my classmates, I think they will try to make good comments since we are friends. However, those who do not recognize me will be able to make a rational, cold reply to my podcast so that I can figure out what I could've done better while I was working on it.

I also thought of publishing my podcast on itunes; however, I did not think that it would be an effective idea. When I was searching for some good podcasts on itunes, there were a lot of podcasts with good qualities. But many people have not seen all of those podcasts yet, and there were not enough comments about them. Therefore, I thought that if I put mine on the itunes, I would probably get poor feedback from other itune users.

I hope the project goes well, so that I can enjoy the entire process of making a podcast :)

Podcast Investigation 4

Rethinking Adolescence
Audio podcast link http://feeds.feedburner.com/RethinkingPodcast

This podcast is recorded from a history teacher. I firstly found it from itunes podcast section, and then I found the website of the creator of the podcast.

His podcasts are based on rethinking one’s adolescence in different ways. From the podcast that I heard, it told to people that journey of one’s life is very important and people should not be afraid of choosing the wrong path of their lives, even though it might be a challenge for some people.

I really liked this podcast; it made me feel calm and gave me a time to think about myself. This podcast gave a different mood than the other two, which were about sciences. The advices that he gave have very deep meanings and they were very helpful for me to think how I should make the path of my life.

The music was also nice as well. It matched with the record and the tone of his voice. His podcast gave me some information that music is also one of the most important parts of creating a podcast. If the music was very loud and fast, it would just distract the record voice.

I think his podcast went very well until he mentioned about his website URL. Even though the URL telling was sort of a type of putting an advertisement in a podcast, it ruined the quiet and sentimental mood of the podcast. Maybe he could’ve said the advertisement without the music to make the contents and the ads separate each other.

So far, there are only five podcasts uploaded on the website; 4 audio and 1 video. The latest one was published on 25th of April 2007, which has been a long time. It seems like he stopped podcasting at the moment.

On the podcast section, you cannot find information about the author, but on his blog. Therefore, if you want to know more about the author, it’s better to check his online blog.


Works Cited
D'Ambrosio, Jay. "Rethinking Adolescence". Rethinking Adolescence. 5 April 2007: 1. FeedBurner. 6 December 2009. http://feeds.feedburner.com/RethinkingPodcast

Podcast Investigation 3

This Week @ NASA
Video podcast link
http://www.nasa.gov/mp4/409260main_TWAN_12_4_09.mp4

This podcast (or NASA cast) is from NASA. The podcasts can be played as either audio clip or video clip. I chose the video podcast, to see some differences between audio and video podcasts. This channel tells you what events have occurred weekly. It is sort of like astronomy news.

The podcast that I chose included some information such as landing of Soyuz spacecraft, ambassador of exploration, and 17th anniversary of Apollo 17 mission. It included various information that are categorized differently with title pages.

Before I watched this podcast, I was expecting of getting some news of what’s going on in the universe, or some facts of the universe. However, it was mostly about some events going on NASA, not like giving information of exploring the universe. After I watched the video, I was not pretty satisfied with the contents.

This podcast was hard for me to understand. It might be related to my lack of English skills, as well as my knowledge of astronomy. After I looked at the script, I was able to figure out what kind information the podcast was giving.

Despite of having a hard time understanding the contents, I liked the visual effects of the podcast. Compared to audio podcasts, I could be more interested in watching the podcast. I was able to focus more on the topic, and the video tended to grab my attention better than the audio one. While I was watching the podcast, I thought that video podcasts will be beneficial for those who are visual learners like me.

This podcast channel has a new episode weekly, including a lot of information within. Since the podcast is not a private one, there is no information about the creator, or the narrator of the podcast. Overall, the podcast was created from the NASA organization.

Work Cited
"NASA TV's This Week @ NASA, December 4". NASA Podcasts. 4 December 2009: 138. NASA. 6 December 2009. http://www.nasa.gov/mp4/409260main_TWAN_12_4_09.mp4

Podcast Investigation 2

In order to know more about podcasts, I found three example podcasts from different sources; two from websites and one from itunes. Since I was interested in sciences podcasts, two of them were about some scientific facts and the other one is about teenage life, which can be related to the topic that we are working on at the moment.

Pharaohs Had Heart Disease
Click the link in order to listen to the podcast
http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=pharaohs-had-heart-disease-09-11-18

This is a podcast called “Pharaohs Had Heart Disease”, which is from online science forum “Scientific American”. It is from a section named “60-second science” and including introduction and conclusion, one podcast tend to have a length of 1min 15sec to 1min 30sec. The podcast is very short and it focuses on one major topic.

Basically, the podcast is about that scientists have found out that ancient Egyptian mummy had symptoms that are related to heart diseases. It gives an idea to people that heart disease is not a disease that people in modern times only get it from having greasy food.

I think this podcast is very interesting. It tells you some scientific facts in fun ways. Science tend to be very boring when you just talk about it without any visual explanations, however, I was able to enjoy listening to this podcast because the topic was simple and easy to understand. Also, the person voice recorded is very clear which I can hear it without any noises.

However, since all the information has to be done within 1min 30sec, the speaker tends to speak fast that sometimes I cannot understand the contents of the podcast thoroughly. If there was no transcript, it would be hard for me to fully understand what the speaker is talking about.

This podcast channel put new episodes very often with the interval of one to three days maximum. I think most of the topics are very interesting. However, I was not able to find information of the podcaster from this podcast except her name; I suppose that she definitely is a member of Scientific American.

Works Cited
Hopkin, Karen. "Pharaohs Had Heart Disease." 60-Second Science. 18 November 2009: 13. Scientific American. 5 December 2009. http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=pharaohs-had-heart-disease-09-11-18

Podcast Investigation 1

We started a new unit which is going to be about creating a podcast on the teenage life in Mongolia. A podcast is a type of digital media either in audio or video forms that are released in episodes. You can easily download podcasts with/without paying on many online websites that offer podcasts, such as “itunes”.

The term podcast came from mixing two words: “pod” from iPod, and “cast” from broadcasting. Podcasts can be used in different ways. Some of them are made to give you some tips of studies, entertainment, or some life advices for people. They can also be used to show the podcast creator’s hobbies or his/her interest on certain topics. Overall, it can be a way to communicate each other in indirect ways through telling one’s opinion via video or audio.

Any people can create a podcast; a student, a specialist or even a businessperson. For example, there may be a professional NASA astronaut who recorded a podcast, and a student also can create a podcast by using his/her own knowledge on certain science categories. Likewise, age, gender, profession does not matter in terms of creating a podcast. ANYONE can be a creator.

There are a lot of people who enjoys listening to podcasts. Some people may listen to them for fun and others for education, or even relaxation. Anyone who is willing to listen to podcasts is welcomed to subscribe podcasts.

There are some websites that allow you to create a podcast for free. (http://www.mypodcast.com/ is a good example) In order to create a podcast, first you record your contents either in an audio or video form. After that, you can edit the record by adding music or advertisements so to make it more nicely and sound “professional”. =) Some expert podcasters may use high-quality recording systems, but they are very costly, which might be not affordable for some commoners. Therefore, many people use simple voice recorders in general; they still record the sounds pretty well.

My task, as described above, is to create a podcast about teenage life in Mongolia. I think this project will be a good opportunity for teenagers, including myself, to learn how to adapt them better to the new technology. Teenagers are going to be the one who is going to face the new technologies in the future, and I think podcasts are a good sample of the new technology. Podcasts are “developed” versions of radio broadcasting, and I think they will help teenagers to understand developed technology more. Furthermore, personally, creating a podcast will actually help me to know what actually it is. I did not know about podcasts until I started doing this project. As soon as I started to get some information about it, I think podcast is a very interesting media source that people can enjoy. Therefore, I would want to figure out what I can do and learn from creating a podcast.

Since I’m going to make a podcast based on a life of a teenager, I think my podcast will be the most suitable for teenagers, especially those in Mongolia. In fact, I think any generation can listen to my podcast; however, there might be some parts that do not match with other generation’s cultures. This is why I would prefer teenagers to listen to my podcast.


Works Cited

"Podcast". Wikipedia. 4 December 2009. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcast

"What is a Podcast". How To Podcast. 4 December 2009.
http://www.how-to-podcast-tutorial.com/what-is-a-podcast.htm