Biology - Unit 3
Exploring genetics through podcasting
Activity 2: Search, listen and subscribe to a podcast
Searching for a podcast
To search for podcasts linked to genetic engineering, type the following key words into any search engine (in this example Google is being used as the search engine): 'genetic engineering podcasts'.
Then you will get a list of websites which contain podcasts related to genetic engineering (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Searching for genetic engineering podcasts
Listening to a podcast
Now you can listen to a podcast (e.g. www.genengnews.com/gencasts.aspx) in three ways (Figure 2):
- by using click and listen (streamed from the website)
- by downloading and saving the podcast to your computer as a MP3 file; play this using any MP3 player, e.g. Windows Media Player
- by subscribing to the podcasts (using software such as iTunes).
Figure 2. Ways to listen to a podcast
The first two ways to listen to a podcast are easy and self-explanatory. To subscribe to a podcast, you need to download and install a podcast receiver on your computer.
There are many free options, including:
For this activity, download iTunes as your default podcast receiver and player.
Subscribing to a podcast
Visit www.sciencemag.org/multimedia/podcast/, which contains a series of science podcasts (or any other website which offers podcasts you may be interested in). On most sites you will get two options:
- subscribe to podcast RSS feed
- subscribe to podcast through iTunes music store page.
If you click on the first option, a code line will appear in your browser address bar, which may look like this: www.sciencemag.org/rss/podcast.xml
This line can be used to manually subscribe to the podcast. To subscribe to the podcast, copy (hold down the Ctrl button and press the letter C) the RSS/XML address into your podcast aggregation software, such as iTunes. To do this In iTunes, click on 'Advanced' and then click on 'Subscribe to Podcast'. Paste the RSS feed into the button (press down the Ctrl button and then key letter V) (Figure 3).
Figure 3. Manually subscribing to a podcast in iTunes
As new podcasts are posted, your podcast software will download them and save them directly to your desktop computer or portable audio device. Use the additional help weblinks below to give you additional support in subscribing to a podcast using iTunes:
Finally, explore the podcasts available for free by clicking on the iTunes store link (Figure 4). In the search button, type the words 'genetic engineering' and you should come up with a range of free podcasts to which you can subscribe.
Figure 4. Searching for podcasts in the iTunes store
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