Blogs at Penn State Community

You can use the Penn State blogs to quickly create a podcast feed. The feed will be accessible via iTunes or through a Web browser or news reader. To create the feed.

Create an MP3 File

First create an MP3 audio file. The Digital Commons Web Site (Click Podcasting under Platform) includes tutorials for software such as Garage Band or QuicktimePro.

Upload MP3 File into Blog

Note: There is a 50 M size limit for Blog file uploads. For larger files, use the Pass Explorer or SFTP to upload files into your Personal Web Space www directory.

1. Log on to http://blogs.psu.edu and enter your blog,
2. Click the Write Entry tab to begin writing an entry, then click the Insert File button in the formatting toolbar.
   
3. In the Insert Asset window, click the Upload New File link in the top.
   
4. In the upload window, click Browse and navigate to your image file on your local drive.
   
5. For Upload Destination, you can select the option for the current date in the drop-down menu. This will allow you to find images more easily at a later date.
   Note: If no path is set, the image loads directly into your /blogs directory on your Penn State Personal Web site.
6. Click the Upload button to upload the file. A new window will open with additional options.
7. Add a description and appropriate tags separated by commas. Click Finish to complete the image insertion process.
8. A link to the file will be included in the blog entry. The text can be added as needed.

Viewing Podcast in iTunes

To view the podcast in iTunes, do the following.

1. Navigate to your published blog (e.g. http://www.personal.psu.edu/xyz123/blogs/).
2. Find the link for Subscribe to this blog's feed in the sidebar. Right click and select the option for copying the link URL.
3. Open the iTunes application.
4. Go to Advanced menu then Subscribe to Podcasts..., then paste the URL into the pop-up window.
5. You will see a list of available files in that podcast. You will not see any text written in the blog entry.
   Note: The most recent file will be downloaded unless you select click the X cancel icon at top.

Other Podcast Viewing Options

• Users can click on the link within the entry to listen to the file within an MP3 plugin such as Quicktime, Windows Media Player or iTunes.
• Users can subscribe to the feed using a news reader such as Feed Reader (Windows) and NetNewsWire Lite (Mac) and click on links for audio.

Podcast Through iTunes U

If you wish to use the iTunes podcasting service, please review information at http://podcasts.psu.edu/. This service allows you to lock down podcast viewing rights by course or other Penn State unit and to navigate to the podcast directly within iTunes but is acessible only through iTunes.