here is the "virtual handout" for the starcast series of podcasts:
My goal is to use technology as a tool and not the driving force behind what is being done. In that mindset I am an advocate of the KISS (keep it simple, stupid) principle. [Note to self: talk to Karol about making it more simple in regards to webedit]
microphone
I'm using only the macbook with the built in microphone. It is easy enough to check and see if your computer has a microphone, if not you can buy one for $20 or less. As far as I know my budget for this is $0, so I am spending that amount on a microphone. In my opinion, the fewer pieces there are, the fewer I can destroy.
software
I'll be using Garageband. This is a mac piece of software that came with my machine. It seems to be pretty user friendly and capable of doing more than I could dream of. If you don't have a mac I recommend Audacity, this is free and available for Mac, PC, and Linux. Audacity isn't as "pretty" as Garageband, but certainly does the job. I used it for a couple of years before getting the mac and have had no problems with it. The only extra step to go through with Audacity is having to download a lame encoder (they explain it and give much better directions than I could) if you want to convert the .wav file to .mp3. You only have to do the step once, so it really is relatively painless.
after recording:
If you are just putting this on a cheap cd player for the kids to listen to, I would leave it in the .wav format. I have had fewer problems with the cheapo cd players and .wav than .mp3. I was able to find at Wal-Mart cd players for ~$10 pretty regularly, I haven't seen any in a while, they have increased in price by 50% and are available online here for $15.
If you are looking at doing this you might consider a cheap mp3 player. Those are available at Amazon here for $24.
I would suggest the mp3 player would be better because one doesn't have to burn cds, simply load the file onto the player. And, the cd players break, they are cheap.

Gary, do we have some budget money?

burning:
I'll talk iTunes here, all of the machines (semi-modern ones) in the district should be able to handle iTunes and I can give burning instructions for one piece of software instead of 35.

• Open iTunes and click File: New Playlist. Give this some sort of name you can remember, I chose star for the demo here.

• drag the audio file into the playlist you just created.

• put your blank cd in the drive and click burn disc.

uploading to the internets
This is the part that I think could be the most exciting.

• Everyone in the world could listen in to our discussions. We could invite people from around the world to participate in our discussions. (I am wanting to invite Dale McCurdy in for a future discussion panel about cscope. Dale is currently living in another part of the state, but had a hand in the creation of cscope and I think he would make an excellent panelist. For those of you that might be interested in a discussion of cscope let me know and I'll be sure to invite you.)
• Parents learning english and wanting to help their kids with vocabulary/spelling pronunciations could download the current word list and hear the correct pronunciations. The flip side, kids learning spanish could hear the "expert" pronouncing the words or listen to a recorded conversation in spanish. Teachers could record books for the kids to listen to as they read along at home. (***disclaimer*** I am not advocating any copyright infringement, send all lawsuits somewhere else)
• Students unable to attend class, but eager to listen to their teacher's stimulating lectures could download and listen so not to fall behind in classwork.
• Parents could listen to their kid's presentations for class.

can I really do any of this????
Well, the answer is yes, but not easily.
I am posting these podcasts to a site that I purchased (no PISD monies involved). I have to move the files that we create today to a PC because I don't have any software to work on my site with the mac. (Karol, Dreamweaver would allow me to work on my site with my mac and is only $199. If you have some money laying around and want to blow it on Dreamweaver for me let me know and I'll be happy to spend your money.) Of course this option still involved me buying a domain and paying the hosting fees. PISD does have server space that some people have access to at www2.parisisd.net, but you still have to have software like Frontpage (that has been discontinued by Microsoft but the district has copies of) and some time to kill to do this.

There is a better / easier / much more teacher friendly way to do this. Built into webedit there is the ability to upload images. If someone would change the code and allow .mp3 files to be uploaded instead of only image files we could put these in our PISD webpages with no commercial web editing software. HINT, HINT KAROL!

***disclaimer*** the following paragraph is fictional for any administrator type person reading. If you are an administrator please stop reading now.

I was able to get an .mp3 .jpg file uploaded via the webedit route and then download the .jpg .mp3 file and listen to it. The process was certainly not simple and would not be obvious for a parent / student / teacher to go through.