We actually have found a work around that works very well, so we are up and running at this point in time.

In the mean time, we are researching GCast as well as a platform being developed by Michigan State University for our future work.

I agree with you that schools with resources should host their own services when possible. This is what we try to do whenever we can. However, we often use these “free” web 2.0 tools to seed until we have a critical mass. We have been showing Gabcast and GCast to our language department since the Fall 2007. It wasn’t until this fall that they began to integrate it and with the success, it has embedded itself into the curriculum in such a way that it is becoming an indispensable for the learning environment.

Hence, our looking at hosted options now.

I learned that our Avaya voice mail system stores messages as individual WAV files in a simple folder structure. How easy would it be to share one account’s voicemail folder to the network, pick up new files, convert them to MP3, and include them in a podcast feed? Alternatively, configure email forwarding for that mailbox and use POP to fetch messages and convert the attachments. I haven’t had the opportunity to try this yet, but it’s on my to-do wish list.

Richard

I noticed Gabcast had a five minute recording limit posted, so I think we’ll use Gcast instead. Any experience with that?