Bootstrapping an education technology podcast
What you need to learn
My colleague Kris Hans and I had never done a podcast, but we were determined to figure it out. Almost a year later and twenty-five episodes into our project, we wanted to share what we did to build the EdTech Examined podcast.
How it started
On April 7, 2020 I tweeted into the void — asking if anyone was interested in partnering on a technology-related podcast. The tweet was retweeted by a mutual colleague and Kris (who I had only met briefly) responded.
This humble beginning demonstrates that throwing ideas into the void can throw something back.
1. Identify an audience and scope
Original question: How can we help educators who are moving to online education?
At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, we wanted to prioritize helping educators who might be teaching online for the first time. Kris is an experienced professor who had taught online for several years, and I had previously worked in an education technology department before working as an academic librarian. Both of us are also technology enthusiasts. With our combined knowledge, and by interviewing experts, we felt that we could make a contribution to education technology with a podcast. Also, there were surprisingly few compelling education technology podcasts out there. We found our niche.
We knew our podcast would live at the intersection between education and technology. We also planned to make room for “something else.” The third circle of the Venn diagram wouldn’t detract us from the original audience and scope, but allow for flexibility. Think of it as permission to pursue paths that reveal themselves during the creation process. For example, a recurring theme on the podcast has been productivity (see episodes #3, #7, #9, #14, #18 and #20). We discuss not only the best tools for staying organized, but also productivity approaches as outlined by experts like Cal Newport. In fact, episode #9 “Capture, Configure, Control” is all about productivity and remains our most downloaded episode to date.
Choosing a name for your podcast is incredibly important because it’s the first thing your audience identifies with. Like the aim and scope, you have to choose a name that reflects the goals of the podcast, while also giving you the flexibility to incorporate content that are you are not yet aware of.
Why did we go with “EdTech Examined”? Because we wanted to focus on education technology, we felt that “EdTech” had to appear in the title — as either the prefix or suffix. The “Examined” part of the title was the more difficult decision. Again, we knew our episodes would comprise co-host shows where we offer our own expertise as well as interviews with specialists (in academia or otherwise). We were delving into — or picking apart — education technology. “Examined” seemed like the right word from both a definitional perspective and branding perspective. “EdTech Examined” is easy to say.
Kris get’s 100% credit for our logo which is simple and effective. The red circle drawn around “examined” is supposed to be reminiscent of a teacher’s red pen. We’re digging into edtech like a teacher digs into a student’s paper. We educate our listeners and provide practical suggestions based on what we’ve examined.
Furthermore, the name had an available .com web domain and was untaken on the major social media platforms. We wanted our brand to be specific and consistent across platforms.
2. Focus on good content
The key to the success of any creative endeavour is the quality of the content. Branding can only get your foot in the door of the listeners mind, but it doesn’t make people come back. Our process for developing what we consider “good content” is as follows.
For our co-host episodes and interviews we have a plan. Co-host episodes follow a “rundown” which was inspired by shows on the “TWiT” podcast network. The TWiT network has “rundowns” which each host has access to. At EdTech Examined we use a template for such rundowns. Our content is grouped into “segments” which are described below. (I want to give a personal shoutout to Leo Laporte, the founder of “This Week in Tech” since his style inspired me work in technology and undertake podcasting in the first place).
#EdTechOfficeHours: This segment addresses questions from listeners — that we’ve received via email or social media or in person.
News: Where we cover news about technology and education
Discussion Item: We will often have a topic, which may or not be in the news, that we want to discuss more in-depth. We tend to choose topics that we feel are applicable to a broad range of listeners such as productivity tools, privacy, data backup, etc.
EdTech Tips: Similar to our office hours, this section brings to light new technology tips that we’ve learned as professionals. We experiment constantly.
Most of these segments are presented on our co-host episodes, though sometimes we will forgo a section if there is a lack of content. We also switch the order of the segments sometimes to improve the flow of the discussion. If a news items relates to an “office hours” question, we might put news first so we can provide some context before we address the question. Consistency is important, but we don’t think moving things around is a deal breaker.
Interviews are somewhat simpler. Typically, Kris and I will develop 4–6 questions for the guest. Our questions tend to be broad enough that guests can take liberties with their answers, but not so broad that they’re stifling.
To record your episodes you will need some equipment…
We use USB mics by Blue. I use a Blue “Yeti” and Kris uses a Blue “Raspberry.” Both provide clear audio and they’re dead simple to setup. Someday we will advance to an analogue mixer setup, but these USB mics are a low cost way to get started.
Episodes are recorded in two different ways. We use Zoom to record our episodes. Zoom allows us to have separate audio for each speaker which saves our audio engineer Chris Hoang a lot of time. Zoom also has some advanced controls for increasing recording quality and reducing background noise. We also record our audio locally using Quicktime. (Kris and I both work with Macs). Quicktime audio records are a great backup in case our Internet isn’t cooperating.
In terms of editing, Chris uses Apple Logic. However, our early episodes (edited by me) were done using Garage Band — Logic’s younger brother. For those using either a Mac or Windows environment, we highly recommend Audacity — an open source software used by many highly regarded podcasts.
We recommend having a consistent recording setup. As you can see from our workspaces (which we call “Command Centres”) everything is in its place. If you’re using a desk mic, tape a spot where you always place it to record. Better yet, use a floor stand or desk clamp. Try and record in the same room or type of environment to get a consistent quality across episodes.
3. Share everywhere
A podcast isn’t useful if nobody is listening. Our distribution comprises a three step process.
Our podcast is hosted by Castos. You will have to find a host for your audio files, just as you would require a host for a website. Castos provides us with an RSS feed for our podcast. That RSS feed is how services like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and Amazon Music are able to showcase our podcast in their catalogue. Castos also allowed for unlimited data and podcasts under one account. They also have some nifty WordPress integration features.
A question we often get is “should I use paid or free hosting?” If you’re just testing the waters and not willing to commit to podcasting long term, we’d suggest free hosting to start. Anchor is the obvious choice. Anchor is owned by Spotify and it takes care of all the distribution for you. If you want more control over your content and plan to stick with podcasting, we’d recommend paid hosting. Our podcast has its own identity. We not only have our own web domain, email, and social accounts, we also have individual accounts for most of the podcast distributors. It’s a little more work to setup (a couple of afternoons), but well worth it to have full control over your content. It’s not prohibitively expensive and there’s a great article from Podcast Insights listing the major players in podcast hosting.
Note: From what we’ve read, changing podcast providers is not always that easy. There are ways to forward RSS feeds, but the process can vary. If you go with a free platform with Anchor, make sure to look into what transition to paid posting (especially a different provider) will entail.
Uploading content to a podcast host is fairly simple. You upload your audio, album art, include some show notes and click publish. If your RSS feed and accounts are setup properly, the episode should populate across all distribution platforms (like Apple) within a couple hours.
I said above that consistency is important in podcasting. We publish an episode on the first Tuesday of every month, as well as a mid-month episode (usually the second or third Tuesday). Once that episode is published (6am MST on Tuesdays), it starts getting pushed to the various podcast distributors. We always try and advertise our new episodes in the mid-late morning on the day of release.
Note: Missing an episode drop date isn’t ideal, but it happens. I’ve listened to many podcasts (big ones) that had to push their episodes. Our suggestion is to include a sentence in the show notes as to why, to remind listeners that you’re thinking of them.
Our Twitter and LinkedIn posts follow a fairly consistent format. We make sure to use as many relevant hashtags and emojis as possible to make the posts stand out. Posts are accompanied by the episode cover art. Pro tip: Twitter allows you to tag ten unique users for posts with images. We try a tag relevant educational or professional institutions that might retweet us.
One more thing about album art. Each episode has a unique design. Again, all branding credit goes to Kris. For interviews we use black and white headshots. But for co-host episodes, Kris creates a variation of our head logo using different icons that fit the episode theme.
Conclusion
We’ve learned a lot about podcasting through our journey. We have three takeaways based on our experience so far.
1. Identify an audience and scope
2. Focus on good content
3. Share everywhere
Actually… we lied. There’s a 4th consideration. Have fun! You don’t have to feel like a professional audio engineer or broadcaster to be a podcaster. You just have to enjoy the process and have the mindset of a professional. Like author Steven Pressfield says in The War of Art — a professional (unlike the amateur) shows up to work every day no matter what. Be consistent and enjoy the process.
If you’re interested in edtech and productivity, please visit the EdTech Examined website and subscribe with your favourite podcast app. If you want us to help answer your tech questions, fell free to reach out on Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram. Make sure to tag your questions with #EdTechOfficeHours. You can also email us at hey@edtechexamined.com
Until next time…
Acknowledgments
We want to give a big shoutout to Meg Wilcox, Assistant Professor of Communications at Mount Royal University for her inspiration and expert advice. Learn more about Meg at on her website.
I want to sincerely thank Leo Laporte — the founder of the TWiT podcast network and former TV show host. Leo has been a hero of mine since I was a kid. I used to race home from school to watch The Screen Savers on the Tech TV network. He inspired me to pursue a career in technology and (now) undertake podcasting.
EdTech Examined Team Information
Erik Christiansen, Co-Founder & Co-Host
Website: erikchristiansen.net
Twitter: @egchristiansen
Blog: tech-bytes.net
Kris Hans, Co-Founder & Co-Host
Website: krishans.ca
Twitter: @KrisHans
Market Grade: marketgrade.com
Christopher Hoang, Audio Producer & Sound Engineer
Website: chrishoang.ca
