Comparing Streamed Recorded Lectures to Podcasting Tech

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James Farmer discusses the alternatives to large systems for recording lectures. This comes from a Higher Ed background where the lecture is a common instructional method, but the issues have implications for the use of audio in all sectors. He writes:
"-A lecture delivered to a theatre is utterly and totally different to the kind of thing you'd broadcast as just audio (if it's any good it'll be interactive & unbroadcastable!)

-It has become painfully obvious that even the most diligent of learners is not going to sit for 60 mins or more at his or her PC listening and focussing on what you produce

-The streaming server is great but the files are so large that it just doesn't work for anyone without a huge pipe, what you really want is quick 'n dirty .mp3s

And you come to understand that all you need to do is give each lecturer a decent mic to plug into their PC, pop a simple .mp3 recording device on their desktops (which they can use to edit if they like), ask them to record max 20-30 min talks on particular subjects and then get them to pop it in as an enclosure to the course blog (which is, of course, also framed in the WebCT or Blackboard course and on the open web so available for podcasts as required). That way you have:

-A recording made for straightforward audio and of far better quality than anything captured 'in the wild'

-A recording that can be simply aggregated or downloaded to .mp3 players and hence actually listened to at some point!

-Damn small files"

The comments exchange after the article are interesting also in the + and - of the alternatives.