There are plenty of educators who can speak coherently and amusingly off-the-cuff. They jot a few notes down about the main points they want to it, and you turn on the camera or the digital audio recorder, and they’re off. One or two takes, and you’re done.

This approach seems quite popular—with greater speeds of creation, more of a sense of speaker personality, more impulsivity, and more casual informality. There are also more chances for instructor gaffes, which endear instructors to students and make them more approachable and human.

In the Popular Culture

During a recent foray into the Web, I watched an informal movie review delivered by the driver of a car going down some city streets. It was a short and timely movie review. As far as I could tell, the only reason for this delivery was novelty—and having some background motion as the reviewer took an occasional slurp of pop from a cup that may have come from a drive-through. The camera was placed low and from almost under-the-dashboard. He worked well to create a mood of lightness and enthusiasm even in this constrained media channel. His vodcast was likely quite popular and was delivered through a mainstream mass media site.

Going Scripted

Scripts for podcasts have varying levels of complexity. I’ve worked on some that had the speaker ad libbing major portions. Others are defined down to the sound effects and spliced-in visuals. Some are read verbatim. Some involve directions for actions—like (stand up and draw the model on the whiteboard at this time)…

Whatever works best for the individual is fine, of course. It does help to have some thought put into one’s comfort level with speaking for recording.