The document describes Chocolat 3B, an Italian service that provides educational audio and video podcasts produced by K-12 students for other students. Teachers guide students in producing podcasts to engage them in traditionally lectured subjects. The podcasts are hosted for free on the service's website and distributed via iTunes. The platform divides podcasts into channels by subject and allows users to comment, download, and share content. While the low-cost production model is a strength, the service's reliance on donations and lack of revenue is a weakness.

1. Case study: Chocolat 3B
Giorgio Sironi (Nest Group)

2. Description
• Service: didactic audio/video
podcasts
• Target users: students of K-12 school
• Main actors
– Teachers
– K-12 students as producers
– Other students as fruitors

3. Description
• Didactic objective
– Engage students in subjects traditionally
lectured
– Diffuse podcasting between students
• Business model
– Producing material as didactic activity
(zero cost)
– Outsourcing of hosting
– Zero revenue, CC license

4. Browsing the website:
homepage

5. Browsing the website:
homepage
• Newsfeed with general information
• Presentation of the service
• Access to the various thematic
channels

6. Browsing the website:
platform

7. Browsing the website:
platform
• Outsourcing to lower material costs
to zero
– hosting
– content management
– statistics
– storage
– ...

8. Browsing the website:
platform

9. Browsing the website:
platform
• iTunes allow automated distribution
– to devices in the Apple ecosystem
– to computers with iTunes available
• Still a proprietary platform
– Lock-in with a single program
– Less immediate and universal than web-
based distribution
– No extensibility

10. Browsing the website:
content

11. Browsing the website:
content
• Divided in channels
– poetry
– history
– ...
• Standard features of blog posts
available
– Commenting
– Download
– Sharing

12. Browsing the website:
fruition

13. Browsing the website:
fruition
• In-browser player
– Playlists, tagging
– Sharing and liking in social networks
• Download of MP3 files
• iTunes
No DRM or limitations: just plain
sound files
– allows for the largest possible
distribution

14. Strengths & weaknesses
• Low cost production and delivery
– Student and teachers are part of the
production system
– Web delivery scales very well
• No revenue!
– Freely available and redistributable with
attribution
– Creative Commons non commercial
license

15. Conclusions & take-aways
• Multiple fruition platforms must be
available in podcasting
– Web-based but also iTunes
• Independent channels allow
– customization of the offer
– replication of a successful model in a
different domain (e.g. from poetry to
music)