I recorded and distributed my lectures long before there was such a thing as podcasting or iTunes U. If you have no need to get hung up on RSS feeds or the formal way of offering podcasts, I still think what I was doing is about as easy and as practical as any approach I have encountered since.
I use a free, cross-platform audio recorder called Audacity. This program is very easy to use and I encourage you to download it and give it a try. The program offers the typical buttons you expect on any audio recording device or in audio recording software (record, stop, forward, etc).
The process I use when recording lectures is simple. I bring my laptop to class (a Macintosh so it comes with a built-in microphone). Just before I begin class, I launch Audacity and hit the record button. As long as I remember to stay behind the computer, the microphone does a decent job of picking up the sound. At the end of class, I pause the recording and save the file. When I have a few minutes, I export the recorded file as a WAV or MP3 file for distribution. The export options appear under the File menubar heading. I then upload this file to Blackboard (the course management system available at my university) or attach it a web page for distribution to students (the script I use appears below). The following link gives you an idea of what this process generates. I make no claims for the quality of the content, but wanted you to experience the quality of the audio.
The following script will insert an audio file within a web page. One approach I sometimes use is to insert this script at the topic of a web page containing web content. Students can then start the audio and scroll through the lecture material as the audio plays.
<p><object classid="clsid:02BF25D5-8C17-4B23-BC80-D3488ABDDC6B" codebase="http://www.apple.com/qtactivex/qtplugin.cab" height="100" width="100"><BR>
<param name="src" value="shortterm.wav"><BR>
<param name="autoplay" value="true"><BR>
<param name="controller" value="true"><BR>
<embed height="100" <BR>pluginspage="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/" src="shortterm.wav" type="video/quicktime" width="100" controller="true" autoplay="true"><BR>
</object></p>
I do not edit lecture content before providing it to students. My intent in providing this example is to demonstrate that generating an audio file that can be easily made available through the Internet does not require a great deal of time. There are certainly more productive uses of this technology, but the students in the large lecture environments in which I sometimes work appreciate the service.