Podium or Audacity ?

I often get told by people that they are podcasting and, when I question them, I discover that they are recording sound and uploading the MP3 file to a web space somewhere or putting the recording in a blog etc ... this is beginning to annoy me a lot.

So ... Podium .V. Audacity

The difference is actually quite simple, they do different things.

Podium enables you to plan, record, edit, publish and promote podcasts. Audacity doesn’t.

It's important that we are clear that podcasts have multiple episodes and once they are subscribed to they are automatically delivered. If you create single, stand alone sound file, you are not podcasting, you are recording a sound file…full stop … simple as that.

Audacity allows you to record and edit sound files. It's an excellent piece of software but it doesn't create podcasts. Audacity is the sound recorder and is one way of creating the first part of the podcasting process. To create podcasts you need other pieces of software, pieces of software which, potentially, are going to put people off creating their own podcasts because they were developed for the technically capable.

Podium creates a podcast and the multiple episodes which exist within it, together with an image per episode. It can also create chapters in each episode, each of which can be recorded and edited individually. It also contains a scripting tool which enables children to script their podcast, hence embedding literacy and planning activities into the creation of the podcast. It then publishes the podcast to the internet and lets you promote your podcast to your potential audience. Audacity doesn't do any of this because it wasn't created for this purpose.

Podium also allows you to record edit and produce your podcast, importing sound effects and music, as well as recording speech. This is the area of functionality which Audacity also does, in quite a sophisticated way. Podium was created for use by teachers and pupils, Audacity, and the related pieces of software, were created for the adult world and are not anywhere near as intuitive as Podium.

The acid test would be to sit a group of teachers and pupils in front of Podium and Audacity, ask them to create a podcast and .Spend the five minutes it takes to take a look at Podium and you'll see why it is the way to put podcasting in the hands of those that matter most, teachers and pupils.