Podcasting in Surrey (without a fringe)

Sometimes people just make my day.

Yesterday I had wakened early (before 5.00) and had begun my drive down the M1 towards Surrey. My route was to take me on to the M25 and then around to J10 and off to Cobham. I gave myself 3 hours to do it ... it was not enough. I arrived on the M25parkway at just before 7.00 and then stopped and started my way around anti-clockwise ... even had time to count the number of jets I could see in the sky over Heathrow (7). I arrived at the 4S Training Centre in Cobham at 8.33 ... rushed in ... and was greeted by smiles and a really warm welcome. Just down the corridor, in the room we were to work in I met Tim Barette ... more smiles, warm handshake, and 'What can I get you to drink?' and 'Is there anything I can do to help?' and ' Will this be okay for you?' and 'Is there anything else you need?'

Sometimes people just make your day ... thanks Tim !!

Then the teachers came and we podcasted. We used Podium from Softease and it was easy to use and didn't get in the way of what we were trying to do and we recorded sounds and made podcasts and had fun and could see why we might want to do this with children in classrooms.

We took poems as a theme and the teachers read and developed lots of ideas and added backing tracks and 'stings' to their productions. We spoke of building a podcast as a 'design and build' exercise in D & T and commented that preparing the resources ( sound files mainly) was a pre-podcast job.

The scripting tool in the software excited interest and its potential was not lost on a group of primary teachers who could see the cross-curricula application of both the scripting and the podcasting.

The 'witches' from Shakespeare's Macbeth, concluded proceedings.

It was no big deal. Not once did any of the teachers ask how to do something. They listened, watched and then experimented ... brilliant !! I do hope that they enjoyed it as much as I did.

The podcasts they made can be listened to here (Remember it was a first try and was supposed to be fun)

Qualification in Podcasting

Working away for a week has meant that I almost missed the bit in the Guardian about a qualification in Podcasting !

This is what the newspaper said:

The new qualification from the NCFE (formerly the Northern Council for Further Education) will allow learners to investigate the process of planning, preparing and producing a podcast.

It aims to help students understand the concepts of podcasting and to develop creative, information technology and communication skills. It will be available in centres across the UK from September 2008.

Podium Podcasting in Luton

The sun shone on us on Friday in Luton where, in the ICT suite of the Luton Learning Resource Centre a group of primary consultants gathered to podcast using the Podium Software from Softease.

The idea was for these professionals to discover both the functionality of the software and the curriculum implications behind its use. Able users they were, with lots of enthusiasm and interpretive minds to see challenges and advantages. The software proved itself on all counts, being simple to use and safe and secure in its operation. The key thing was the application of the concept of recording sound and syndicating it so that subscription meant continuity.

Ideas flowed thick and fast as the consultants worked with the software.

The use of the podcasting as an audio record of reading was developed and as one professional said: 'Rather like and audio blog with each book read being a blog post.' ... and so it was. In Podcasting terms each episode of the podcast of a reading record was associated with a specific book on a specific date with room for comments and 'book review'. The idea that this meant that there could be a wider audience for reading progression and that this could engender a sense of ownership and audience was not lost on the group.

As they mastered the software the consultants worked with multi-tracking ... recording a story on one track and adding sound effects on another. 'Rosie's Walk' by Pat Hutchins was a favourite text here with some very inventive animal sounds produced.

We looked at, and experimented with, the idea that podcasting was a great revision tool and examined its application in teaching and learning languages.

Finally the group looked at the 'scripting tool' and examined how its use to practice and refine speech before publication with its manual autocue could be a real 'tool' for developing the links between reading, writing and speaking.

By the end of the two and a half hour session the consultants had loaded the software onto their laptops, set the systems up to 'ftp' their podcasts to the server, sampled and experimented with the functionality of the software and discussed the contexts.

A great afternoon in the sun in Luton.

Deepest Cornwall ...

An exciting day set up for tomorrow ... I am in deepest Cornwall not far from 'The Lost Gardens of Helligan' where I, a large group of Cornish teachers and another large group of Cornish children (The children come from the Bishop Bronescombe School in St Austell.) are going to use some advanced ICT to investigate invertebrates and plot their positions on EDA machines and upload the data to Google Earth. The engine that will drive all of this is called WildMap ( with its partner WildKey). As well as this the children ( and their teacher helpers) are going to be recording sounds and impressions of what they find as .wav files so that they can be used for podcasts which will be developed during the afternoon using the Softease Podium software.

All very exciting ...real datahandling for an authentic purpose.

PS Weather Update for Cornwall 31st January ( near here ) is rain and a bit more rain.

Podcasting Y3 ... French

I've had a terrific day !! This afternoon I worked with a couple of absolutely incredibly, stupendous teachers and 26 Y3 children. We podcasted (with Podium)

The children had never heard their voices before and were so excited to listen to each other and to get me to listen to what they had said. There was no false modesty here. They came straight in with 'the news', 'Radio school', 'Why I like football'. These were seven and eight year olds ... no fears ... taking risks.

The key to it all was what had happened long before I came on the scene and had my ego trip. They all knew how to log on, open software, save in different formats to their space etc ... and the kit worked ... all of it ... all of the time.

We ended up singing a first episode for the class French podcast ... the numbers.Just paste this url into iTunes or listen straight away to the first of many (I hope) podcasts ...

So exciting. so good, so real and 'in your face' ..... children having fun doing what comes natural with teachers prepared to let it happen and reap later rewards.

Wonderful !

Isle of Wight MFL Conference

Over 70 MFL teachers gathered on Friday and Saturday 12/13th October at Nodehill Middle School in the Isle of Wight for a Conference to reach out and accelerate the use of ICT across all aspects of the teaching and learning of languages. It was a truly multi-national affair with delegates from as far afield as Scotland, Wales and Portugal !

The sessions kicked off on Friday evening with a structured 'un-conference' show-and tell session in the Castle Inn in the centre of Newport. The evening began with David Noble from Fife setting the scene on the things he is currently thinking about. Have a look at his Future Lab interview on the subject. At 9.30 we tried a Flash Meeting with people from around the world ... New Zealand to USA ... the concept was great and it showed the potential of the medium but was let down by the speed of the connection.John Warwick was the man for Flashmeeting and he did a well visited presentation on Saturday. There were many interesting projects brought to the fore during a long evening the main thing coming through time and time again was the enthusiasm and commitment on the part of the presenters and the audience to quality education for young people. I finished off with a look at how Textease Studio CT could be used to read the page and record sound in different languages.

The Conference proper on Saturday had a host of presentation with many delegates really wanting to get to grips with blogs and podcasts and Joe 'keynoted' with a how to get started with podcasting. I know that there will be videos etc from him about all of the other presentations on his blog ( as soon as he and his wife have recovered from their organising efforts).

My session on the Friday evening provoked a good deal of interest in Textease Studio CT and the presentation stand had a great turn over of vistors wanting to know more. The Podium session attracted 15 or so who were looking to compare and contrast methods of podcasting before they dived into it. In using Podium I responded, in answer to a question, that ... 'Yes, it was a 'paid for' application' but felt that there was nothing that came entirely free and that people must judge for themselves about speed, simplicity, security and 'fit for purpose'. I also commented that it was up to those working across the educational arena to ensure that all colleagues and students had access to technology which fitted their learning and teaching contexts''

Keep your eye open for next year's Conference.

Podium Podcasting in Derby

What a superb morning! A group of Y3 children from a primary school in Derby attended a podcasting session at the local ICT Training Centre. And they were up for it !

ICT techniques to the fore ... they knew what it was about so they podcasted in FRENCH.

Scripting, recording, editing, importing MP3s, publishing and carefully listening to each other all seemed were taken in great leaps rather than strides.

You can hear their podcast by pasting this link into your favourite aggregator...

http://www.podiumpodcasting.com/~182215/the011007105705/rss.xml

You can read more about the session on the Podium Blog

PodcampUK

Picked up from Joe Dale's blog this FREE event for podcasters this coming weekend in Birmingham ... looks as if it could open up some good ideas.

It makes your heart sing...

From a dedicated teacher colleague...with many thanks ...

I have a pupil in my class who is selective mute. We’ve been doing voice recordings/podcasting since November, and so far she’s never taken part. We did a podcast for the Head to take to a conference .The children recorded a section at a time on audacity and then we converted to an MP3 then imported into Podium. *’s group asked if I would leave the room as she wanted to record her voice. * has been selective mute all 7 years in school with adults although she will talk to other children. She spoke clearly, and in one take. Further to this, last week she has since recorded her voice with me in the room!

We have been trialling a VLE for 12 months and * has been prolific in her postings. I have given her her own ‘space’ that only she and I can see and I’ve had loads of messages from her. She attended a residential and we used it to allay her fears and start a dialogue. It has been absolutely inspirational to read funny, thoughtful, sensitive and intelligent conversations with her, and I actually feel I know *. I have learnt what a fantastic sense of humour she has. This makes her disability even more remarkable that she can maintain this silence when she obviously has so much going on. This technology has definitely changed *’s school life and my relationship with her. I can ask her a question and she’ll reply on the VLE and vice versa. She has many other special needs. The VLE in itself was revolutionary but the added part of her wanting to take part in podcasting has really moved me and made me realise how powerful these web 2.0 technologies can be. We’ve also set up a log in for * on the VLE at the Secondary School she going to move to in September.

Ewan McIntosh visits Ashbourne

A brilliant morning with Ewan talking about the world and everything ... new insights and new ideas as well as confirmation of views about access to real tools and creativity leading the way. Inspiring it was ... some of the ideas here:

How long until the skill set of users matches the power of the tools?
Listen to the whispers ... they are important!
Are you allowed to fail?
What would a podcast catcher look like?

... and then some links ...

Partners in Excellence

Check out Emily Fox ... and ... if you don't know why this is so superb think of the amount of time, energy, patience, dedication etc that goes into these activities and then wonder if we could harness just a bit of it !!

... and a whole lot more ...

Ewan does it again !

My Feedbliz email this morning popped up another posting from Ewan McIntosh wearing his MFL hat and talking about podcasting ... this time in French.

There is some terrific stuff here ... I direct you to his bit about getting royalty free sounds from 'Incompetech' and ( if you can translate it ... 'come on Ewan ... you can do it for me') a breakdown of the parental permissions on podcasting in schools which apply in France. Also the link to PortableApps.com which will be useful to Audacity users.

There is also a link to the Learning and Teaching Scotland MFL page on Podcasting which is really useful.

Check out the link on the right to Ewan's Blog and quickly put it in your feeds to keep up.

Podium Podcasting

I am alerted to the 'ICT Inspirations', the blog of Simon Mills, and a neat description of the use of Podium in a class based project on advertising fitting in with the Framework's unit on persuasive text that is certainly worth the read.

There is also a useful guide to how to use Podium written from the point of view of someone who worked through it so knows what first time users will want to know.

Somerset ICT Conference 2007

A good day at the Conference in the splendid surroundings of Dillington House on Monday 18th June talking with teachers about podcasting. I did two sessions, the first followed a session by two of Somerset's ASTs who were talking most ably about the use of sound in a great variety of ways to enhance teaching and learning across the whole of the primary curriculum. This gave me a great lead in and we spoke of podcasting as being almost a 'genre' which you choose if you want your sound recording to be serialised and syndicated. Of course, there was more to it than that but the two things did follow on really well.

It was interesting to see the small number who regularly use sound recording in their classrooms (in any format) but heartening to appreciate that they had come to find out how to do it and what its purpose would be.

Podium Scottish Launch, Stirling, 16th May

Colleagues from many parts of Scotland assembed at the Stirling Management Centre on 16th May to listen to Ewan McIntosh expound his view on the use of Web 2.0 technologies in education. Inspiring stuff it certainly was !

Then I followed it with a demonstration of the Podium software for podcasting.

The session was well received and people went away excited to get started. I met up with one participant the day after who said that she had 'podcasted the night away' !

You can read a full report of the session on the Podium Blog.

Podium launch event, May 16th 2007, Stirling

James Watson of Softease reports:

'Well, it has now been just over two months since Podium’s release. During that time we have seen a huge amount of interest in understanding more about the educational benefits of podcasting.

The majority of teachers and advsors I speak to have heard of the word ‘podcast’ (well, it was word of the year way back even in 2005), but most are still uncertain when asked for a precise definition, how to create or listen to podcasts, or even why podcasting and other social software is so important in aiding children’s learning today.

To help raise further awareness of these issues, therefore, we are delighted to announce our official Podium podcasting launch event for Scottish Council Education Advisors at the Stirling Management Centre on May 16th 2007. We’re delighted to have Ewan McIntosh as a guest speaker to talk about podcasting and the broader themes of ‘Communication and Creativity in the Classroom’.'

Details here

An explanation of Podcasting

On the Softease/Podium website we have tried to make the concepts underpinning podcasting really clear ... if you are still confused try this from the Ninja !

Cumbria ICT Conference 14th March 2007

A really good day at the Rheged Discovery Centre near Penrith with the sun shining and over 100 ICT coordinators coming together to 'up' their knowledge base on current issues.
The Keynote by Kevin Thompson was an excellent opener on the world of Web2.0 and set the mind going about what can we use in school that our children/students are already using at home. The went from del.icio.us to flickr and onwards.... podcasting, wikiing and blogging. The real challenge now is to make use of this technology in a learning/teaching context.
Check the podcast if you want to here some of the bits ... it was made using the Podium software which I introduced to about 60+ people during the course of the day.

Leeds Trinity 6th March 2007

Three excellent sessions on podcasting today. Trust that those attending left with more information than they started with. If there are any questions please use the comments section.

IMPALA Project meeting University of Leicester 5th March 2007

Informal Mobile Podcasting And Learning Adaptation

An stimulating meeting with a good discussion on the definition of podcasting and the variety of ways to do it.

Podium Software was demonstrated and a copy was given to Matthew for instalation in the IMPALA zoo. I would be most please to see discussions on the morning in the comments on this thread...thanks

If there are any questions please get in touch

The presentation used is in wikimuse

Podcasting at the Learning Lab Conference, Telford 1st February 2007

An exciting day in Telford with lots of people to meet and lots of ideas to mull over.

This blog is here for those who attended my session '‘Podcasting-Making yourself heard’' , using the Podium software from Softease, so that they can ...'make themselves heard' .... comments please about the session if you will ... thanks.

Podium stand at BETT 07

Podium looking good at BETT 2007

Why Educational Podcasting ...

Your views are urgently sought .... please

How's this for a start:

Why Educational Podcasting January 2007

• Provides another way of sharing and transmitting audio for teaching and learning in schools and at home
• Children and young people are able to record, produce and publish on the Internet podcasts of their very own
• Tailored to any curriculum area
• Can provide bespoke materials to support any learning situation
• Provides instructional content to reinforce learning
• Excellent for homework
• Potential to support or extend the work of any pupil with special needs
• Great community/school link potential
• Useful for children who miss sessions/ illness etc
• Useful for those with a reading difficulty or for English as a second or third language
• Promotes a concept of ownership of materials
• Promotes sustained effort in publishing for specific audiences
• An easy vehicle for personalised learning.

Some Contexts

School weekly magazine

Reports of school visits on line

Development of collections of poetry

Collaborative work with other schools

Audio jargon busters

Information for parents

Information for new pupils

Historical interviews

Regular school sports reports

Summary …Podcasting has the potential to offer the following for personalised learning in schools:

• creating audio material for learning "on demand", at anytime and anywhere
• using differential materials that can be matched to the abilities, needs and motivation of identified children and young people
• engaging in curriculum activities grounded in an emerging technology and integral to the world-wide communication revolution
• providing curriculum-related teaching and learning in a wide range of contexts and in different locations both within and away from school
• As with all technologies, podcasting has the potential for releasing the imagination of children, young people, their teachers and parents/carers.

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.