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.

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.

Over the last 18 months or so I’ve thoroughly enjoyed telling people the stories of many teachers who have personally witnessed the power of podcasting to increase pupil engagement and learning through the use of recorded audio and podcasting.

These have included:

• Infant schools, such as Grays Infant school in Newhaven and Sandon JMI in Hertfordshire
• Special schools such as Hatton School in London
• Secondary schools such as Minster School in Nottinghamshire and Helston Community College in Cornwall, who were both joint winners in 2007 TES Newsday competition.

Today I’m pleased to be able to launch our own podcast about… podcasting the classroom. In the first episode I introduce the concept of podcasting for those of you who are either new to the concept or perhaps still not entirely sure what makes a podcast different from a recorded audio file hosted on a web page (hands up who knows the answer?).

In the second episode I was delighted to talk with Simon Mills from Teyfant Primary School in Bristol about his experience using recorded audio and podcasting with his Y3 class. Simon’s blog is well-read, and his class podcasts are also an essential listen, especially after you’ve heard Simon tell the story behind the making of the ‘Baby Bear’s Christmas Kiss’ episode.

Simon also explains how the self-reflection process within podcasting transformed a group of children’s self-confidence when speaking in front of an audience at their Christmas show, with much positive parental feedback.

Further interviews will follow in due course, so if you are interested in hearing these I recommend you subscribe to the podcast feed which is http://feeds.feedburner.com/podiumpodcasting/podcast using your preferred podcast listening software.

Click here to get your own player.

The mp3 file for the interview with Simon Mills on its own is available here.

With 32 excited Y1 children, 10 laptops and assortment of microphones, 2 teachers and myself we embarked on a podcast of what each of the groups thought of the story of Cinderella.

Firstly we had to set the kit up over lunch time and check that the laptop batteries were charged and that the mics worked … well that took some time … but in the end we were there just in time for the children to come in.

We began,(after the niceties) to have a look at the Podium software. I demonstrated on a SmartBoard (bad move - explanations later) how to open the software and where to click to record. We had a class go at ‘We’re going on a Bear Hunt’ and the playback sounded really good as my laptop has a great in-built mic and the speakers on the SmartBoard did the job well.

We reviewed how to make the recording, talked about not chewing the microphones and not fiddling with the wire while speaking and then the children went to their tables to speak and listen to their voices. It was wonderful … 32 young voices with no problems about what to say. We paused and spoke of ’sharing’ and ‘taking turns’ and then we were off again. These were Y1 children many had never used a laptop before and certainly had not seen a trackerpad and so some of the pointing and clicking was a bit hit-and-miss but they soon got the hang of how it all worked. Small problems were found listening to playback as the laptops had really low volumes which I could not seem to change. Perhaps that was for the best really as they had to listen carefully and quietly. Oh … and the SmartBoard bit … well, because I moved things around my screen with my finger they thought that they could do that on theirs ! They soon worked out that it didn’t happen!

I then showed how to import MP3 sounds into Podium (just for fun) and they made up lots of sound jumbles. Then we got down to the real stuff.

The group had listened to the story of Cinderella in a literacy context based on the idea of ‘traditional tales’ and had gone on, in small groups, to write their ideas about the story. These ideas they had ‘carved up’ so that in the speaking rehearsals they knew who was going to say which bit. And they had practiced their parts.

To set up the podcasts the children had to type in the podcast title, who would make it, the name of the episode and their initials. this took quite a while as keyboard familiarity is something that they are working on.

Once that was done with papers at the ready, the red buttons around the room were pressed and the recording started. Some stuttered and stopped and we restarted … some spoke loudly and softly, some repeated. But, after all the trials were done they were satisfied with their own individual bits.

These Podium files were then saved as Podium MP3 files so that I could collect them and stitch them together to make up the final Cinderella Podcast.( They did not publish their individual files as the network was going a little slowly)

When all the files had been collected on my portable hard drive we did a final class podcast on my laptop of ‘Heads and Shoulders, Knees and Toes’.

The whole thing took the best part of two hours and the children did not appear to flag once. They stuck to the task and appeared to have had a good time. The quality of the literacy was also good and the ’soft’ curriculum aspects of sharing and collaborating were well to the front.

You can listen to the Cinderella podcast by clicking here or by pasting this address into iTunes:
http://www.podiumpodcasting.com/~182812/PSLiteracyGr260308182321/rss.xml

So what are your first impressions of the new multi-track Podium? Simon Mills, as ever, has been quick off the mark with his views, which certainly seem to mirror my own.

During a recent hands-on training course with ICT co-ordinators in South Wales (thanks to Graham Evans from ESIS for the invitation), I was introducing podcasting for the first time to the majority of the group. Indeed, the idea of recorded digital audio and mp3 files was also new to a minority and required explanation before proceeding.

After introducing the concept of recording audio, I modelled the production of a weather diary podcast episode for the group. After a brief recording of my description of the weather (wet and windy) using a USB microphone attached to the computer, I immediately added another track to show how you can import pre-recorded audio files e.g. sound effects. In this case, a suitable excerpt of wind and rain to add appropriate atmosphere to my oral description.

Next it was the turn of the group to produce their own recordings. Thanks to the simplicity of Podium, and a few sound effects handily placed beforehand on the training network, nobody had any problem producing their very first podcast episodes including multiple audio tracks.

Later on I returned to illustrate the scripting and multi-track chapter tool, which again were easily digested by the teachers, with many commenting how useful this would be to record work in Welsh medium.

I then introduced the work of Paul Harrington and the pupils of Cefn Forest Primary to the group, only to discover the school is actually very close to the ESIS training centre. Doesn’t this go to show once again just how much good work there is in schools that the rest of the world doesn’t see, even in their immediate geographical vicinity?

So if you have started to use the latest version of Podium, why not share your impressions, either here or in your own spaces. But do share… so that we all may benefit from your experiences.

There has been a lot of emphasis on podcasting in primary schools during the 18 months I’ve been travelling the country extolling the virtues of podcasting with Podium.

Clearly the importance of multimodal learning, speaking and listening as well as the renewed primary framework mentioning podcasting as an ICT application are important factors, as well as an undoubtedly more open curriculum in general.

It is easy therefore to overlook just how powerful podcasting can be for any age or subject in secondary schools.

Today I’ve spent a day on a podcasting course with Peter Wrigley and Rachael Large from the Secondary advisory team from Warwickshire’s ICT Development Service.

As usual there were many ideas for different ways that podcasting could be used, including:

• Explaining to children how to logon to the network (a frequent issue at one school)
• Y9 Drama - making a series of adverts to broadcast on a radio show.
• Y8 Shakespeare e.g. ‘Much Ado About Nothing‘
• GCSE French oral role play revision.

In the morning after an initial explanation of the concepts involved, everyone went off to create their own example podcasts using Podium multi-track and/or Audacity.

There was a real discussion about which of the two was more appropriate to use with students. After having used both the consensus was that Podium was the clear winner, although people liked the voice-altering functionality in Audacity as well, for children that are self-conscious when listening to their own voices.

In the afternoon we looked at extending audio recordings by combining them with images in Photo Story 3 to create very sophisticated movies in minutes. Peter especially was anxious to volunteer his time to test our the next planned Podium milestone…. Podium video!

Finally, and after a brief glimpse in a well-to-do part of West London, the secret is out…. Podium multi-tracking has been released!

If you are an existing Podium customer you can grab a free update file from our site and install this over your current Podium installation - free of charge!

If you have any problems downloading and/or installing this upgrade please contact our support team either by phone (01335 301200) or email (support@softease.com). Upgrade CDs will be sent out to all Podium customers in due course.

In addition to an updated Getting Started Guide we have also produced a new keyboard shortcuts guide. This follows work undertaken with the RNIB by our own Jane Doran and the rest of the Podium development team, who have helped ensure that Podium is now even easier to use for the visually-impaired.

Thanks everyone!

Image credit

Many thanks to Lucy Haire, Emma Drury, Margaret Holborn and colleagues at Learnnewsdesk from the Guardian for helping arrange a terrific half-day conference entitled “Raising achievement through podcasting” at the Newsroom venue in central London on Friday last week, which was sponsored by Softease.

Over 80 people packed the seminar room to hear a number of speakers entertain and inform throughout the morning. First up was Baldev Singh. Although Baldev’s job title is Head of Strategic Development at Imagine Education, his affable self-description of being more ‘just a teacher who is having fun‘ set the tone for a fast-paced and entertaining half-hour illlustrating many emerging classroom technologies (and even showing one of my favourite You Tube videos!). Baldev also pointed out, however, that its not about the ‘tech’ but the ‘teach’, and that pedagogy has to develop along with technology for these new tools to be truly effective.

Next up was our very own Doug Dickinson who also entertained in typical fashion, enlisting audience participation for the creation of a podcast with Podium that was published live to the web during the session, as well as playing award-winning podcasts made by schools across the country.His final plea was also significant - that podcasting not become another ‘tie dying’ fad, i.e. something that only gets tried once in school and then is discarded. This is an important theme worthy of a longer post as Doug is spot on. The impact of recorded audio is so significant to the learning and enjoyment of young people that it simply can’t be allowed to be ignored! Sean O’Sullivan spoke later during the morning and his testimony spoke volumes about the impact that recording audio has had on some of the pupils at the Frank Wise Special School in Banbury, Oxfordshire.Some of their pupils have severe learning difficulties including verbalization. The use of recorded audio and podcasting has literally help transform some of these children’s learning experiences.In one activity children reflected back on each other’s recorded words (are the voices loud enough, clear enough? etc). Some non-verbal pupils were able to have their own audio clips edited together to form whole sentences. In this way they were able to listen to themselves speak fluently - in some instances for the first time.I immediately thought back to the work of Dan Plane at the Hatton Special school in Redbridge, where pupils with similar learning difficulties have found podcasting to be transformational for their learning experience.Thank you once again to the Learnnewsdesk team - we look forward to a follow-up event later in the year!

James and I made the trip on 23rd January to Nailsea to work with Angie Bray and the team from North Somerset and a group of extremely enthusiastic teachers who were going to work with Podium in their schools for the next three months. Apart from anything else the welcome and the sandwiches were wonderful and Angie and Eugine (the technician) had installed the software on the network, opened the appropriate port and all systems were ‘go’ for the session.

On the subject of the kit … the centre had bought some rather nice headsets with fixed microphones. A great idea for school where the children tend to chew their way through the more flrxible ones!

The very best thing in the three hour session ( and there were many individual best things) was thte fact that the pedagogical implications of podcasting were a given. There was simply no need or reason to justify the ideas just an impressive will to get on and ‘feel’ the power of the application and to consider its place in the way the teachers chose to work.

One of the powerful ideas from the session was in support of a ‘reading around the fire day’ that many schools were involved in. Teachers immediately saw the power of podcasting to continue with the awesome story-telling that was the essence of the school sessions.

Thanks again to Doug for providing theatrics worthy of an even greater stage then the BETT 2008 seminar on podcasting and education last Saturday at London’s Olympia.

A highly entertaining display awoke the audience from their collective Saturday morning slumber as participation from the audience was far more RADA than Ofsted.

Doug has kindly made his slides available for download and here below is the full video from the 45m seminar. If you have problems streaming the video you can also download it in its entirety in high quality for your computer or your ipod.

So now we’re safely into 2008, and as the ‘Happy New Years’ start to subside, perhaps its time for a little reflection.

What exactly was the most anticipated event for you in 2007? The release of the iphone? - the lack of crowds in Oxford street told otherwise. Vista? - (chortle) - OK, moving on…

Amongst the usual suspects of gaming consoles like the Nintendo Wii, and the late-comer to the race, the Asus Eee mini-Notebook we at Softease are proud to have had, in our humble way, an eagerly-awaited release of our own. That is… the multi-tracking update to the Podium all-in-one podcasting creation, production and publishing solution.

It was therefore one of my personal highlights from last week’s BETT show to be able to finally demonstrate just how simple and easy it is to make a sophisticated multi-track audio recording and publish to the web in seconds.

Yes it is real, thanks to Jane Doran in particular, as well as the rest of the Softease development team, and its, erm, almost ready for release.

While the current Release Candidate version is being put through its proverbial fitness test prior to the big match, we are hopeful that our star striker will be fully acclimatized and ready for release at the end of January or early Feb.

Don’t expect there to be crowds on Oxford Street shouting about it, but for many of our customers Christmas will indeed already have come early.