What is Podium?
Podium
is a PC-based application, designed specifically for the
education market. It is an easy-to-use piece of software
that allows students of any age to create, edit and publish
podcasts all from the same simple interface.
After being trialled in a number of primary and secondary
schools across the country, Podium is bringing podcasting
within the reach of everyone, giving teachers and pupils
the chance to create podcasts quickly and easily.
Key
stages: KS1 - KS4
New Primary Framework
for literacy: The first four
strands of the new literacy framework (speaking,
listening and responding, group discussion and
interaction and drama) for of all of the year
groups encourage many activities which will be
well served by podcasting. Specific references
to podcasting are also included.
Visit www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/primaryframeworks/literacy and
search for 'podcasting' |
“The
possibilities of using podcasting within a classroom
environment are absolutely boundless”
As
well as allowing pupils to display and extend their creativity
using audio as a means of expressing themselves, teachers
are able to use Podium to regularly communicate with parents
through posting school updates on the website. They
can also publish lesson guides to help students who may
have missed sessions through absence or who simply need
reinforcement when completing homework assignments.
Group working
Group working has also been enhanced through Podium’s
fantastic scripting tool, which allows pupils to assign
parts of their dialogue to different members of the group. For
example, if students are recording an extract from Shakespeare
as one of their podcasting episodes, they are able to colour
code the text on screen for different characters, so each
person knows when it’s their turn to speak.
“The possibilities of using podcasting within a
classroom environment are absolutely boundless,” comments
David Pearson, managing director, Softease. “The
schools that have been trialling Podium so far, have proved
that ‘anything goes’ when incorporating it
into the curriculum. Students have been able to create
radio shows, record dialogue from plays or simply talk
about what they like to do at the weekends, and share this
with the rest of the school community via the web.
“We’re delighted with the way Podium has really
opened up creativity and we have heard about some exceptional
results from pupils who sometimes struggle expressing themselves
through simply reading and writing. Podium has helped
students in a number of areas including speaking, listening
and general presentation, and users have found that the
software is so easy it can be picked up in a matter of
minutes. We see Podium becoming a key tool in enhancing
core skills within the curriculum,” concludes
David.
Minimum specifications
Windows XP (SP2), 300 MHZ, 64 MB (128 MB recommended),
300 MB HDD space (600
MB recommended), resolution of 1024 x 768. |
You will also need to host you podcast somewhere so that
others can download it. Find
out more about hosting.
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