News

The secret’s out… Podium Multi-Track has arrived
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 [...]

Podium multi-tracking spotted alive and well at BETT’08
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 [...]

Bradford podcasting competition
Education Bradford are launching a podcasting competition this month, sponsored by Softease. The idea behind the competition is that schools embrace this new technology and use it creatively across the curriculum. Relevant references are made to the new Primary Framework for Literacy. Prizes are being awarded for the most innovtive use of podcasting within primary [...]

Copyright free sound resources
A good site ( especially for weather sounds) that can be used copyright free on your podcast is Partners in Rhyme.

Podium brings podcasting to hundreds of schools
Podium has gone from strength to strength with hundreds of primary and secondary schools now harnessing the benefits that podcasting can offer teaching and learning practices in and out of the classroom
With over 500 schools nationwide now using Podium, Softease is delighted with the rapid uptake since the software’s high profile introduction at The BETT [...]

Using Podium? Tell us what you’re doing
More and more primary and secondary schools are getting into podcasting with Podium. For example, subscribe to this podcast http://www.podiumpodcasting.com/~182196/Los1603071559/PodcastRssFeed.xml by 15 and 16 year old pupils at Helston Community College. Helston entered their podcasts into this year’s TES Newsday competition which had a podcasting category for the first time in the competition’s 18 year [...]

TES Newsday Competition
For the first time Podcasting was part of this event and it was sponsored by Softease producers of the podcasting software Podium. A report of the event can be found on Joe Dale’s site. and the winners can be seen here.

Derby Podcasting Project
I met with a number of leading teachers tonight in Derby to discuss the setting up of a podcasting project in the new academic year that would have scope and range and would essentially feed on the idea of serialisation.
I demonstrated the Podium software and explained the simplicity of it so that attendees could appreciate [...]

Podcasting ( with Podium) and RE
Sharon Artley, Consultant and Trainer in RE and ICT has some superb ideas on using Web 2.0 tools to support and enhance her work in ICT and RE. Her website ’smartleydoesIT’ has some superb ideas for podcasting within RE themes and is well worth a visit and it is also well worth subscribing to the [...]

The power of blogging
The session detailed below has been picked up by Joe Dale on his MFL blog

‘Low-tech, high-touch, high-impact’ - a manifesto for podcasting?
A very big thank you to Ewan McIntosh for joining us at the Podium Launch in Stirling last Wednesday. His keynote speech ‘Communication and Creativity in the Classroom’ was a jam-packed hour of informed analysis and entertaining examples that clearly illustrated how podcasting and the many other facets of social software are already actively engaging [...]

‘Shambles’ newsletter
There are some absolutely superb podcasts in the 15th termly “Shambles” Newsletter from The Education Project Asia is now available online - designed for International School Communities across S.E.Asia(but now with a worldwide readership).
If you ever felt that you needed to justify podcasts as

PGCE Students try out podcasting
Some of my ICT Specialist students have made their first forays into considering how Web 2.0 can be of use to them professionally and to enhance their teaching and learning. Their consideration was not the hard or software but the educational implications of children having control over their work.
Aaron has been working with some children [...]

Teacher Tube
A relatively new site that has educational video content that is ’secure’ in that users are urged to keep it ‘clean’ and report quickly anything inappropriate.
A really good start would be for you to watch and listen to
‘Have you been paying attention?’

The message from the producer is: ‘ Since most of today’s students can [...]
Blogging and Podcasting in the Early Years
I am alerted by Tricia Neal to two blogs from USA. One told from the point of view of a duck nesting in a school playground and one an observation, over time, of some young trout growing in a classroom aquarium.
This second blog has an 11 episode video podcast associated with it ! This is [...]

nasen poetry competition winners podcast their winning poems!
For the second year running nasen, the organisation which aims to promote the education, training, advancement and development of all those with special and additional support needs, has run a poetry competition on the topic of ‘Inclusion’. The poetry competition is a celebration of the tremendous achievements of children and young people. Judges of the [...]

International Softease!!
I am currently in Singapore at the IB Teachers’ Convention, which is exploring Information Literacies… I have been talking, listening and busy trying to absorb as much information as possible in order that i can relay all the exciting messages back..
There is so much to take in!
The mainstay so far i feel is surrounding how [...]

Softease welcomes recognition of podcasting to enhance speaking and listening
We are delighted that podcasting has been recognised by the Primary National Strategy as a means to add value to literacy learning across the primary phase. We’ve been studying the use of podcasting in education for a while and have discovered a plethora of reasons why it should be used and a whole host of [...]