Redbridge Podcasting Network

Fairlop - Nursery Podcasts

2008-05-13T09:33:00.000-07:00

This week Nursery have been using the portable MP3 players to talk about what they like to do. Then the children listened to each other and tried to guess who was speaking. They really enjoyed it! You can listen to the podcast by clicking on the podcast icon on the latest Nursery blog entry -http://fairlopnursery.blogspot.com/

When uploading the file from the portable MP3 player it uploaded it as a 'WAV' file, so to upload it to the LGFL Podcasting site, it needed to be a mp3 file, so I had to use audacity to convert it, which was fine, but its a shame they don't save directly as an MP3!

Portable Audacity

2008-03-24T16:30:00.000-07:00

Some have you have told me that it can be difficult to install Audacity on a network. Portable Audacity may be an alternative solution and it is certainly great for school journey or for when you visit another computer or suite of computers.

The application just needs a memory stick to run (and a pc/laptop to plug into!), and is a slimmed down, but very functional version of the full programme. I have given it a go on my external hard drive and this week I will be trying it on machines that have not got Audacity installed.

Try it and other Portable apps@

http://portableapps.com/

Latest Podcasting Meeting

2008-03-24T14:56:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Wendy, for these excellent minutes!

Latest Podcasting Meeting
Wednesday 19th March 2008

Hosted at Redbridge Primary School, with thanks to Lynn and Rob. Attended by Anthony, Lynn, Rob, Lucy, Wendi and Mina Patel of LGFL.

Latest developments:

Redbridge Primary has begun a series of Language of the Month podcasts, covering Swahili and Cantonese to date. They are continuing with their Podcast Club but looking for new ideas & topics to explore.

Manford Primary held a staff inset on podcasting & blogging, notes of which are on this blog. The day went well and enthused staff to make their own podcasts to promote reading. The school blog has been created and contains links to individual class and school event blogs.

Fairlop Primary also held a staff inset on podcasting & blogging led by Nicky Palmer. Staff were encouraged to step outside of their comfort zone by recording a radio ad for a competition to New York (see Nicky’s blog notes below). Fairlop’s blogs are improving, and staff are beginning to update them more frequently.

Mina explained how she would like to make a page for the Redbridge Podcast Network and link it to various other LGFL/newsfeed pages to promote good practice in the curriculum. She has also persuaded the LGFL to purchase 30 portable podcasting devices which will belong to the network. We’ve trialled the Sansa M240 MP3 player for a week or two, which seems to work well and the order will be placed before the end of March. Mina offered 1 days LGFL support to each of the three schools in the network, comprising 2 sessions each. Discussion centred on how best to use this time – either KS1, dual language story books (helping home/school links) and/or video & animation.

The Podcast Network is prepared to fund the remaining cost of purchasing Podium, if each of our schools contributes £200. Anthony is to negotiate with the Softease rep to drive the price down as much as possible!

ICT Conference is Monday 19th May. Two key speakers have been invited – Ewan McIntosh (Learning & Teaching Scotland) and Karl Hopwood of BECTA. From the Podcast’s network viewpoint, the afternoon will be dedicated to a showcase of good practice, involving real children using technology. Each of our schools will need 2/3 children to represent them at the workshop. The students will use laptops to show how to create podcasts and blogs, and demonstrate portable podcasting.

Rob from Redbridge Primary has agreed to manage and organize the afternoon’s tasks, which will take place between 12.15 and 3.00. The workshops will also show the Robosapiens, Nintendo consoles and other new devices used in Redbridge schools.

The meeting ended by bringing our attention back to the end of year focus for the network generally – to produce help sheets & tips and to show/share good resources and practice in podcasting & blogging to other Redbridge schools.

Reminders of To Do Tasks!

Ø Wendi to order MP3 players by 31st March
Ø Anthony to negotiate Podium price with Softease rep
Ø Rob to organise workshop events and timings/feedback to Anthony
Ø Lynn/Rob, Lucy and Nicky/Wendi to e-mail Mina with session dates by 28th March
Ø Write up podcasting and blogging ‘How to’ and Top Tips guides (Audacity, Blogger & Podium)

Date of Next Meeting:

Friday 2nd May between 9.30-3.30 in S4 Teachers Centre.
(This is a whole day session with Mina to support further LGFL school visits from September 2008)

Manford Primary School's Staff INSET

2008-03-11T13:55:00.000-07:00

Introduction to Blogging and Podcasting
Well done to all the teachers at Manford for a fantastic staff meeting! On Monday night all teachers were taught how to create a blog and how to podcast. It was a jam packed session with hands on activities. All teachers were very enthusiastic and excited at the prospects blogging and podcasting will bring.

Here we are creating our first podcast.

These are two new ways of communicating, collaborating and sharing work and events with a wider audience instantly and I am sure staff will fly with this and begin to build these tools into the curriculum and outside of it. There were some excellent podcasts recorded to promote reading by teachers. Take a listen at the following link (scroll to Redbridge-Manford-Teacher examples) - to access them click the link that follows:
Lgfl Podcasting hosting site

Blogging
Manford are now fully up and running with blogging and each year group is about to begin their own blogs. After having great success with the blogs created for activity week and Glasbury we have now created bloggs for school events, year groups and much more. Feel free to post a comment on anything that interests you on any of the blogs.

Check out our school blog and links to year group blogs.....

School Website
We have also been working hard at developing our school website. This has been extremely useful and instantly all the links to the podcasts and blogs that we have created have been accessed by children and feedback has been good.

Chek out our website at: http://www.manford.redbridge.lgfl.net/

This website along with blogging and podcasting has recently been promoted at our curriculum evening. Parents were very interested in the developments in ICT and were keen to have a go at recording their voices using the desktop microphones and audacity (with help from children!)

Fairlop Inset - Introduction to Podcasting and Blogging

2008-02-25T09:37:00.000-08:00

Podcasting
Today we had a staff inset on Podcasting and Blogging. The aim was to introduce the terms 'Podcast' and 'Blog'. I showed examples of Podcasts already published and then introduced teachers to Podium.
Teachers worked in year groups and created a Radio advert for a competition trip to New York. I had pre-written an article taken from a magazine and showed the staff how to copy it into Podium and create a script from it. They were then shown how to record and edit their work. Teachers' examples were then uploaded to the LGFL hosting site.
Teachers were then asked to implement this knowledge into their planning and be ready to share what they have done with the rest of the staff in the Inset in June. They all appeared very enthusiastic.
Blogging
Then we had a quick look at Sandiag school, Gearies Infants and Teyfants Junior School's blogs. We also looked at Anthony's blog - they were all very impressed!
Wendi has created a Fairlop blog with links to blogs for each class in the school, other blogs for Sports, School council and Science are also going to be created. We quickly showed how to add text, pictures and videos. Each class are now going to begin to develop their own blog and share to the rest of the staff in the next ICT inset in June.
Fairlops blog can be found at www.fairlopprimaryschool.blogspot.com

Fairlop Year 6 Literacy

2008-02-15T08:31:00.000-08:00

I have just added the work Year 6 have been doing during Literacy. Children were shown a small clip of the film Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. They were then asked to write a script for a radio broadcast where they either interviewed Charlie Bucket or the Shop keeper. Children were asked to think about their audience and use engaging vocabulary. Once the scripts were written, they 'peer edited' them and then spent two sessions in the ICT bay using Audacity to record their interviews. The children played back their performances and decided to rerecord if it was too loud, quiet etc.

The Year six teacher said that all children were enthusiastic and really enjoyed doing them.

Redbridge Primary School Using a Forum

2008-02-05T13:25:00.000-08:00

We have added a podcasting section to our school web site and have recently made an open forum so that comments can be made on the school's podcasts. So far most of the comments have been made by pupils and staff.

The children have especially enjoyed making comments on the Year 5 Times Table Rap episodes that are on the literacy channel.

Check out our podcasts here and the schools forum here.

Why not take some time to listen to some of (or all of) our podcasts and make a comment on our forum. All comments are welcome but may not be published :-) .

Lynn

Why Every school should be Podcasting

2007-12-10T04:58:00.001-08:00

I found this rather interesting article in the Guardian that explains why Podcasting is so valuable. There is a quote below from the article

"Podcasting has transformed our school," says Oakington's head of ICT, Ophelia Vanderpuye. "Kids are excited by it and it's opened new ways of communicating with others. Every school should be podcasting."

Festive Podcasts

2007-12-03T12:53:00.000-08:00

Well done to Wendi and Nicky for podcasting the Christmas songs - They sound very good. I am sure the parents at your school will really enjoy hearing them. You must have been very busy.
Lynn and Rob

Fairlop Christmas

2007-12-02T15:16:00.000-08:00

Some people have been talking to me about using the Podcast as a tool for recording Christmas concerts. I have just checked out Fairlop's channel on the LGFL network and they seem to be uploading Christmas songs, perhaps as a way of getting the children to work on them at home!! Check out the Year 1 song here.

Audacity Tutorials

2007-11-29T13:44:00.000-08:00

Thought this may come in useful! Some parts are better than others.
Website providing tutorials in audacity
http://www.how-to-podcast-tutorial.com/17-audacity-tutorial.htm

Network Meeting Thursday 29th November

2007-11-29T11:20:00.000-08:00

Another successful network meeting today. Thank you to everyone who came. It was really good to hear how far each school has come already with podcasting and be able to see evidence of podcasts that the children have created. It is still early stages and as we heard today there is a lot that we can learn from each other, which is great!

I liked the idea of the Redbridge FM club and the notebook idea for the children to record their scripts for future podcasts, it was fantastic to hear year 2 children in action on the Samuel Pepys interviews. All in all an excellent start to introducing podcasting within the curriculum.

From todays meeting I am sure I am right in saying that we have begun to really discover the true value of Podcasting in educating children, here are some of the benefits we can see so far:

- it can motivate children to write (scripts)
- provides a real audience and a sense of achievement
- increases a child's self esteem
- it can be accessed by all
- it provides opportunities to share knowledge and experience
- it encourages collaboration and team work
- children develop the ability to adapt their speech (tone, vocabulary etc) according to the audience
- it is an excellent tool to develop speaking and listening skills (EMA)
- it builds childrens confidence now and for the future
- it enables children to overcome fears
- it provides a life skill; a tool for communication

Also as discussed today there is no doubt that Podcasting must be purposeful! Children need a purpose for doing podcasting, whether it is in the form a weekly/termly news update, school sporting reports, sharing of specific work or experiences or events.

Another interesting and productive meeting, thank you.

Next Meeting- Thursday 6th March 2008, 4pm at Redbridge Primary

Podcasting Network Meeting

2007-11-29T01:59:00.000-08:00

Podcasting Network Meeting 29.11.07 F3- Teachers Centre

Agenda

Could all minutes be recorded as a live blog entry – though these may need editing at a later date?

Welcome – Anthony and Lucy

Sharing Success:
Redbridge FM- Lynne /Rob
Anthony- Hatton
Fairlop- Samuel Pepys and Glasbury
Manford- Up and coming project
Essex SEAL podcast

Brent podcasts

Issues to consider

Moving from Club to classroom and curriculum contexts
Technical issues
Where Next?

Date of next meeting

Fairlop

2007-11-27T14:31:00.000-08:00

Just thought I'd mention that I have just enjoyed listening to the Fairlop Podcasts.
Have a listen
Well Done Wendy and Nikki

Interview with Samuel Pepys

Ryan and Oliver go canoeing

Hatton and other Podium Tales

2007-11-27T14:06:00.000-08:00

This term I have worked with two schools on Podcasting. I have worked with a Year 5 Teacher at Aldersbrook on using Podium to podcast poetry. We were both surprised at how easy it was to use this software, though they were problems and these were to do with mics not working and audio settings. I am sure when these issues are sorted out then the podcasts will be of the same quality as this one from Origada.

I have also been privileged to be involved with Dan Plane at Hatton. Dan is the ICT instructor and technician at the school. He has been keen to innovate with ICT and is keen to look at how it can make a difference to children with a range of needs. During my last visit, we talked about how and why we would create an audio Podcast with non-verbal children. Watch this (and the other blogs) for more on how we do this, in the meantime look at how James from Podium has followed the story on the Podium blog.

Fairlop add their Podcasts.

2007-11-27T13:12:00.000-08:00

Myself and Wendi finally got the opportunity to add the mp3's to the school's area on the LGFL podcast site. I was pleasantly suprised at how easy it was. I recorded and added previous mp3's using the LGFL tool.
Over the last term, Year 2 have been learning all about the Great Fire of London. They thought of all the questions they would liked to have asked Samuel Pepys and then imagined how he would have answered them through information they had found out using Magic Grandad, the Internet and the 2Simple story about the Great Fire of London'. I originally thought that the children would be able to work in pairs recording each other asking and answering the questions, but quickly realised that this was quite unrealistic due to background noise. So for the first Podcast, I worked with a group of six children and used the LGFL recording facility. This worked well but I was unable to delete the mistakes the children had made. So I saved it and then opened the MP3 in Audacity and cropped the mistakes and then uploaded it again.

The Podcasts about Glasbury were taken using the 'Sound Recorder' and a Logitech microphone on the computer at Glasbury House. These were then sent by e mail and put on our school website for Parents to access while their children were away. Today I opened the WAV. files in Audacity and converted them to Mp3 files and put them on the LGFL hosting site.
I think the recordings will be useful to present to the Year 5 children who are intending to go to Glasbury, an excellent reminder of the fun they had when they were there, great for the Parents to listen to, a good way for the year 6 children to think about how they present information and finally the children will be able to use them when writing their autobiographies at the end of the yea

Redbridge Primary FM

2007-11-15T15:05:00.000-08:00

Latest update on our podcast: We have uploaded the first edition of Redbridge Primary FM onto the lgfl podcasting site. It is the first attempt by the pupils to make a voice recording. They did most of the work in audacity and choose tunes from the lgfl web. Enjoy!
Lynn & Rob

TV Glaitness

2007-10-28T10:52:00.001-07:00

I am always on the lookout for schools that Podcast, or even Vodcast, one such school is Glaitness. This school in Orkney are uploading their newscasts, to their Edublog, these include slideshows and video clips of school events.

Click on the image and have a look at what they're doing

Havering are doing It!!!

2007-10-25T15:00:00.000-07:00

Well done to schools and colleagues in Havering, who have taken part in an Animals into Poetry competition. Their work has been put into Podcasts and is now live on Podcast.lgfl.net. The winners can also be found here:

http://www.lgfl.net/lgfl/leas/havering/web/Animalartpoems/

Blog in use

2007-10-10T05:26:00.000-07:00

Good to see the blog is being read and used. Rob from Redbridge left a comment under Lucy's first entry, explaining how his school will be using Podcasting:

Wednesday 10th October 2007
We echo the comments previously made by Lucy regarding our first podcasting experience and appreciate that podcasting can / will have many uses in the primary curriculum.We're planning our school's strategy for the incorporation of podcasting within our teaching and learning.

We're initially planning to set-up a school audio magazine which will be posted on our school website and hosted by Year 6 children.Watch this space (or should we say listen?!)for further details.Rob & Lynn

What about the rest of you? Any mp3s to marvel at yet?
Please post and let use know

Tutorial Site

2007-10-01T23:14:00.000-07:00

A colleague from Bristol has alerted me to a great site for Podcasting tutorials. It looks really good:

http://www.how-to-podcast-tutorial.com/

What is RSS?

2007-09-30T11:55:00.000-07:00

We talked a lot about RSS in our meeting,last week and it can be a bit difficult to explain, maybe this video will help to clarify to those, who are just getting their heads around it.

First Podcast

2007-09-27T07:59:00.001-07:00

This was our first Podcast. Well done to all involved, I can safely say I had nothing to do with it and if you listen carefully you will not hear any Welsh tones! To save the Podcast right click on the icon and choose save target as

Podcasting Mind Maps

2007-09-27T07:42:00.000-07:00

Podcast Meeting Thurs 27th Sept 07

2007-09-27T07:33:00.000-07:00

Our first 'Official' network meeting took place today. I would say, it was a very worthwhile day, we have all inputed and I believe learnt a lot from collaborating and discussing our thoughts and misconceptions. I now feel confident to try podcasting in school. We shall see what happens!!

It has been a very productive meeting, network schools have learnt:

- how to use audacity to create MP3 files and that you must have downloaded a lame encoder in order to import and eaport mp3's http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ (download here files needed to podcast)
- where to access free sound effects, backing tracks http://www.soundsnap.com/ and audio.lgfl.org.uk (see links)
- how to create a podcasting channel through Lgfl
- we have spent time creating our first blogs and podcasts
and much more.....

It has been a worthwhile day, with lots to take on board. Our aim is to meet again in November to see what stage we are at.

Good luck to everybody!!