Before today I’d never been to The Education Show at Birmingham NEC and was looking forward to seeing how it compared to the likes of BETT and The Language Show. Being able to catch a direct Virgin train to Birmingham International from Southampton with electrical socket included was a relief and meant I could listen again to the audio only version of our recent blogging and podcasting Flashmeeting while I went over my presentation, rechecking hyperlinks and embedded sound files. With the wise words of Adam, Volker, Alex et al ringing in my ears, the journey seemed to fly by and before I knew it I had safely arrived at my destination with my laptop and mind suitably charged.
For those that may not know, Birmingham International is right next to the NEC and so in a matter of minutes I had entered the show and was ready to check-in at the Subject Association Workshop Theatre in the middle of the large hall. As at BETT, I was representing The Association for Language Learning and repeating my session ICT ... so what? Using technology to enhance learning outcomes across all four skills.
Everything went to plan apart from the small fact of forgetting to press the record button on my iRiver before starting à la Adam Sutcliffe at Communicate.07. So for once the opportunity to capture the moment for eternity was sadly missed. Don’t feel too dispondent though as the content was a carbon copy of its predecessor and only differed by my somewhat jaded delivery due to the oppressive and omnipresent heat. In recompense, I did manage to record Miss Yasar Aynur, a MFL PGCE student who attended the session and her thoughts can be heard here.
Download session_feedback_from_Yasar_Aynur.mp3
Once relinquished of my subject association duties, I was free to peruse the rows and rows of stands and displays in search of MFL friendly faces. On my travels, I stumbled upon the lovely Softease ladies, Janette and Christine who gave me a comprehensive demo of their new podcasting product Podium, an all in one PC solution for schools wanting to explore the potential power of podcasting and publishing to a worldwide audience.
I must say I was impressed with the podcasting software. Making a recording, generating a RSS feed and uploading to iTunes seemed easy. Whether I would be prepared to pay to do this though compared to relying on free or inexpensive services such as Audacity and Jellycast is another question, but I can certainly see why schools would want to invest in such an exciting and versatile tool.
You can read Janette's blog post about our meeting here or listen to her explain the features of Podium in more detail, by clicking on the link below. See if she inspires you to ‘tell your story’!
Download Janette_on_podcasting_with_Podium.mp3
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