At 2.39 a.m this morning when I for one was fast asleep after a hectic and inspiring day at The SSAT Annual Languages Conference, a report about the blogging and podcasting adventures at Nodehill was broadcast on the Pods and Blogs show on Radio 5 Live. Narrated by Ashley, a pupil in Year 8, the seven minute recording includes sound bites from staff and pupils on how blogs and podcasts are being embedded into the curriculum and how they are enhancing learning.
There are various ways of hearing the piece. You can listen back for the next seven days via the BBC Radio Player, download this week's Pods and Blogs podcast or the original file here
A huge thanks goes to Chris Vallance who I cornered at PodCampUK to tell him about all the work we are doing at Nodehill and that we think that we have the most departmental blogs of any school in the UK (If I'm wrong about that, please get in touch and tell me).
What with appearing on BBC Radio 5 Live, the SSAT conference, the MFL Show and Tell and of course the Isle of Wight Conference 2007 on Saturday, this is turning out to be quite a memorable week!
Well done Ashley and all those involved with today's podcast. You should feel very proud of yourselves. In addition, I hope the recording encourages other colleagues around the country to start blogging and podcasting too. Get in contact with me or the school if you would like to know more or would like a hand to get started.
Let's keep blogging.
Nice bit of cornering, Joe ;-) It's great to hear the kids leading the show there. I'm not sure about having the most 'departmental' blogs in the UK. Some schools in the UK are running anywhere between a half dozen to 20 blogs between and across departments.
It's actually great to be able to say now that it's really impossible to say where one 'stands' in relation to any other school - it's getting that much more busy and big every day that it's hard to know.
Posted by: Ewan McIntosh | 09/10/2007 at 19:08
Cheers for your comment Ewan. I'm sure there are other departments who have lots of blogs too. I guess I was referring to the number of subject heads having their own blogs to publish pupils' work etc rather than lots of individual pupils blogging across a department, if that makes sense.
I agree that it's difficult to know exactly how many departmental blogs schools have, but certainly I don't know of any others that have as many subject specific ones as we do. I'm sure you know better than me though.
Posted by: Joe Dale | 09/10/2007 at 22:11
Like I said earlier on, it is a vindication of all the work and effort you put in and it serves as encouragement for the rest of us school based bloggers!!
Posted by: Alex Blagona | 09/10/2007 at 22:43
Cheers Alex. Great to see you at the SSAT Conference. Shame we didn't have longer to chat. I'll see you at The Language Show soon though.
Posted by: Joe Dale | 09/10/2007 at 23:16
Bravo les enfants !! C'est fantastique
Posted by: Samia Earle | 11/10/2007 at 06:04
Here are some comments from my pupils:
Martin: I think it's really cool that we are the school with the most blogs (probably)
Asa: I think it is really cool because it is published on the BBC
so loads of people will see it!!!
Toby: I never knew Nodehill had so many blogs!
Danika: I think it's amazing that our school is practically famous and we are helping other people to start blogging and podcasting.
Posted by: Joe Dale | 12/10/2007 at 09:03