Podcasting at College

Posting by Marketing Co-ordinator, Bev Bishop

We have just launched podcasts at the College and yesterday was the first time I got students involved in the project. I was talking to the Career Academy students and getting their involvement in a podcast all about this national scheme, which has just been set up at the College this year.

I'm learning my way with podcasts too, as it's not something I've done before, but its amazing what you can do very inexpensively with some decent audio equipment and free software that can be downloaded from the internet. I have to thank the Media department for letting me use their pocket audio recording devices and microphones and the advice of the technicians.

I have previously done podcasts on the College's Christmas Concert and on the brand new A level in Use of Mathematics, but this was my first chance to get students involved.

Most people feel a bit nervous when a microphone is stuck under their nose. It makes people self conscious and they worry about sounding silly, but as the students found this process is far less scary than it at first seems. The beauty of this sort of thing is that it is not live - it's not a radio broadcast that you have to get right first time. If you stumble over a word or miss something out, we just try again. In fact, most of the students recorded their pieces first time, with no need for a second try, so well done to them.

You can hear the finished podcast now - it is available at http://audioboo.fm/solihullsixthform with the rest of our podcasts.

I'm enjoying this new foray into multimedia and I hope people will listen and enjoy it too. It is certainly a more exciting way of finding out about the College than simply reading a subject leaflet downloaded from our website. We are letting the people involved (both teachers and students) tell you what's going on.

Have a listen and please feel free to leave us feedback.