Podium Software by Softease

 

Launched at BETT 2006, Podium is another offering from the successful Softease stable.

Podium is designed to be an ‘All in one Podcasting solution’ and we can vouch for that. It would be hard to imagine a simpler or more straightforward process.

 

The software cost £59 for a single user licence. Additional licenses are prices at £25 with a site licence at £249 for a school with less than 200 pupils. So far we haven’t thought of a reason to own more than one copy. We installed on a laptop and move that to wherever we need to make our recordings. This seems to work fine so far for us. We’ll add additional licences when we need them.

 

Installation

On a Win XP machine this we quick and easy and gave no surprises. The initial set-up was for us at least a little more problematic and seemed to produce some inconsistencies. Within the dialogue box for connection we received opposite error messages, one telling us that we could not ‘ftp’ and the other confirming a successful ‘ftp’ connection. At this point we gave Softease the ultimate test and phoned their telephone support line. In most instances such a step merely results in another opportunity to listen to a poor quality recording of the four seasons. However to our surprise the telephone was picked up on the third ring, answered by a real person who took details, asked for more and then promised to email back. Even more surprisingly they did exactly that within a few hours and the problem was quickly solved.

 

In use

This product does exactly what it says on the tin. The total number of pages in the manual is only 42 which is always a good sign. It is well written, grounded in practice and exceptionally helpful. Once the icon is clicked and a microphone connected all that has to be done is to press the record button, the stop button and then a single click to publish. It really is that simple. Softease will host your Podcast on their site but if you already have a school website that is probably the best place to put it. Whoever normally looks after your website should manage the process of making the Podcast visible easily.

 

Advanced use

This version alone will do pretty much everything that you could want even including a bit of elementary sound editing. You can record a single audio track or compile it from shorted pieces. There is a brilliant facility to import a text script and colour it for each different reader. This makes it really easy for a number of readers to track the parts they are going to read. We are promised more functionality in a future (free upgrade) version so things look very positive for the future.

 

Overall

The software works brilliantly, seems to have no flaws and makes a complicated but worthwhile process as easy as possible.  *****

Macromedia Contribute

Available from

http://www.adobe.com/products/contribute/

This one of the few truly life changing products. It allows web maintenance and multiple user / location authoring in a way that may not be possible outside the CMS route. CMS while easy and efficient doesn't allow for the flexibility that Contribute allows.

Installation

Very straightforward on Win XP. No nasty surprises and nothing that isn't automated. Once installed the software will require you to have all your ftp details for the website. They only need to go in once. As installer you become the adminsitrator for the site and can then send subsequent installers a 'key' that allows them access and controls their privileges on the site.

In use

There seem to be no obvious bugs on the current version. It just does what it says on the box. You browse to the page you want, click on edit, make the changes and then publish. If you can operate Word and inset pictures, you can author web pages with Contribute.

Superb product *****

Hardware

Interactive Plasma screen

We're using a SMART overlay on a plasma screen in Foundation stage. The advantages are that it can be made low enough for the children to reach any part of it without casting the shadow from a projector. We'd never go back to a whiteboard for Foundation stage and will add them to Y1 and Y2 as soon as we have the cash.

 

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