Softease Debuts Podium Podcasting Software
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01.22.2007—Softease, a unit of RM Educational Software, is debuting its new Podium software this week at the FETC conference in Orlando, FL. Podium is a podcasting tool designed for educational institutions.
RM is the developer of the RM Math Framework and Easiteach, a course development package. The latest product in the company's lineup, Podium, is designed to allow students and teachers to communicate by creating enhanced podcasts, which incorporate audio, text and images. The tool, available for Windows-based systems, provides simple input fields for podcast and episode names, as well as credits. Images can be added to the podcast, and users can control audio via a waveform editor in the main interface.
"Podcasting allows educators and students to move closer to the ideology of 1:1 computing," said Kevin Pawsey, managing director of RM Educational Software. "Many students already have access to iPods, and this allows teaching and learning to be done in an environment that is both stimulating and motivating using technology that they relate to; this is a simple to use but effective educational tool that will help increase student attainment across all areas of the curriculum."
Podium also offers a scripting interface to facilitate "group working," according to RM. This allows students to assign parts of the podcast to different members of a group by color coding text on the screen for individual speakers.
RM is showing off Podium at the FETC conference this week in Orlando, FL. Pricing and a release date for Podium were not available at press time.
In addition to the launch of Podium, RM also said it's looking for one school in each state in the United States to become "Power Podcasters," exploring the potential of podcasting in the classroom. In formation on this program can be obtained by contacting podium@rmeducation.
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About the author: Dave Nagel is the executive editor for 1105 Media's educational technology online publications and electronic newsletters. He can be reached at [email protected].
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