Journalism 2 Class Adds Pod Casting to Olympia Web Site and Course Curriculum
by Devon HIll
May 20, 2008
Now you can not only read Journalism II’s articles on the Oly web site, but listen to them too! Check out the website’s new feature…POD CASTING!
The Olympia High School Journalism II class is expanding its coverage on the Oly web site now to include some pod casts. These audio stories will be attached to some of the articles on the web and are created entirely by the students in the Journalism II class.
At a technology session at ISU last summer, Mrs. Hapgood first learned about pod casting. “I learned about it and thought ‘This is perfect for Journalism.’ Before now, radio broadcasting and pod casting took a lot of expensive equipment that we simply just couldn’t afford. Now, we were able to do it for almost nothing. I’m always looking for new ways of expanding the Torch.”
The class first learned about radio broadcasting and how to write a radio script, listened to several existing pod casts and radio broadcasts at NPR.org, and then moved on to learning the technology. Students first learned how to use Audacity, an audio editing software. Mrs. Hapgood and Mrs. Mullen teamed up and learned all they could about pod casting. OHS librarian Mrs. Mullen found Audacity tutorials and lead the class through the process of learning the software.
To create a pod cast, students first must write a news article. Then students record the article in the classroom, using the wireless computers and microphones. Next, students check out the digital tape recorders to interview people for the article; the digital tape recorders can also record back ground to include in the pod cast, such as crowds cheering or the ping of a bat. All of the raw information (article, interviews and background) are mixed and spliced together using Audacity. The final product, the pod cast, is posted to the Oly web along with the written article and photos, if available. “The only thing that had to be purchased were microphones, and I bought two digital recorders so that people wouldn’t have to come to us to give quotes,” said Mrs. Hapgood.
Pod casting is like radio broadcasting. Adding them to the website is a fun and cool website addition. It’s a new way to interest and engage Olympia website users. So make sure to browse the Oly web site and check out the new pod casts!
Listen to the Pod Cast here.
