Assault on the airwaves

Remember when school broadcasting meant students passively watching or listening to a TV or radio programme? Watching and listening can certainly bring benefits, but now many schools are taking things further. Students can make their voices heard by creating their own podcast or radio programme. (A podcast is simply an audio programme that can be downloaded from a website or a school server and listened to on a computer or a portable MP3 player.)

Easy to use

"Making school radio is a lot easier than you think," says ICT subject leader Ben Williams. "What's good about podcasting is that it's 90% literacy-based and only 10% technology-based - you can just focus on the results. It's simple to do things like create multi-tracks for audio, voice and music."

Radio, too, is a powerful medium, despite the dominance of TV and video. At Bett, Clyde Broadcast Products will be showing two school radio systems: Synergy Bronze, a compact, fixed school radio studio; and Synergy Portable, a mobile school radio studio. Both offer the latest technology, including touch-screen operation and digital mixing.

More than 60 UK schools are using Synergy School Radio equipment to produce their own radio programmes, including Ashmole school in the London Borough of Barnet. Its school radio service - Ashmole FM - broadcasts pre-recorded radio programmes including music, poetry and drama around the school and online.

Weblinks

Clyde Broadcast (P31): clydebroadcast.com

School radio projects: synergyschoolradio.com/casestudies