podcasting - planning poetry comp for Montana Poetry Day

[librarykris]

Kiaora,

A colleague has suggested that we run a poetry comp for kids+teens for Montana Poetry Day. We want them to write and record a poem and then upload/submit it somehow. So far we're planning to publish them via Blogger (our blog is based here) under a CC Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 New Zealand with the usual terms and conditions - original poetry, decision is final, library reserves the right not to publish poems etc. I expect that we'll have an email submit template that will go to a gmail/yahoo address - either they'll attach the file or give us a link to the file hosted on the web.

We are still working through the technical bits - can anyone see any fundamental holes and gaps in our plan? This is an area that is completely alien to me so I can't tell if we are setting ourselves up for a big technical fall.

thanks in advance

kris

[Ngaianne Deckard]

Hi Kris,

I have also been looking at this as a way to get our CHB Teens more involved. When you say you want them to record a poem are you supposing that they will have the production software necessary for the podcasting? I would be interested to know the ins and outs of how you are going to work it. I've been looking at getting a small group together and basically sticking a microphone in front of them. I've been playing with a program called Audacity and am looking at setting up a feed to the podcast via our council website ( I also work in the IT department at the council and we have also been discussing a mayoral podcast}.

[librarykris]

Hi Ngaianne,

Yes we're expecting them to have access to recording equipment. We're hoping that the schools will come on board - many of them have tech suites that should include a microphone. Our recommendation is that the students use Audacity then another web-based programme of some sort to upload it, providing us with the link so we can add it to our website (blog). Once the website is live I'll add the link here for all to see.
I think it's a great idea although initially I was reluctant to go ahead with it. If the libraries can't provide the equipment for recording or the librarians can't offer advice then is it really a good idea to do the promotion? Then I figured what the heck, one of us does have the experience, we have to start somewhere and if it's a success then we have a good case for expanding what we offer here.

Here's hoping!
k

[librarykris]

Hi,

Here's the competition website with all the details. http://mpdrlpp.blogspot.com/
We're looking at getting headsets for the first week of the new school term so that if kids want to record their poems in the library they can.

kris

[librarykris]

Kia ora

The competition has finished. There were 32 entries in total. Not a wild success but not bad for a first start with limited publicity. We had a published poet judge the entries and he came up with 3 winners.
I'll post more details once I've talked to my colleague (Rachel) who came up with the idea and did a lot of the listening and loading in her own time.

k