Gator Radio set to return on Nov 19th!

I'm pleased to say that our student run, student operated live Internet radio project known as the Gator Radio Experience, is set to return on Friday, November 19th at 2:50 PM Pacific time. As many of you know, this project has been the highlight of my recent professional existence and I was sad to see it fall victim to the busy schedules of our students last year. The show is redesigned this time around to be much shorter (30 mins this year vs 60 mins previously) - this should help with the overall sustainability of the project. The students still plan on including an interview segment, a music spot, and then some type of op/ed review piece. At this point we're going to aim for 2 live broadcasts per month and if things go well, we'll try to ramp up the project so we're doing weekly broadcasts.

This year we'll be conducting our shows here at school using this new setup that I put together with the guidance of one of our parents, Steve Fields, who is an audio engineer (a HUGE thank you is in order to Steve for his time and help!) We'll try to have him on one of our first few shows to talk a bit about the setup and how it works. For project updates be sure to follow our Twitter page, join our Facebook group, subscribe to email updates at our website.





To satisfy your inner-nerd, here is the equipment and software that we're using to produce our shows:

Behringer Xenys 1204USB Mixer

ART Five Channel Headphone Mixer/Amp

Sennheiser HD202 Headsets

Electro-Voice Model 664 Mics (purchased on eBay and refurbished by Steve)

Garageband for recording high quality audio for the podcast - click here to subscribe to our shows in iTunes

Ustream for the live audio broadcast - click here to access our channel

Tuesday, February 24th Gator Radio Show - Looking for Guests from Australia

For our next Gator Radio Experience show we're looking for a guest or two who might be willing to speak to us about the recent fires in Australia. We're just looking for someone to come on the show and share their thoughts with us and answer a few questions for about 10-15 minutes or so. The date and time of our next broadcast is as follows:

California Date/Time: Tuesday, February 24th at 8:00 PM Pacific Standard Time

GMT Date/Time: Wednesday, February 25th at 04:00

Melbourne/Sydney Date/Time: Wednesday, February 25th at 3:00 PM

Click here for time conversion for your location in the world.

Please email Matt Montagne at mjmontagne -at- gmail -dot- com if you or someone you know might be willing to join us.

Thursday, Feb 5 Parent talk Update

This morning I gave a 30 minute talk regarding some of the new initiatives we have going on here at our school. The talk primarily focused on how we use Moodle as a virtual learning environment and we also talked about the Gator Radio Experience student run live radio project. Both projects align very closely with our school's new strategic plan which is titled, "Castilleja School...defining educational excellence for girls in the 21st century."

I feel bad that the talk went into overtime and that I didn't record the audio...I'll go back and record the audio along with the slides so folks who were unable to attend have the chance to listen in. Until that happens, here are a few links to resources that we talked about today:

1. Parents as Partners project - We have a blog and a Facebook group

2. Image from the Horizon Report

3. Gator Radio Experience Website/Blog and Gator Radio Experience on Twitter

4. Connect with Matt on Twitter or Facebook (or subscribe to this blog via RSS on the right or email subscription)

5. Casti's Moodle Virtual Learning Network

Thanks again to Martha and the CSA crew at Castilleja for inviting me to talk to the group today!

Ustream on the iPhone Coming Soon!

This is incredible. Ustream on the iPhone (3G only, though) is coming very soon! You'll now be able to listen live to the Gator Radio Experience on your iPhone...wOOt!!

Check out the Ustream Blog for more information on their cool iPhone app!

"IT'S NO BIG DEAL. JUST THE FUTURE OF HUMANITY"

As someone who works in an all girls school, this video definitely struck a cord with me. Thanks to Derek for sharing this over at his blog (I always get pointed to a bunch of really good resources from that dude).

What could we do at our school to support something like this? I'm not certain, but I've been thinking about a "cause" that our Gator Radio Experience show could take on. Some type of cause that we could help promote and support through our regular broadcasts, who knows. This might very well be it...

Here is the video...by the way, I love the presentation style. The text is used in a very simple manner to create a very powerful message.

The Gator Radio Experience - student radio show goes live this Wednesday, October 29th at 8:00 pm pacific

I'm pretty excited about this project that I've been working on with a small team of students at my new school here in Palo Alto, California. The idea is to have the students start and run a live, regular radio show from scratch. Our first show is scheduled for this coming Wednesday, October 29th at 8:00 PM Pacific. You'll be able to listen in to the audio stream on the Gator Radio Experience blog or at the Gator Radio Experience Ustream channel. The Ustream channel will have a live, interactive chat room component as well, but you'll need a password to join in (email/DM me if you'd like the password).

This Wednesday's show will feature a little show overview, some Campaign 2008 conversation, a music set with some Creative Commons licensed music, and perhaps an interview with a special guest.

The students are pretty excited about this project and I'm thinking it will be a very positive experience for them. Please drop us a note at the Gator Radio Experience blog and let us know what you think about the show!