As Greeley students entered the Global Learning Center (GLC) for the first time after December break, there was a notable change waiting for them.
Over the break, the GLC oversaw final touches in construction of new podcasting rooms along its back wall. Ms. Schembri, Greeley’s librarian, clarifies that the new media studio consists of two rooms connected by a central editing space: The room on the left boasts a green screen, meant to be used for film and movie production, while the room on the right has recording equipment meant to be used for podcasts and other creative media. In the middle of the two rooms lies a middle section with high-tech equipment used to direct artistic creation and edit finished products. While the rooms are not completely finished, they are already able to support a variety of recording functions.
Greeley’s Podcasting Club, which focuses on building connections within the Greeley community through the medium of podcasts and teaching students about effective audiocasting, plans on frequenting these new rooms. While the group has been on a short hiatus, they plan to resume activity in the new studios soon.
With more efficient and capable equipment, the rooms will hopefully help members create high quality episodes with a more streamlined process. Senior Jamie Lynch, an executive member of the Podcasting Club, says that the club is very excited to be able to use the new rooms in the GLC: “I personally haven’t had the chance to check them out yet, but from what I’ve heard, they are equipped with high quality microphones that will make creating [podcast] episodes a lot easier.” Additionally, Lynch notes that “One of the problems our club has had thus far is being able to gain proper resources to get up and running, and having access to this new technology will definitely help contribute to and incentivize creating more podcasts.”
Student body president Sam Tainsky, who is not primarily involved with the Podcasting Club, also discusses the excitement around the rooms: “We really are looking forward to having the opportunity to use the new podcast studio to enhance and create some awesome new productions,” Tainsky says. Indeed, Greeley hopes to see the Podcasting Club kick back up soon with the help of the new spaces and ultimately help make podcast creation more accessible for all of school to enjoy.
Student Life Coordinator Ms. Olmo notes that teachers already cannot wait to have their students begin utilizing the new equipment even though the rooms are not fully furnished yet. So far, the podcasting rooms have already been visited by American Wilderness and Film Study classes, as both courses feature a media and project-based learning approach.
Currently, only teachers are able to sign up to have students use the rooms, but that is subject to change after more faculty and students alike train with the advanced recording and filming equipment. Ms. Olmo hopes to eventually appoint some students or teachers with experience navigating the equipment as studio helpers to assist with teaching others how to use the equipment.
Additionally, some students had the idea to move the daily morning announcements to the new spaces, but according to Olmo, “It [would be] a little difficult to do a live stream from [the rooms] daily, so we hope to do special segments here once a cycle.” Zoya Nabeel, a freshman at Greeley who speaks on the morning announcements each morning, shares her excitement about the new spaces: “I think the great thing about developing a new studio and expanding the morning announcements is the outlet it gives students to express themselves creatively.” Since there are endless possibilities in the new creative rooms, the talented student body will be able to “make magic happen.” Nabeel hopes that, as the year progresses, more students will be able to utilize the space and start to create content that can be accessible to the school community.
Besides these possible news segments, the podcasting room TVs will be able to connect around the school and broadcast school events, such as sports games, administrative meetings, and more.
Ultimately, the rooms serve as a creative space with a lot of potential and Ms. Olmo states that “we are so excited to have these new spaces, and cannot wait to unveil what’s in store for them soon!”