Sounds better, less expensive: will your school impede the creative development of your students or embrace tools that let you get out of the way?

I recently led a sold-out podcasting workshop at a state edtech conference. Two days before the event I learned that data uploading and downloading would be prohibited (on a non-school day). Since participants were not required to have iPods, I had achieved the perfect exacta for a podcasting class--no pods and no casting.

I am accustomed to such pedagogical humiliation. Since the mid-90s when the pandemic of Web fever swept our schools, creativity and even productivity have taken a back seat to fear, compliance and prohibition.

As a seasoned professional, I was able to get through the podcasting-free podcasting workshop with sock puppets and folk dances. However, one ray of sunshine peeked into the basement computer bunker of the working class high school hosting the event. During my virtuosic plate spinning, one of the teachers in my workshop used her Bluetooth-enabled cellphone to upload her audio program to a remote server. Seconds later her podcast was available online. At least one of my students was able to achieve our educational objective.

Her ingenuity left room for optimism. It doesn't matter how ridiculous school computing becomes, the world will keep progressing. Many teachers could not make a call from work until they brought in their own cellphone.

iLife '06

At the recent MacWorld, iLife '06 was released. Apple's digital creativity suite managed to raise the ante for learners and educators. In the same way that previous versions made digital filmmaking, photo sharing, DVD publishing and music composition possible, iLife '06 lowers the barriers to personal expression in an increasing variety of media.

One problem with school policies, including computing rules, is that they tend to endure for decades. The traditional policy-making process is so cumbersome that their edicts need to be timeless. This is problematic in "Internet time." Less than a year after podcasting was invented, I was selling out workshops full of teachers excited by the possibility of students developing oral narrative skills and communicating beyond classroom walls.

Attendance in one of my workshops six mouths ago would have required you to write XML code, use an FFP client to upload it to a server and announce your program on an amateur syndication site. Three months ago you would have used a shareware program to do all of the confusing monkey work so you could focus on your storytelling. Tomorrow, you will use Garageband 3.

iLife '06 combines the intuitive recording, editing and royalty-free music composition tools found in previous versions of Garageband and makes high-quality podcasting possible for anyone. Click record and start talking. Your voice will be enhanced. Drop a musical "bed" under a narration and the auto-ducking feature will automatically cause the music volume to lower when the narration begins and swell when it ends. Drop a movie into Garageband and score it with predefined loops or your own musical instruments. Best of all, push a button and your audio or video podcast is automatically published on the Web for your potentially infinite audience.

Not only can students and teachers express themselves in a greater range of ways, but low-level mechanical nonsense is being made transparent. Network protocols, meta-files and asking for permission should no longer be obstacles to creativity and communication. iLife makes it possible to publish in a variety of media in a fashion consistent with the design expectations of the modern world. In other words, your work may appear professional, even if you are all amateur. Students know this because it's on their home computer.

Liberation from the drudgery of school computing cuts out the middleman, reduces overhead costs and enhances human development. Schools should help learners develop their creativity and intellect. As in the case of my mischievous podcasting student, school need not be an obstacle to realizing one's potential.

Gary Stager, [e-mail], is editor-at-large and an adjunct professor at Pepperdine University.