I hate my voice and as part of my course development I am required to create audiocasts. Not good.
Then I met Ze pug. He came curtacy of flickr creative commons. I just ticked Creative Commons under the advanced search at www.flickr.com and there he was. I just had to give him a voice. Even if it was my own.
Pod the pug (his real name is actually Roscoe) helped me to explain how to insert a soundclip into an OpenOffice Impress presentation. See if you can follow….
As I am creating audio clips for my learning material, I decided to record my steps as a reference for the other developers in my team.
I am using an Olumpus DS-50 (a great little recorder – got it from Makro for R1999), recorded my audio clip by holding it approximately 30cm away from my mouth as not to pick up on too much heavy breathing
The recorder plugs into my laptop via an ordinary mini USB cable and as the software for the recorder is already installed on my laptop, it downloaded the clip onto my computer in no time at all. As I plan to edit it (those heavy breathing bits that slipped through), I changed it into MP3 format, using a cool little programme called Switch file converter (The basic version is free).
Next I opened Audacity (free and open source programme), to edit my masterpiece. I imported the MP3 file into Audacity (It only opens MP3 files, which is why I needed to convert it) and noticed that my audioclip has been recorded in stereo. As this clip will be uploaded as a podcast onto the web, you need to make sure that the size is optimized, so I then changed it into one audiostream instead of a stero stream, by clicking on the little arrow on the left next to the audio track and choosing: Split stereo track. Now just click on the cross (X) to close the bottom track. Click on the arrow next to the top track and choose Mono.
To listen to the audio clip, click on the green play button. Awful! No really- I hate my voice, but it will have to do for now. Next you need to save the edited file as an MP3 again (or Wav as powerpoint like Wav files). So click on File–>Export as MP3. Complete the basic info, choose a place to save your MP3/Wav and voila! I am now ready to link my MP3/Wav in my learning object!
As I am using a PowerPoint presentation to create my learning object, I just click on the picture that I want to link to the soundclip and click on the Insert tab (top) –>Sound-->Sound from File and choose your MP3/Wav sound clip from where you saved it. Remember to choose that it should start playing when someone click on the the little sound picture.
Here is the sound file if you want to listen to it:
Podcasting can be a powerful tool to use in the classroom. Let me “count the ways”… (just a few…please add….)
Storytelling. Let the learners record their own “stories” about whatever theme you are currently engaged with. eg instead of having to stand in front of the class to “do a speech”, they can record their speech , upload it as a podcast and the class can then go and leave comments, suggestions as peer review. (learner centred)
Homework: Instructions for doing an assignment. The learners can download the podcast to their cell phones/ipods or access it from your class blog and use it to assist them to do their homework. Let them take “your voice” with them. (teacher centred)
Interviews with specialists: Get the kids to do the interviews, edit it (using audacity) and upload it to the class blog (eg careers in LO) (learner centred)
School radio station. Now this is one that everybody can have fun with! Why not start a daily/weekly “radio station” for the school where the fun and spirit of the school can be captured in audio format and showcase some of the anecdotes? (uhmmm just make sure that their is some adult supervising) (learner centred)
Capture field trips in audio format to feature on radio station……
So how do I do it?
There are quite a few nice tools that we can use….but let me start at the beginning in a step by step way (us older folkies did not grow up in the constructivist era!)
Record the podcast (use a cell phone, which is the easiest, or a mike connected to a computer or a dictaphone)
Download the recording onto your computer (bluetooth connection or USB)
Depending on if it is in MP3 format (most podcast requires this format), first turn it into an MP3:
I tried Switch, which has a free easy to use version for download
Create an account with Gcast (http://www.gcast.com/) There are very clear tutorials on how to set it up there.
Create podcasting channel (eg, you can create a channel for each of your classes)
Hit the Upload button!
Embed you podcast in your blog/school website/Facebook/Myspace…where ever! Just copy the code given and paste it in your “code-html” on your blog.
This blogpost was inspired by a post by Wesley Fryer, where he gives other options of how to do it!
