TechnoFile

You may have noticed that I haven’t posted in a while. At long last, Samantha Creed, a National Honor Society member, began reading the dreaded World History text.  Using the Belkin TuneTalk and an iPod Nano, Sam recorded Sections 1 and 2 of  Prentice Hall’s Chapter 26, World War I and the Russian Revolution. We saved the wav files and then used Audacity to edit her reading, to add a music segue into each section, and, finally, to convert the wav file to an MP3. You can hear the MP3 of Section 2 below.

http://ndawson.edublogs.org/files/2008/04/chapter26-2.mp3

It’s been a week and we haven’t begun editing yet. The three journalism students are still working on their recordings. We ran into a small snag – we had planned on using my small classroom, which had been empty during Per. 5 (lunch) for recording. The techs installed iTunes and Audacity on two computers in the classroom, but then Special Needs decided to use the room for reading accomodations during that period. The students finally decided they would try to work on the recordings either after school or during a lunch study, using the one computer in the journalism room. Other students will use the TuneTalk to record directly into an iPod nano. We’ll move the recordings, called voice memos, to iTunes after editing them in Audacity, and then transfer them to other iPods.

Last night I tried to use the Creative Labs Zen MP3 player/recorder, but it is defective and will need to be returned to the vendor. We had decided to include a few non-iPod MP3 players since our public library has an extensive e-audio collection. However, the library requires a player called Overdrive, a Windows based-software program for their books.

The Prowl, Plymouth South High’s student newspaper, ran a poll about iPod use in school. As expected, most students voted for; most teachers voted against. Currently iPods are banned in the building – the exception are those students who will be using them for the grant.  Our district, trying to get teachers to embrace new technology, is providing iPods through district grants for teachers who want to use them in the classroom. More on that later….

Today was my first day with the students who will be recording the podcasts. Three students from Erik Walker’s Journalism class have volunteered to create and edit podcasts of textbooks and other required reading for our students. It’s taken us some time to get to actually recording, and, on the first day, we learned that neither Audacity nor iTunes had been installed on the computers in my room. Luckily, the teacher computer in Erik’s classroom had both programs – they had previously been installed for a short-lived broadcast newspaper project and Julia Colby updated the files for us.

The three students, a boy and two girls, were nervous but excited about recording a chapter from a World History textbook. They jumped right in. After calibrating Audacity, they took turns ‘reading,’ amazed that reading carefully and distinctly is a demanding task. After several tries and listening to their efforts, they decided they needed to speak more slowly and, more importantly, read through the text BEFORE attempting to record it, carefully discovering any words that they might have difficulty with (”Is it Hindus – long u- or Hindus – short u?”). I wished I had a few teachers with me so they could see the excitement and fearlessness with which the kids attacked this project. At the end of our twenty minutes, the students had discovered how to continue a recording (”press pause, not stop”) and how to create a stereo recording (”Oops, I hit stop and, since I hit the red button again, I’m now  recording over your reading!”). Tomorrow we begin to edit!

Well, it’s come to this. Time to try our first podcast. Here it is, a podcast about our grant. This is all very new to me and I’m a little intimidated. I must have tried recording this with Audacity ten times, editing it even more. It was quite easy to add and edit the music intro, which comes from the Podsafe Music site (James Underwood, The Moods of Man). However, I’ve watched my husband hundreds of times use Pro Tools and Sonar 5 to edit music – I now have greater respect for what he does (and realize I don’t have the patience he does to clean up every nano second of sound).  Anyway, I’m not so sure about uploading it and creating a feed. But here’s the first try. Click on the MP3 icon to hear it.

The First Podcast

Well, we’re on our way. Two weeks ago, our group met to collectively download a free audio recorder/editor, Audacity, and the LAME MP3 encoder (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/). We also downloaded iTunes and Quicktime so we can manage our podcast libraries. To learn about installing and updating iPod software, go to http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304783#1.

Our grant has also purchased four Belkin TuneTalk recorders so that we could record directly to an iPod without using a computer (www.http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id=277661 for more information). We purchased ours for about $50 with the education discount from GovConnection (www.govconnection.com).

To accomodate the TuneTalk recorder, we changed our iTune preferences to import audio using the MP3 encoder (Edit Menu → Preferences → Advanced → Import Using MP3 Encoder). TuneTalk records in CD-quality stereo audio and can be used to record lectures, personal memos, music and podcasts. It’s really easy to use. For voice recordings, hold the iPod with the TuneTalk attached 6 to 18-inches from your mouth and speak in a normal tone. 

To record using the TuneTalk:

1. After you connect the iPod to the recorder, the “Record” function is launched and the “Record” option is highlighted.
2. Press the “Select ” button to begin recording and start speaking.
3. When you begin recording, a red LED will blink twice to verify your connection to the iPod and will remain solid red to indicate that the iPod is recording. It will rapidly flash red if the sound levels exceeds the TuneTalk input range (when there is distortion, static, clipping, etc.).  You may want to perform a ’sound check’ before beginning a recording to make sure the levels are ok. TuneTalk has an auto-gain switch, which you will normally use in the ON position. In situations where there are loud background noises, you may want to switch the auto-gain to OFF.
4. To pause recording, press “Play/Pause” OR highlight “Pause” and press “Select.”
5. To end a recoding, either press the “Menu” button OR highlight the “Stop and Save” option and press “Select.” This saves your recording and lists it by date and time recorded.
6. To begin another recording, go to the top of the “Voice Memos” menu and select “Record Now” OR from the iPod Menu, select “Extras → Voice Memos → Record Now OR press the “Quick Memo” button on the TuneTalk.

TuneTalk also has a 3.5 mm auxiliary stereo input if you want use an amplified microphone or other audio device (e.g., CD player another MP3 player, TV set). It also has a 3-volt, mini-B USB port for an external microphone (one that requires power). When any of these inputs are used, TuneTalk disables the on-board microphones.

A note from my sound engineer husband – if you hear clicking when you record speaking directly into TuneTalk, you are probably picking up the iPod’s hard drive clicking noise as it turns. Using an external powered microphone should eliminate this noise.

To transfer recordings to your iPod using iTunes:

1. Connect your iPod to your computer and wait until iTunes recognizes your iPod. iTunes will automatically launch. If it doesn’t, launch iTunes manually.
2. You will be asked if you would like to copy your voice memos to your music library. If you select ‘Yes,” all voice memos will be copied to your default iTunes Muisc Library in the Voice Memos folder. Once your recordings are in iTunes, you can rename them and add other information by selecting a recording and choosing File → Get Info.

To locate recordings on the iPod after synching with iTunes:

1. Disconnect the iPod from your computer.
2. Select “Playlists → Voice Memos.

One final note – don’t try to record using the flimsy Compact Stand that comes with the recorder. Unless you are quite dexterous, it is difficult to attach TuneTalk to your iPod using the stand. Either hold it or find some other way to prop it up.

I have always felt that I don’t have enough time to dedicate to writing and updating a blog, which is why this is subtitled “occasional thoughts”. But thanks to a Social Software course I’m enrolled in, this is my first. I’m venturing into new territory! As an educator, I feel this will be a good experience and will remind me to be a little more patient when students express anxiety at learning something new. 

Last year, I wrote a grant to investigate using podcasts for students with reading disabilities.  It grew out of a discussion with a social studies teacher who was complaining about having to read excerpts to students. Currently, special needs teachers can use a program called Kurzweil to scan text, which will then be ‘read’ back to the student (Kurzweil actually does a lot more – it can scaffold reading, writing and study skills). However, students don’t have access to this program at home (the license costs about $300 per student). Podcasting the material seemed like a good idea – and so the grant was born. 

Right now there are about four teachers who are investigating podcasts with me. One is a special needs teacher; the others are the high school technology integration specialist (Julia Colby), a technology professional development specialist and art teacher, and me as well as our district’s Coordinator of Technology and Media. I’ll use this blog as a reference for our podcasting resources as well as a journal of our progress.