Tag: podcast

Myna – Online Audio Editor and Creation Tool

The new, free online tools keep coming. Here is an online audio editor called Myna (Aviary, Inc.). I think of this product as an audio-only Garageband. Maybe something else will come to me as I explore some more. You put together your audio creation from clips that are provided, record audio, or upload audio you already have. You can overlay tracks, fade-in, fade-out, etc. If you have used Garageband, you understand the basics and can pretty much just begin creating. When finished, you first mix-down your tracks and then share.

mynademo

It is pretty late so I uploaded a short segment of audio I used as part of a demo podcast created some time ago (in this case without the images) and combined this upload with some music segments available from the Myna library. It was a fairly basic undertaking, but enough of an exercise for me to explore the application and offer something as an example (see link to short audio product below).

I would think this tool would be great for creating podcasts.

mynademo

Loading

Fireweed Jelly Podcast

My holiday tech project has involved the creation of a podcast. I have been working on a project concept I describe as “Sharing Something Local”. The idea is to teach others about something “locals” may understand, but those outside your group or area may not. My first example involved the sugar beet harvest in North Dakota. I have had a second example in mind and finally found time to put it together. Our daughter worked in Ketchikan, AK, this summer and we had the opportunity to visit her. While not exactly local, the podcast reflects something we experienced. The actual podcast will appear on our Participatory Web site. We work with tools and ideas we expect to fit a middle school curriculum, but both the sophistication of the content and the production could be adjusted up or down.

Garageband makes the creation of podcasts relatively easy. This example required some extra work because it incorporates both still images and videos. Garageband appears to allow one or the other. I first generated the multimedia core in iMovie and then brought this into Garageband to add the Intro and Outro and to export. What appears below is a Quicktime movie in m4V format. I am not certain if it plays on all platforms, but it requires less bandwidth than a .mov file.

Loading

Excitedly – Happily

Today, the Grand Forks Herald has an article on Cindy’s podcasting grant. The core idea is to offer customized content for English Language Learners new to Grand Forks and often the United States. The iPods allow students to experience digital audio and video content appropriate to their classroom and language needs. The mobility of the ipods allow them to work with the content anytime AND to share the content with family members. The story does a nice job of explaining core ideas from the grant

Excitedly, happily? “The journalist who wrote the story used these terms to characterize the narrative,” Grabe said, excitedly!

Not that I have given a lot of interviews, but I can’t imagine any journalist describing my style of interaction in this fashion. Cindy on the other hand generates this reaction. 😉

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Loading

On the future of books

On the media (from New York Public Radio) offers a podcast on the future of books. Are new media replacing old (e.g., books) or are traditional media adapting?

My “listen” of the presentation – it is not so much a decline in books, but in how they are sold. There are too many books and marketing has become emphasized.

Some comments address the possible future role of technology in leading a rebirth of “the independents”.

Loading

Student Vodcasts – Eco-Ed

The role technology can play in field-based learning (e.g., biology) has long been a topic I like to present because it runs contrary to many people’s way of thinking about technology. Digital cameras, probes, and digital microscope are easy to bring into the field and allow the collection of data (broadly defined) that can be processed at a later time.

For several years, middle school students from Grand Forks and surrounding communities have been participating in an EcoEd camp at a regional state park. Technology staff members from the Grand Forks schools have been in the field supporting this experience since the projects began.

One personal observation – it has been less difficult for technology folks to find ways to assist students in what they do in the field than it has been for some classroom teachers to built on the field experiences once students are back in the classroom. I would describe this as an issue of “processing”. Hands on experiences, like information received in any form, typically must be processed to increase understanding and retention. Some of the potential benefit of “field trip” experiences goes unrealized without followup. Of course, this is not always the case and here is an interesting example of “post trip” processing from the students at South Middle School. Students were grouped as teams to describe their experiences through podcasting (vodcasting if you make a distinction between pure audio and audio+images). These projects are available from the South Middle School web site and you might want to take a look.

Loading

Podcasts have no inherent value

Researcher Ashley Deal has determined that podcasts have no inherent value (see Campus Technology for brief summary). I am not certain if she cites my research (I read the summary associated with the link), but I have arrived at the same conclusion. My interest was in using podcasts as a way to enhance lecture attendance and my data indicate that students prefer a written summary. This does not mean that are not useful educational applications.

BTW, the article in Campus Technology links to a very useful white paper (pdf) describing podcasting.

Loading