Apr 05 2009
Social Studies with Audacity
My grade 6 students studied explorers of North America this past term. One of their assignments was to do a talk show with an explorer to give us an idea of the explorer’s life and accomplishments. The students researched an explorer of their choice as an independent project. Then they worked with other students to do the talk shows. The students quite enjoyed working in pairs or small groups, one person as the interviewer and another as the explorer.
Adrianna started working with a partner but her partner was ill or away on a trip during a large part of the assignment so Adrianna did the project herself. Using Audacity, she recorded herself asking all the questions. Then she recorded herself as Sir John Franklin and answered the questions. Using the Change Pitch effect in Audacity she altered her voice for the Sir John Franklin part. In editing she went from the question track to the answer track. She added a little ghostly music and I think that she has put together a very strong project.
Audacity is a powerful tool and motivator for the students in my class.
Listen to Adrianna’s interview with Sir John Franklin by clicking here.
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Kudos to Adrianna for the work she put into this project! It was really well done! I loved her choice of music, the title for her show, and the expression she used in her voice.
Jane, how much time is given to your students to work with Audacity to record their work?
Cheers!
Lee Winik
[Reply]
Jane Smith Reply:
April 7th, 2009 at 6:44 pm
@leewin, I will pass on your message to Adrianna.
Adrianna recorded and edited her piece during our silent reading time of the day. It probably took her about 3 periods, or an hour to do it. It was pretty complicated work though. Most of the time the students record, take out a few flubs, and slap some music onto the ends. The longest time is spent finding the “perfect” music or sound effect. Sometimes I take a period a week and have everyone work on podcasting, either writing scripts, rehearsing, recording or editing. It gets a bit hectic! The students pick up how Audacity works very quickly.
P. S. I hear that you and Nathan went to the same high school. Any good stories or embarrassing photos?
[Reply]
Nathan Toft Reply:
April 8th, 2009 at 8:43 pm
@Jane Smith, I’m sure Lee wouldn’t have any good stories or embarrassing photos to share. My high school career was as mild as can be.
[Reply]
Jane Smith Reply:
April 8th, 2009 at 8:52 pm
@Nathan Toft, I don’t believe it since you are such a “wild and crazy guy” now.
True enough Jane. He became “wild and crazy” when he came to Ottawa. Does he still play the trombone?
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BTW I am going to recommend your podcast/blog on our division’s Ning network. So more people can hear Nathan’s “dulcet” tones (his words), and of course hear your words of wisdom Jane.
Cheers,
Lee
[Reply]
Nathan Toft Reply:
April 9th, 2009 at 8:52 pm
@leewin, Thanks Lee! Always happy to share.
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Very inspiring work! Well done to your student! I understand the amount of time that can go into “little” projects like this. It’s the finished products such as this that make the whole, sometime arduous process all worth the while!
[Reply]
Jane Smith Reply:
April 13th, 2009 at 1:11 pm
@Chris Best, Thank you for the comment. I checked out your blog (http://www.technologyinteaching.co.uk/blog/)and will take a listen to the podcast.
My daughter and I were enjoying playing around with being movie makers at http://www.xtranormal.com/. I am going to take a good look at this. It could be a really neat way for my students to do their talk show projects.
Thanks again for visiting,
Jane
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