Nov
08
2008
This is one of those “It’s been a long week and I don’t need this” stories.
I had been pushing time a bit this week to get an edition of Portable Radio Point of View out in time for Remembrance Day. The students had done some really good reflecting on the topic and so I needed to get this podcast done and done now before it became “old news”.
I decided to work on my Asus Eee PC 4G computer to do the edit. Things seemed to be going well but all of a sudden I would get a friendly message telling me that Audacity was sorry but it would have to close. AAAARGH!!! Of course I hadn’t been regularly saving the work I was doing.
Start again…this time saved work, often. Again part way through the edit…Audacity was very sorry but it had to close.
I am a slow learner so it took a few of these before I clued in that I needed to alter the way that I was working. It seems that this was a memory issue. Once I started saving my work to the 8gb memory card instead of the little Asus, life improved and the work got done.
Anyway, if this sounds familiar to you you could be experiencing a memory issue. I know that I am. Did I also mention that I lost my car keys two weeks ago. Put them down somewhere and….
P.S. I think it is a really good episode of Portable Radio. Take a listen at portableradio.ca
Jun
22
2008
Tracey Nicholson from Jack Donahue Public School sent us some questions her students had about Audacity. Jane and I have encountered these obstacles in the past and thought it would be worthwhile sharing:
Hi Nathan:
We are having trouble with exporting our “Audacity” file into a mp3 file.
We are also having trouble with coping and pasting Audacity files.
If you can help us that would be great.
I’ll take a crack at answering these questions.
“We are having trouble with exporting our ‘Audacity’ file into a mp3 file.”
When you export an Audacity file to MP3 you go to File/Export as MP3. The purpose of doing this is to create a much smaller sized audio file that can easily be played on everyone’s computer over the Internet.
You will run into trouble if a file called the LAME MP3 encoder was not installed along with Audacity. For copyright reasons this file has to be installed separately. It’s simple enough to do if you are using a home computer or have permission to install software on your school computer. Just follow this link and follow the instructions there.
“We are also having trouble with coping and pasting Audacity files.”
As far as copying and pasting files, I’m assuming the problem happens after you’ve saved your Audacity project and you decide to copy the Audacity files onto a flash drive or move it to another folder. When you go to open up the copied Audacity file much of the sound is missing. Aaaargh!
There’s a simple way to avoid this and, once you’ve done it, it stays in the software’s settings, meaning you probably won’t have to do it again.
Here’s what you do:
1. In the menu select Edit the Preferences.
2. Click on “File Formats”
3. Select “Make a copy of the file before editing (Safer)”
This will make sure all of the bits and pieces of audio you need are included the folder you copy over.
I hope this is useful.
Jun
04
2008
photo
An unexpected side effect of doing a podcast with our students has been the media attention. Not that we are complaining. We think we are pretty darn interesting… no self esteem issues here. Anyway, this spring we were contacted by Katie DeRosa, a fourth year journalism student at Carleton University. She had heard our kids Portable Radio Point of View on the CBC morning show and wanted to do a documentary about kids and podcasting. Katie did a pretty comprehensive job. She interviewed Nathan and me, the students, a parent and the producer of the CBC morning show. We are very pleased with the results of the documentary.
Portable Radio Documentary
Apr
13
2008
credits
Audacity: Freeware that allows you to record, import and edit audio files before export them as MP3s.
Ethical Guidelines for Editing Audio: This was posted by Mary McGuire, journalism professor at Carleton University.
Levelator: Balances the levels throughout your show so that listeners are not constantly adjusting the volume.
Recording Your First Podcast by Jody Colvard (PDF)
Skype: Free software that allows users to make free phone calls over the internet to other Skype users. Skype also allows for text messaging, video conferencing and file transfer.
PowerGramo: This is free software that allows you to record your conversations on Skype.
Zamzar: A free online file conversion program. It works without needing to download software to your computer. It does take time so be patient.
