PortablePD.ca

TeacherTube for Video

Jane and I played around with TeacherTube a couple of years back.  Think of it as YouTube for educators.  We uploaded a couple of videos there, nothing fancy (We used the tempermental, not-so-school-friendly Windows Movie Maker, but that’ll be another post).  I put up a video of a student teacher demonstrating the famous Pepsi/Mentos reaction, a video of some guys traveling the world in a biodeisel firetruck and another video of Leo Brooks working with students on hand drumming.  To my astonishment, my video showing what happens when you mix Mentos and Pepsi has since been viewed over 5000 times. So, I kept digging and checked out Jane’s stats.  Not that we’re competitive or anything…

Jane, always the master educator, made a  couple of videos of students teaching the science of elastic and potential energy (The Comeback Can and the Wind Up Tractor).  Typically, she left me in the dust.  As of this posting, her video, “The Comeback Can” has been viewed over 8981 times.  Not quite viral, but pretty good for a grade 5 science lesson out in the portables.

One of the cons of TeacherTube is the advertising.  I’ve only encountered education related ads, but I still prefer to steer students away from them.  However, embedding these videos in your own blog helps reduce wandering minds.

TeacherTube gives you the necessary code to embed videos into your blog.  Here’s my exploding Pepsi video:

And Jane’s comeback can:

TeacherTube for Audio

It turns out that TeacherTube now hosts MP3 files as well.  For me, this is a big deal.  Jane and I have been on the search for an easy-to-use, free, unlimited storage space solution for our podcasts.  We now have three seasons worth of Portable Radio and one season of Portable PD and are reluctant to take any of it down.  TeacherTube appears to fit all of our needs – even the one about unlimited storage space.  So, fingers crossed, I’ll experiment with uploading our next podcast there.

TeacherTube even gives you the code to embed the audio in your blog.  A nice feature since Edublogs (the provider of this blog) no longer generates a player for audio. Here’s our latest podcast:

Altavista.ca
This search engine has an audio search feature as well. Just type in the sound effect you are looking for.

Absolute Sound Effects Archive

Free Sound Project
The Freesound Project aims to create a huge collaborative database of audio snippets, samples, recordings, bleeps, … released under the Creative Commons Sampling Plus License.

Free Sounds
This website offers free music loops, sound fx, production music and samples to download of various styles for your website or multimedia production.

The FreeSound Project
The Freesound Project is a collaborative database of Creative Commons licensed sounds.

PACdv Free Sound Effects
You may use the sound effects on this web site free of charge in your video, film, audio and multimedia productions.

The Recordist
Welcome to The Recordist “The place for incredible sound effects.” This is also the home of Creative Sound Design, a state-of-the-art sound design facility for the video game industry.

SoundSnap.com
Soundsnap is the best platform to find and share free sound effects and loops- legally. It is a collection of original sounds made or recorded by its users, and not songs or sound FX found on commercial libraries or sample CD’s. N.B. You now have to register and are limited to 5 downloads a month…or pay.

Soungle

WIkimedia
A collection of sound effects in the .ogg format.

Click here for free and legal sources of music.

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Free and Legal Music

Acid Express
Forget worrying about copyright – make the music yourself. This program allows you to sort of like painting with sound. Download “loops” from some of the sites mentioned here to increase your library of sounds.  The free version limits the number of tracks and formats that you save.

CCMixter
“Browse this site to hear some of the great remixes people have built from sampling music on this site, all licensed for use under Creative Commons license.”

Jamendo
“On Jamendo artists allow anyone to download and share their music. It’s free, legal and unlimited.”

Jimmy G Music
Another composer making his music free to the masses.  You do need to register first.

Jonathon Roberts
Music may be used in any capacity through a creative commons license, as long as you credit “Jonathon Roberts (jmtr.com)”.

Kevin McLeod
He has made his music freely available to download.  Also known as incompetech.

MP34U
“There are so many great songs in the public domain arena. We are ripping and specially mastering MP3 files as fast as we can. We hope you enjoy our selections.”

Open Music Archive
“Open Music Archive is a collaborative project, initiated by artists Eileen Simpson & Ben White, to source, digitise and distribute out-of-copyright sound recordings. The archive is open for anyone to use and contribute to.”

Purple Planet Music
Royalty free.  No registration.  Just browse and download.  Be sure to give them credit.

Podsafe Audio
Wide range of music to be found here.

Podsafe Music Network
We used to use this all the time.  There is a lot of music available here but you have to have your own podcast before signing up.  Be prepared to invest a lot of time to finding music as the interface is pretty unwieldy. Some inappropriate stuff here as well…

Wikimedia
Another collection using the .ogg format.  Not sure if it’s entirely useful for our purposes.  Let us know.

Loops
(snippets of music which are useful for making your own music with software like Acid Xpress)

Free Loops
“With over 6000 sounds and samples it’s easy to get overwhelmed…”

iBeat
“Contemporary music production pack consisting of 16bit wave files available as shots, loops and instrumentals. All available under Creative Commons.”

Sample Net
SampleNet is the world’s first free sample search engine. There are thousands of CD-quality samples here for you to search and download. All of SampleNet’s samples are copyright free.

SpliceMusic
“Splice gives anyone, anywhere the ability to collaborate on music right through a web browser. You can upload or record sounds, make songs, listen to other user’s songs, make remixes, make friends and a whole lot more.”

Click here for sound effects.

Is it really so dirt cheap to start podcasting in the classroom?

Absolutely.  It can be free assuming you have a computer, microphone and Internet access.  One of the biggest attractions of podcasting, for us anyway, is that it could be done with hardware and software that our school board already had, or, was freely available on the internet.  As long as you have a computer that either can run Audacity, Internet access, and a microphone you already have everything you need.  You might discover that your school has lots of unused microphones lying around from older computers and tape recorders.  They are still usable.  Easier still, your computer already might have a built in microphone.  No microphone?  They can be found at dollar stores.  I wouldn’t suggest shelling out big bucks until you know what you’re dong and if you want to invest anything more into it.

But I really want to spend money on shiny gadgets

OK.  Fine.  Just for the sake of not going completely overboard, let’s say that you have money to burn or your principal or some mysterious benefactor has given you $1000 to spend on some sort of podcasting kit.  What would you include?  Jane and I have put a great deal of thought into this very topic (Some of this stuff goes on sale so there’s a good chance it will come out a little less than $1000):

Sony ICD-UX70S MP3 Recorder

-    plug and play (no proprietary software)
-    built in USB (no lost cables)
-    single AAA battery
-    relatively inexpensive
-    similar to the model Jane won in another grant
-    really important: it saves to the MP3 format

Battery Charger

- help avoid that infuriating moment when your students are set to record and you have no batteries

- make sure it charges AA and AAA

AAA rechargeable batteries

- most voice recorders run on AAA

Eee PC 4G

-    once Audacity is installed, you can use it as a student editing station
-    small enough for students to use at their own desks
-    inexpensive enough to include in a kit like this
-    plug in a USB headset microphone, or use the built in microphone to record your students
-    install iTunes to listen to and subscribe to more podcasts

Mouse

- because the eeePC keyboard is really tiny for adult hands

- Audacity can be used almost entirely with a mouse

8GB Memory Card

-    we found a Kodak SDHC card for $20
-    also available in 16GB and 32GB, probably will keep increasing in memory and decreasing in price
-    triples the memory of your Eee PC 4G
-    allows you more flexibility to store and edit audio and install other programs

USB Headset Microphone

-    USB simplifies things, don’t have to fiddle with sound settings
-    quality recording for a single user
-    students are less tempted to bump microphone around resulting in a cleaner recording

Stereo Headphones

-    allows for quiet sound editing
-    we suggest you get at least four sets to allow for more that one student to edit audio on a computer or listen to podcasts

Headphone Splitter

-    allow for two headphones to connect to one headphone jack on a computer, CD player, MP3 player, etc.

Kidcast: Podcasting in the Classroom
by Dan Schmit  (FTC Publishing)

-    detailed overview of how to start up a podcast in the classroom
-    information for both Mac and PC users

FTC SoundPak
(FTC Publishing)

-    CD contains over 3,400 sound effects, music loops, and other sounds created specifically for the classroom.
-    feel secure in the knowledge that you are respecting copyright

Our Class Podcast
by Jane Smith and Nathan Toft (Scholastic)

-    handy way to introduce podcasting to your class
-    six copies in package allow you to meet your Guided Reading requirements at the same time
-    part of Scholastic’s “Moving Up with Literacy” guided reading series
-    well known and respected authors

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A Question from Jamie Barteaux

Hi Nathan and Jane,

I am curious about www.freeplaymusic.com as another source for music clips. I know you mentioned this site at an earlier showcase of your work. Is this still another good source to use or is there some copyright issues for using this source with our student podcasts?

Thanks,

Jamie at WEJ

Answer to Our Prayers? – ‘Fraid Not

Freeplay Music seemed to be the answer to our prayers when we first started, but the last time I looked at the site, it was clear about not giving a free license to use their music on a podcast, while it was OK to use it for non-broadcast purpose. For example, I’ve used music from the site for my students to play recorders/drums to play along to. We’ve used the music as a part of the concerts we put on in the gym. That’s legal because we’re not broadcasting.

No Freeplay Music For You!

And, sadly, they continue to be very clear about not giving free permission to use their music in a podcast:

If you are using Freeplay Music for:

(1) Personal Non-Commercial Use (Non-revenue generating). This excludes broadcast use of any kind, including, without limitation, web, blog, and podcast use; or

(2) Educational, Non-Commercial use (this is limited to student use on school grounds for in classroom projects- non broadcast)

Then Freeplay Music’s compositions and recordings may be used without a fee.

What to do?

Well, I guess you could pay for their music, but that’s not what we’re all about here at Portable PD.

Click here for our own list of sites that offer free and legal music.

Suggestions?

Anyone out there found some new sources for copyright free music? Leave us a comment!

This post was written by Nathan Toft