There is a growing interest in technologies for “capturing” audio and to a lesser extent video.\u00a0 “Capture” here refers to the digital recording of audio and\/or video using digital recording devices.\u00a0 Below are some examples of course sites that contain audio recorded by faculty and\/or students.<\/p>\n
Prof. James Morrison, the instructor of this course recorded his lectures and uploaded them to his WordPress blog.\u00a0 He also registered the RSS feed for the audio files on his course blog with the iTunes Podcast Directory<\/a>.\u00a0 Finally, his lecture audio files have been added to the Middlebury presence on iTunes U<\/a>.\u00a0 Contact Prof. Morrison directly for more information.<\/p>\n Prof. Jason Mittell (Film & Media Culture) regularly teaches a course on media technology and cultural change and requires his students to produce a podcast about digital audio.\u00a0 As part of the class, he teaches them how to edit audio files and how to upload them to the course blog<\/p>\n The French Phonetics program required students to submit weekly audio recording assignments that the instructor then provided detailed feedback about via the course website.\u00a0\u00a0 Students downloaded the assignment description from the course site and then uploaded their recordings to Segue as discussion post attachments.<\/p>\n Segue v1 allowed discussion post access to be restricted to the instructor and the student who created the post allowing for a private area for feedback.\u00a0 Segue v2 does not have such a feature so students could listen to each others’ recordings and any feedback about those recordings the instructor made.\u00a0 In some cases this was fine, in other instances the instructor would have preferred having the option to limit access.<\/p>\n First year students in the Chinese School have also been required to submit audio recordings as part of their assigned work in the same way as the French Phonetics program described above.\u00a0\u00a0 Students in this program of study uploaded their files to a section of the course site reserved for the group they were part of.<\/p>\n The intermediate Chinese program of study required students to produce podcasts every week.\u00a0 Students worked in groups to produce these podcasts and upload them to the course site.\u00a0\u00a0 Students were also expected to comment on each others’ podcasts.<\/p>\n The Wilson Media Lab Digital Media Tutors provided support for groups of students teaching students how to edit audio files.\u00a0 The instructor of the course provided documentation on how to upload <\/a>to the site.<\/p>\n Some programs of study in the Spanish School have required students to go to places on campus and describe them in Spanish.\u00a0 This same program also required students to interview Spanish faculty.<\/p>\n Some faculty in the writing program has required their students to record themselves reading pieces they have written and upload these to course site<\/p>\n Audio captured for curricular use has been recorded using a variety of tools including:\u00a0 iPods with iTalk Voice Recorders, digital voice recorders, USB microphones and headsets with boom mics attached.\u00a0 Most of this capture material is then uploaded to sites created in Segue or WordPress. Some files were created and uploaded to the site by the instructor of the courses.\u00a0 Other files were uploaded by students as attachments to discussion posts in response to assignments.<\/p>\n Generally most users find a capture tool that meets their needs.\u00a0 Most users then open their media file of captured material in either iTunes or an audio editing application such as Audacity.\u00a0 These tools are then used to edit the files and add metadata.\u00a0 Media files submitted by students as assignments generally are labeled with their name and class or the name of the assignment.<\/p>\n Digital voice recorders seem to work well for mobile capture.\u00a0 Some users also check out iPods and\/or iTalk voice recorders for mobile capture.\u00a0 Other use USB mics.\u00a0 While many users have managed to figure out how to record audio with a mic or voice recorder, edit that audio in an audio editing application and then upload it to the web, this is complex and time-consuming process.<\/p>\n There is a great need to be able to simply record audio from a web site.\u00a0 This would enable students to:<\/p>\n This listen, repeat and compare exercises is one of the most common ways to master the pronunciation of the words and phrases of a language being studied.<\/p>\n Web-based audio recording would also make it possible to provide online oral examinations, a technology that many in the Language Schools and depts have been asking for for years.\u00a0 The technologies needed for this type of usage are a bit more involved than the listen, record and compare exercise described above.\u00a0 In addition to being able to record audio, tools and services are needed to also save the resultant audio file to a server, along with information about the creator of that audio recording,\u00a0 the context where that recording was initiated and the time the recording was started and completed.<\/p>\n Ideally web-based audio recording would be implemented as a web service which other web applications such as WordPress, Segue, Moodle and Drupal could use via plugins and templates.\u00a0 This would enable an audio recording UI to be inserted in various locations on a site making possible quick audio blog posts and even audio comments.\u00a0 This sort of functionality would be useful beyond just language courses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There is a growing interest in technologies for “capturing” audio and to a lesser extent video.\u00a0 “Capture” here refers to the digital recording of audio and\/or video using digital recording devices.\u00a0 Below are some examples of course sites that contain … Continue reading Media Technology and Cultural Change<\/a><\/h3>\n
French Phonetics > Evaluation Exercises<\/a><\/h3>\n
Basic Chinese \u00bb Weekly Recording Assignments <\/a><\/h3>\n
Intermediate Mandarin Chinese (\u4e2d\u7ea7\u6c49\u8bed) S’08 \u00bb \u64ad\u5ba2 Podcast<\/a><\/h3>\n
Spanish School<\/h4>\n
Writing Program<\/h4>\n
Technologies<\/h3>\n
Web-based Capture<\/h4>\n
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