Radio commercials

Well, I've just had the last class of the semester with my C4 class.

I still feel like the class is a bit unwieldly topping out at 19 mixed-ability language learners. I do feel like the rapport has improved and I'm not as intimidated by them as I felt last semester.

I think I'll start off the next semester with a survey and will try to change the nature of the class based on some of their feelings.

So, we just finished a "short" unit on audio commercials.

Next time:
It would be great if everyone had headphones and a primer on how to use Audacity to record.

It would also be a good idea to organized the order of the recordings if a "single" recording studio is used. The students should know that some of them would have to record out of class time if necessary.

This unit should have stretched about four classes looking at improving speaking skills like intonation and pronunciation.

We had a good time with tongue twisters and expressive practice, but the Ss we still a little apprehensive to "act" in front of their peers. I on the other hand am quite comfortable with goofing off with them.

Audio project wrap-up

I gave the kids the first period (45 minutes) to finish their musical compositions. I doubt any of them finished their work, but that's alright. I didn't have a very clear idea of how I was going to assess their remixing skills and now I'm left with a problem. The kids spent 135 min on their projects and I can't easily grade them. How would you (quantitatively) grade a project like this?

I had then planned on letting them answer three questions based on the project and had them answer by posting responses on their class website. Unfortunately, a lot of them lost their questions and had problems with posting their responses. The problem could have stemmed from their servers, our internet connections, or the laptops. Next time, have the Ss open WordPad or someother text editor and copy and paste their responses when they were finished. That way if they weren't able to finish, they could just save the file in the (Y:/) drive.

I showed them a "real-world" example of remixing, ala DJ Q-bert. Unfortuately I didn't have the time to run through the listening exercise. I guess I can save that for next week, when I start the next unit of their semester: photographing? Where am I taking this class?

This week's gotta do!

1. have Flash installed on computer 4
2. can Flash import audio on laptops?
3. ask to have newest version of Quicktime and Windows Media Player installed in the lab
   

Looking back

Wow, it's been almost a year since I've contributed to this blog. It get's hard to juggle all of my blogs around. They are useful though.

I'm just about to begin working on the music video PowerPoint projects with my fourth year computer class. I'm looking forward to seeing what this year's group will do.

I've begun a new class with the Computers and English fourth year class. A challenging, but fun class to say the least. We're working on remixing audio loops right now to learn about expression through sound. It's expectedly taken longer than I initially had planned for.

The fifth year computer guys are working on Flash projects using the new Pro version 8. We're only just scratching the surface in this class.

Problems with the Computer Lab Audio

I just found out that I can't play certain audio file types on the laptops in rm117. I tried to play a PowerPoint with a WMA encoded at 960kbps and didn't get any sound out. It must have to do with the version of Windows Media Player. I'll have to check on that later, not that I'll be able to update the versions on those computers.

I also noticed that I have to be careful about which images I choose for my class blogs since not all will appear on those laptops (see example).


Note: next year, have the guys make their own (laminated) mouse pads; I hope the guys remember to bring their headphones in tomorrow!