Last week in EDUC 504, some of our classmates presented to us how to use Audacity. I've never really been good with using audio technologies, but the way my classmates presented it were very efficient. It's a shame it comes on a Thursday afternoon, after a long day of student-teaching, where little attention is readily available from me. I did participate in making an audio file- which was interesting, and still somewhat difficult, but I couldn't see how I would use this in the future.
I know in our EDUC 511- Records of Practices class we will have to take videos and make audio recordings, but I think I would take the simple approach and use a voice recording app on my phone. I just feel like the buttons and operations are too complicated for what is required of us in EDUC 511. I also do not think I'll need to use audio recordings in my future as a teacher.
I claimed that Audacity is complicated, but I am really comparing it to the simplicity of Padlet. I am waiting until another group wows me with another technology to use that is better than Padlet.
Anthony,
ReplyDeleteI agree that Audacity seemed more complex than using an iphone or other recording device. However, I was pretty inspired by the idea of student projects that students could use an audio recording for from podcasting to a debate, are there controversial topics in chemistry? Is there any raps that students could create to remember the elements? I can't recall my own chemistry class very well unfortunately, but I do remember we did endless online problem sets, any variances would have been appealing. A while back, I came across this website, that I thoroughly enjoyed its the chemistry behind everyday things from the turning autumn leaves to food even the chemistry of the aroma behind new car smell and fake tans in fun infographics it might be of interest to you: http://www.compoundchem.com/infographics/
Hey there Anthony,
ReplyDeleteLike you, I was not overly thrilled with audacity, even as a language person. Hypothetically, students making their own podcasts could be incredibly useful, as it encourages them to use the target language in what may be a more low stakes situation. They could then also hear themselves speaking; however, like you state, there seem to be more simple ways to do this. My main concern with audacity is the time it will take to teach students simply how to use this, which would more simply be done in English and thus take away from German input. Sometimes, it is super surprising how long it takes high school students to understand and be able to use a new type of technology as well.
That being said, can you think of any way at all that audacity or a simpler means of recording speech could be used in a chemistry classroom? Maybe to mix up what you are doing somehow? Maybe students could give a fake radio broadcast as an certain atom, or sing the periodic table song, or make up a story about moles and such.