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I have moved to newlyancient.com and will be writing regularly there! Content on this domain is no longer updated, but will be maintained as an archive in its original form.

Tag Archive for 'audio'

Pensieve Post

1 year, 10 months ago 30 Comments

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I’m going to be in Boston (with questionable internet access) for the next 3 days, so I wanted to get some thoughts out of my head. Consider this my personal Pensieve post.

Microphone

Fearful? Stupid? Blind? Egotistical?

We really have a problem with perception in education. Technology is perceived too much as invasive to the learning and thinking structures. Technology is seen as basically a virtual reference book and type writer - no social aspects to it. Technology in school is something that is called upon when needed - to look something up or write a “final draft.” Instead, it should be seen as a constant companion, always there to socialize, share, research, and learn. Unfortunately, we are a long way from that. Before we even start leverage the possibilities of the web, teachers need to be comfortable with technology in the class room.

A prime example of teachers being afraid of technology was this Wednesday. We were going to be watching In The Time of the Butterflies as a collaborative project between social studies and history. At the end of the day, we were supposed to have notes about what we saw. Naturally, I took out the laptop to take my notes. The second the facilitator saw a laptop he screamed across the room, put it away right now. Afterwards, he went into a lengthly rant about how this movie should be regarded as the same thing as class - no technology. At the end of his self-centered rant, he asked me this rhetorical question: would you have a laptop in class? (He thought the answer was no) Well, yes I would. Besides proving beyond a doubt (and confirmed by other students) that this teacher is a jerk, this shows the problem with education today. Traditional teachers think that it could never possibly be used in the classroom for any purpose besides mischief. They never pause to think computers could (or should) be used to facilitate learning, understanding, or even note taking. Hopefully, we can change that - but it is going to be a slow process.

Talk, Talk, Talk

Over the last couple of days, there has been a flurry of activity in the edutech community. K12Online is in full steam. There are interesting conversations in EdTechTalk almost every night. I have also been interviewed a couple of times. First, informally on Kristin Hokanson’s show. I also got a few minutes in EdTechWeekly. Finally, Steve Hargadon asked some great questions in my interview with him. Definitely a very productive week!

Gutsy Guy

I’m upgrading my old boxes to Ubuntu Gutsy. In addition, I’m hoping to convert my parents to Linux. I’ll also be upgrading my MacBook Pro to Mac OS X on October 26th. Lots of new technology in the world!

Conference Planning

I’m hoping to attend an education conference or two in 2008. I might even be running a student strand at EduCon 2.0 or NECC. If you’d be interested, please add your name to this list. However, none of this will be cheap. (Even if I can secure a scholarship) Therefore, I am now accepting donations on my blog. If I don’t get enough, I may have to integrate ads into my feed and/or the next reboot. If you can spare a few dollars and you support education, teens, free WordPress plugins, or random charity please use the button below to donate to a worthy cause - namely, me.

Now I’m off to Boston! I’ll hopefully be able to tweet this weekend though.

eduPod

1 year, 11 months ago 11 Comments

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iPod Nano Docked

Finally, some schools are coming to their senses and adopting the use of iPods in a classroom system. For me, this is a no brainer - especially in language oriented classes. Offer the day’s practice as a podcast that users can listen to and follow along with. Far more useful than the typical list of vocabulary - it would produce far better accents. Of course, one teacher has seen how this can really engage students in learning; by loading English-language learners iPods up with songs and having them define the words used Ms. Poli can generate a lot of enthusiasm. I would love to see the same idea applied in other classes - maybe looking for symbolism in songs or memorizing poetry for English. Auditory, self-directed learning using iPods definitely has a lot of potential. Despite this, I think the system is unnecessarily holding the rapid expansion of this technology back. Honestly, it is incredibly hypocritical to tell students to leave their iPods at home, yet have some students get them in class. (Not to mention being bad on the budget)

But even as students have been told to leave their iPods at home, the school here in Hudson County has been handing out the portable digital players to help bilingual students with limited English ability sharpen their vocabulary and grammar by singing along to popular songs.

Are we that afraid of letting the outside world into our schools? Do we honestly think that the risk is that great of cheating or other illegitimate activity… kids will cheat regardless. Put up firewalls? We hack them. Prohibit iPods? We hide them. Instead of fearing the outside world, let’s try embracing it and see where that leads us? Who knows… it might not be so scary after all. After all… don’t we want to create 24/7, lifetime learners? Despite the blindness to possibility, new iPod programs are certainly encouraging.

Stream What You Hear

1 year, 11 months ago 3 Comments

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Have you ever been in a Skype call and wanted to share your current music with your friend on the other line? Or do you want to add some more interactivity to ustream.tv by letting viewers Skype in questions? You can accomplish this, as well as recording of anything you hear through the use of two simple programs which let you create a loopback audio device. (There is also a screencast.)

Mac OS X only! (Tested on Intel MacBook Pro)

  1. Go grab yourself a copy of LineIn (I used 2.0.2) and install it.
  2. Download SoundFlower and install it. (Remember to drag SoundFlowerBed into your applications directory - you’ll need it later)
  3. Restart your computer as prompted.
  4. Launch LineIn (Applications > LineIn.app).
  5. Set the Input From to Built-in Microphone: internal microphone (or whatever your input device is).
  6. Set the Output To as Soundflower (2ch).
  7. Click Pass Thru and hide LineIn.
  8. Launch Soundflowerbed (Applications > Soundflowerbed.app) - it was on the Soundflower disk.
  9. A flower icon will appear in your menu bar. Click it and a menu will appear.
  10. Under Soundflower (2ch)click Built-in Output. (Or whatever your chosen speaker device is)
  11. Open system preferences and then sound preferences.
  12. Under the output tab, select Soundflower (2 ch).
  13. Under the input tab, select Soundflower (2 ch).

Are you a visual learner? I have a screencast of steps four through thirteen for you.

Now your default input device is the Soundflower (2 ch) which includes all the sound you hear as well as everything you say. Some applications may not respond to this change immediately but will require that you set the input/output device to Soundflower (2 ch) - which should be both your input and output device for all applications besides those specifically listed above. For instance, in usteam.tv you must click Advanced Settings and then select Soundflower (2 ch) under Audio Settings. If you need help with a specific application or don’t understand this procedure, don’t hisitate to comment. If everything went great for you, have fun streaming your audio and please consider digging this.