Nathan Toft :: Feeds

Studio 22 — Live from Ottawa

Here’s a message from OCDSB teacher, Lorraine Montgomery:

Hi all,

Please do visit our classroom podcast site:

We recorded our presentation from Tuesday and also now have our first Point of View podcast uploaded for listening.  My students would love to have comments posted for them to read on Monday when we go to lab.

Cheers!

Lorraine Montgomery
Dunlop PS 5/6

How did you make that picture?

Those of you at our workshop yesterday saw this in our presentation:

I promised to share how that was done.  It’s just a matter of filling in the blanks at the following site (the site it pretty graphic intensive):

Get Your Drug On

To save the picture to your computer, you often right-click and “Save image as”.  Because this site is Flash-based that won’t work.  Instead, use the “Print Screen” key (sometimes says “Prt Sc” - it’s usually at the top of the keyboard) on your keyboard and edit it the screenshot with imaging editing software like PhotoShop or Fireworks.

Here’s another site that generates your own personalized beer label.  Just fill in the blanks and voila.  Copyright infringement?  What copyright infringement?

Make your own beer label

For more fun and games along these lines visit:

The Generator Blog

More successes

Hi Jane and Nathan,

More success from WEJ! We are loving the equipment and PD we have received as it is paying dividends!

Recently, my grade 3 class had a parent volunteer into present about her grandfather - a veteran of WW1 - Vimy Ridge.

To keep the students involved and active in the presentation (which was easy she is a great presenter) I borrowed a 5W’s and H graphic organizer to help the students write down information they heard during the presentation.

After the presentation was done, in small groups of 4 or 5 I had them share their organizers with each other to add to what they had written down. We then took up up together on the Smartboard. Next, I assigned one aspect (Who, what , where..) to each small group for them to convert the jots into a paragraph or two. Then, they decided who would say what and we recorded the tracks. I did most of the editing this time in Audacity and layed the music bed, but I modelled it for them on the Smartboard with hopes that after a few tries they will be able to do the majority of the editing. Roughly 200 minutes from start to finish, with a little extra time for me to polish.

Overall, this was a fun, fast and fruitful activity. The kids (and parents) really do love to hear the finished product, Check it out! As Jane mentioned it is on our school website’s parent page at

http://wej4.blogspot.com/

The other brief clip “The Call” was recorded using the DVR [digital voice recorder] we got in the package as well. Although the quality wasn’t very good because of all the excitement, etc. going on in the background the content is truely Canadian! This was an enrichment project for a student to gather some audio (interviews and play by play) from our ministick league final game. “The Call” is the winning goal from the overtime shootout!:-)

Thanks again Nathan and Jane! Podcasting rocks!

Jamie Barteux

W. Erskine Johnston Public School

Audacity kept shutting down

This is one of those “It’s been a long week and I don’t need this” stories.

I had been pushing time a bit this week to get an edition of Portable Radio Point of View out in time for Remembrance Day. The students had done some really good reflecting on the topic and so I needed to get this podcast done and done now before it became “old news”.

I decided to work on my Asus Eee PC 4G computer to do the edit. Things seemed to be going well but all of a sudden I would get a friendly message telling me that Audacity was sorry but it would have to close. AAAARGH!!! Of course I hadn’t been regularly saving the work I was doing.

Start again…this time saved work, often. Again part way through the edit…Audacity was very sorry but it had to close.

I am a slow learner so it took a few of these before I clued in that I needed to alter the way that I was working. It seems that this was a memory issue. Once I started saving my work to the 8gb memory card instead of the little Asus, life improved and the work got done.

Anyway, if this sounds familiar to you you could be experiencing a memory issue. I know that I am. Did I also mention that I lost my car keys two weeks ago. Put them down somewhere and….

P.S. I think it is a really good episode of Portable Radio. Take a listen at portableradio.ca

Portable Radio P.O.V Season 3 #3 - What Remembrance Day Means to Us[2:27]

With November 11th just a few days away, 56js and 5nt began a discussion on their blogs about what Remembrance Day means to us. The students have some very thoughtful answers. This Portable Radio Point of View is just a sampling of their opinions. To read more please visit our class blogs 5/6js.ca and 5nt.ca.

The students who you will hear in this podcast are:

Bradley, Jeffrey, Megan, Gabriel, Sarah, Katie, Adrianna, Maggie and Callum

Download

Portable Radio P.O.V Season 3 #3 - What Remembrance Day Means to Us[2:31]

With November 11th just a few days away, 56js and 5nt began a discussion on their blogs about what Remembrance Day means to us. The students have some very thoughtful answers. This Portable Radio Point of View is just a sampling of their opinions. To read more please visit our class blogs  5/6Js.ca and   5nt.ca.

The students who you will hear in this podcast are:

Bradley, Jeffrey, Megan, Gabriel, Sarah, Katie, Adrianna, Maggie and Callum

Download

Success Story!

Shaw Jackson is a participant in our TLLP podcast workshops.

Hi Nathan,

I did a podcast with our school’s EarthCare Green Team advertising our upcoming Festive Light Exchange. We are playing this brief announcement over the PA system each morning this week. Parents can also hear this podcast at our school’s website (wej1.blogspot.com) - click the Parents link.

It did not take too much time at all to create this (writing the script, recording the voices, editing). We used the portable audio recorder to record the students’ voices. The music was downloaded from Soundsnap.com.

Shaw Jackson
WEJ

P.S. Just wanted to let you know that another teacher here at WEJ, Pat Ollevier also worked on our Festive Light podcast (we run the Green Team together). She was eager to learn about audacity!

Download

Pictures from our first workshop

October 27, 2008 marked the official launch of our Portable PD site.  Using the money from our TLLP grant we brought together 16 teachers and gave a workshop on podcasting in the classroom.  We’ll get the 16 teachers back together for three more workshops over the school year.

Preparation of the Portable PD Podcasting Kit.

Fine representation from Adrienne Clarkson Elementary.

Hard at work as always, those teachers from Munster.

and the fine teachers from Woodroffe

Big kids, little kids

A primary teacher who is involved in our TLLP podcasting workshop was sharing with me today about how she was starting to get her students into recording audio.

I teach junior, grade 5/6 students and I have little experience with the grade 1 and 2 set but I can see that it would be a challenge to get some kids recording while others were working. Donna (the primary teacher) solved the problem by having her grade 6 lunch monitors record her primary students during the lunch hour. The grade 6s felt important using the voice recorder and being the “big kids” and the younger students each got a chance to have their say. The topic was the weather. A simple start but it involved many students at their own levels. Big kids and little kids working together and it didn’t become an add on for the teacher.

Terrific!!!

Why won’t this $%# microphone work?

Time to put on your troubleshooting gloves.  Or put it off and find something really strong to drink.  It all depends on how your day is going.

If you are using a USB headset microphone we suggest that you first plug them in and wait a few seconds so that the computer recognizes them. Then start up Audacity.

On some OCDSB computers, you will get a password prompt when anything USB is plugged in. The board has put out an installer called “USB Thumbdrive…”. Install that and reboot. Jane says the computer freezes after installation. Of course that never happened to me - so either way you have to restart.

If that doesn’t work or you are using a “regular” non-USB microphone go to edit/preferences in the Audacity menu. You’ll be in the Audio I/O tab automatically. Click on playback and record menus and select a different device. In the case of USB headsets, the name of that particular headset should show up in the menu. In the “regular” microphones just try picking a different one and cross your fingers.

Perhaps this doesn’t need to be said, but check that the microphone is plugged in to the microphone jack. It is often in both the front and back of the computer. Try both if you have the patience.

Another thing about USB headsets: they often come with an on/off button that is not so obvious to those of us, like me, who don’t read instruction manuals. A solid red (or blue or whatever) light means the mike is operating. If it is blinking it is not recording.

We hope there was something there that did the trick.

Podcast for free or spend $1000?

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

TLLP

The Ontario Ministry of Education is looking for proposal from teachers for the Teacher Learning and Leadership Program. This program provides funding to encourage teachers to share their learning with colleagues. If you are interested in developing a project idea the information and forms are available at the following link:

www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/teacher/tllp.html

Proposal applications are due at your board office by November 14th, 2008 for the 2009-2010 school year.

Start writing!!!

Episode 1 Season 3 [12:39]

We are introducing a lot of new talent with this our first full length podcast of the 2008-09 school year.

In this episode you will hear:

Ben, Nick and Eric with the Recess Report
Matthew with a report about the Grade 6 field trip to Turtle Island
Katie with information about the Halifax explosion
Olivia, Shelby and Sarah give advice on what to wear and what not to wear in the Fashion Report
Callum and Remi challenge ALC’s new Vice Principal, Mr. Martin on Riddle Mania
Karine, Chelsea and Grace give us their opinions about zoos.

Listen for introductions by Dylan, station ids by Jackson D and Dean and outros by Jeffrey and Mitchell H

Music used in this episode:

WW - Greenroom (Podsafe Music Network)
Elegy - 192 (Podsafe Music Network)

Click to Download

Screencast: Using Netcaster to store your podcasts

If you are an employee of the Ottawa Carleton District School Board, you have another way to store audio files.  Netcaster is kind of like YouTube for the OCDSB.  It’s just a little more complicated than using Edublogs, but storage space is less of an issue.

Here’s the beginning of the URL you add your specific file information to:

http://blt.ocdsb.ca/netcaster/media/[PASTE FILE NAME HERE]

Thanks to Tim Hawes for creating this.  Find more discussion about technology and education at www.commun-it.org.

Our New Podcast

Download

Shownotes

- jokes

- math questions

Screencast: How to upload your finished audio to Edublogs

We were recently asked how to go about getting your finished audio onto the Internet.  One easy and free way to do this is through Edublogs.  Other blog providers will work much the same way.

Hoping you find this useful:

Getting your podcast on iTunes

There is a real cool factor about having your podcast in iTunes.  It makes it easy for people to find you and to subscribe to your show. And it’s FREE!

The first thing to do is to get an account with Feedburner. This is a free service that does all the mumbo jumbo scripting that needs to be done for iTunes to recognize a podcast. Nathan did try to script it himself following iTunes instructions but I don’t think it was a pretty experience (he still twitches a bit). A feedburner account will give you a url that leads iTunes to the stuff that it needs and understands. Another reason for having a Feedburner account is that it will also give you statistical information on how many visitors your are getting and what episodes they are listening to.

Once you have the Feedburner account, download iTunes application and visit the (if you haven’t done so already) iTunes store page. Click on Podcasts in the left hand column. Once you are on the Podcast page it is just a matter of scrolling down to the bottom of the left hand column to where it says Learn More. One of the items is Submit a podcast. From there I believe it is pretty straight forward (although I haven’t actually done it myself but Nathan makes it sound easy).

You will need to plug in information as they ask for it. They will ask you for a credit card number but that is just to establish your iTunes account (unless you already have one). Posting a podcast is free just as subscribing to podcasts is free.

Let us know when you have your podcast up and ready for subscribers. We are always looking to promote student produced podcasts.

Take advantage of the Discussion button on the top of this blog where you can post questions or dicussion items.  Sending e mails also works nathan.toft @ocdsb.ca  or jane.smith@ocdsb.ca

Free sources for sound effects

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Portable PD Podcast - Episode 4 [16:36]

Episode four has arrived.  We hope you enjoy it.

Download

Links

ECOO Conference

Jane’s class blog

Nathan’s class blog

Podcast Picks

The Clever Sheep (more of a blog)

The Clever Sheep’s podcast (also known as Teacher 2.0)

Mr. Carruther’s Grade 6 class

Web Resources

iTunes

Tutorial

Using Audacity to Export Multiple Audio Files (screencast)

Music

Hot Doggin’ - by DeerFoot (Podsafe Music Network)
The Kool-Aid Makes Itself - Psykosoul (Podsafe Music Network)
Mumbo Jumbo - BD Lenz (Podsafe Music Network)
Hook, Line and Slinker - Podington Bear
Bump and Run - Derek Audette

Prelinger Archives

How to Keep a Job (1949)

Recording and Exporting Multiple Audio Tracks

We often have our students record little pieces of sound for our podcast (station ids, announcements, etc.). A fast way to deal with the different student recordings is to take advantage of the built in capacity to Export Multiple sound files on Audacity. This allows you to work in one Audacity project and yet keep your audio tracks separate. Watch this video (created with Jing) for directions on how to do this.

Sony ICD-UX70S MP3 Recorder

Blogs…choices, choices

I am writing this post in the hopes that other educational bloggers out there will add to a discussion in order to provide information for people who are thinking about getting into blogging with their classes about which provider to sign on with.

We (obviously) use Edublogs. Edublogs has just undergone a massive makeover. Last week was quite rocky. The service was up and down while they worked out the bugs. They are very good at communicating when they will do work but I think they were a bit blind sided by how much work the makeover would be. If you had asked me early last week about Edublogs I would have told you to avoid it like the plague but this week the sun is shining again.

I find it very easy to manage the blog and have actually abandoned my website and now just use the blog. Setting up student accounts is getting easier and I like how I can post from any computer anywhere - unlike my website. It means that I can post daily and my students are doing some of their writing from home.

I also like the fact that edublogs is a free service that is advertising free. I don’t like sending my families or students to sites that post commercials.

Another plus is that it is really easy to upload pictures and video to the site. Nathan has provided a video tutorial on how to upload a google calendar to the site. I am interested in coding and the background mumbo jumbo on how these things work so I appreciate how easy it is to manage and modify the blog.

I look forward to seeing comments about other blog providers. If you would like to see my classroom blog please visit 56j.ca

Recording and Exporting Multiple Audio Tracks

We often have our students record little pieces of sound for our podcast (station ids, announcements, etc.). A fast way to deal with the different student recordings is to take advantage of the built in capacity to Export Multiple sound files on Audacity. This allows you to work in one Audacity project and yet keep your audio tracks separate. Watch this video (created with Jing) for directions on how to do this.

Sony ICD-UX70S MP3 Recorder

We recently purchased a new voice recorder for our students to use.  It’s the Sony ICD-UX70S MP3 Recorder.  Its advantage over the Olympus models we have used up to now is the fact it records directly to an MP3 format.  That means there is no need to use software to convert the audio format.  With the Olympus models (and most other voice recorders) you first have to convert the audio files to MP3 to allow audio editing software like Audacity to use it.  Now, all you and your students have to do is plug it directly into the computer’s USB port, launch Audacity, and import the audio directly from the voice recorder.

This voice recorder comes equipped with built in stereo microphones. Its sound quality is at least as good, if not a little better than the other voice recorders we have used.  If you are after something with better sound recording, the Zoom H2 Handy Recorder would be the way to go.  This is what Jane and I use to record the Portable PD podcast.

Like the Olympus WS-320, its USB is built in.  This is a very handy feature to have as it will save you from having to search for the right cable while surrounded by impatient students who will inevitably find other, less constructive, things to do with their time.  It also comes with a pair of earbud headphones, a short USB extension cable and a bag.  Like all voice recorders, it is very light and small and its casing is plastic.  The price was fairly reasonable (we got ours for around $70 from Staples) and our ten year old students haven’t had any difficulty figuring out how to use it.

Blogs…choices, choices

I am writing this post in the hopes that other educational bloggers out there will add to a discussion in order to provide information for people who are thinking about getting into blogging with their classes about which provider to sign on with.

We (obviously) use Edublogs. Edublogs has just undergone a massive makeover. Last week was quite rocky. The service was up and down while they worked out the bugs. They are very good at communicating when they will do work but I think they were a bit blind sided by how much work the makeover would be. If you had asked me early last week about Edublogs I would have told you to avoid it like the plague but this week the sun is shining again.

I find it very easy to manage the blog and have actually abandoned my website and now just use the blog. Setting up student accounts is getting easier and I like how I can post from any computer anywhere - unlike my website. It means that I can post daily and my students are doing some of their writing from home.

I also like the fact that edublogs is a free service that is advertising free. I don’t like sending my families or students to sites that post commercials.

Another plus is that it is really easy to upload pictures and video to the site. Nathan has provided a video tutorial on how to upload a google calendar to the site.  I am interested in coding and the background mumbo jumbo on how these things work so I appreciate how easy it is to manage and modify the blog.

I look forward to seeing comments about other blog providers. If you would like to see my classroom blog please visit 56j.ca