Activity 8.1 - my log on producing a Podcast

software involved

• Audacity (audio editing)
• WinFF (file conversion)
• Juice (Podcast - feed subscription)
• Switchpod (Podcast - file host)
• Google System Blogspot (Code for embedding MP3 players into Blog post)
  

hardware involved

• Olympus DS30 digital recorder

Background

I've worked with Audacity a few times but nothing beyond a quick recording to share with students. As for podcasts, I love listening to them when I'm running on the treadmill or going for a walk on the Corniche but don't see them as useful for much else. I never saw much point in creating them on the belief that unless the emotive qualities of my message or that of others was as important to communicate as the content of the message.. then I could just as easily live without them. This exercise (to produce a podcast) invited a review of that.

Recording

Interesting to think about how to prepare (questions, digital recorder) and then find a stage for my selected "sages" to speak .. then approaching them in a non threatening way to encourage a positive response to my invitation. I was surprised to see the level of support and equally strong responses to the questions. I also recall a sense of excitement about not knowing exactly what to expect..

Converting

Once done with the recording, I discovered a number of obstacles. I was already familiar with the basic operation of Audacity so that was easy. However, I was less familar with the digital recorder that I am using. I was already confronted by one seemingly major issue .. the need to convert wma (the ONLY setting on the recorder) to wav or mp3 files. This meant hunting down a solution .. an wma to wav converter. In the end I selected WinFF because it was free, and looked dead easy to use.

Once converted from wma to wav.. I discovered that it didn't end there.. I then had to open again each file into Audacity for editing. A very time consuming task .. if I wanted to produce something that I felt was worth the time to listen to .

Editing sound files

A new set of challenges with editing. This meant sorting out problems with sampling rates, creating tracks, adding fade ins and fade outs and editing sections. A couple of hang ups of the software stressed to me the importance of frequent saving of files as Audacity projects so that previous editing work would not be lost if tech problems emerged.

I noted how putting together a presentation and making it coherent felt a lot like editing an essay. I likened it to cut and paste in a word processor .. yet with sound bites.

Then the whole thing needed to be saved with consideration given to both the file's size and format. I chose MP3 because its pretty much the norm these days. I also adjusted the sampling rate to 22050 mono because this would reduce the file size to speed up the download for others and yet still provide enough fidelity to be clear and easy to listen to.

Broadcasting

This proved remarkably easy to realize. As per Martin Weller's excellent instructions (compliments of H808) .. I began by registering on Switchpod, I then followed the "Creating your podcast" steps... five in all but only 3 were absolutely necessary.
In the end Switchpod provided both a link directly to the MP3 file
and a feed link for subscription to the podcast (in the event I might want to repeat the whole thing again).
http://www.switchpod.com/users/buck_in_sand/feed.xml
http://www.switchpod.com/p22376.html

However, when attempting to carry out an uploading of the podcast to the Open University podcast wiki page, I confronted the issue of just where to put it - H808 wiki podcast page (to which I appeared to be the first customer) and the Tutor Group Wiki (which seemed to be a collection point for a slew of podcasts). In the end, I attempted to post it in both places... I had success in one site .. but not in the other and for reasons that are still not clear to me I had problems with embedding the podcast into the wiki.

Embedding player into Blog

This proved interesting to sort out. No widget (as of yet) supported in Blogger but an assortment of embedded audio players are out there to use for free. I used Odeo and the following code

Replace
[MP3 file address]

Template
<embed src= "http://www.odeo.com/flash/audio_player_standard_black.swf" quality="high" width="300" height="52" allowscriptaccess="always" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" flashvars= "valid_sample_rate=true&external_url=[MP3 file address]" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></embed>

Refection - Activity 4.1 - creating multimedia components

This Unit got under my skin a bit ... so I let loose on the FCC message board with the following to my group. It started out for me as a pretty simple rant "Multimedia beware" ... then grew into a bit of a reflection piece for me. A confrontation with myself between the academic reasons for using multimedia and the real "fears" or "concerns" for perhaps avoiding them.

_____________

I'm going to go "out on a limb" here and say that I'd like to challenge the use of multimedia. I also want to say that I'm even a bit disappointed by the resources that I've read in Unit 4.1. I say this because I haven't read anything on the appropriate selection of multimedia (perhaps I've missed something on the topic and I'd love to read about it if its there - do tell) From my experience the use of voice and video really only serve a purpose if the affective qualities that they communicate are important to supporting / enhancing the message or are part of the message (ie.. emotion, enthusiasm, body language, visual cues etc.) If these elements are not seen as important..or are not thought of carefully they can even become a distraction from the message or undermine the message. I've seen my share of poorly made TV shows (available on almost 90% of the channels available to us in the UAE) that have only served to reinforce the point.

Now I realize that the opposite can be said about email or text messaging .. and people sometimes go to great lengths to add that emotional quality via "emoticons". I'd argue that email or text messaging works great until there is a need to convey emotion .. to communicate the message with nuances.. or to minimize the risk of an email message sounding too "turse" or "harsh". Then I might consider using audio or video to communicate my message.

This then begs the question. When might I want to use multimedia as part of an eportfolio? Are there situations when I might want to use audio or video? I've been reflecting on this .. and have managed to come up with the following. By "honestly" conveying my message through multimedia.. by "honestly" conveying my message along with all of its non verbal cues .. I may be granting more authenticity to my presentation. I stressed the word "honestly" because I can't help but think that if it isn't done honestly .. then its likely scripted instead .. then the authenticity of the message "goes out the window" - the reader / viewer may not buy it.

Then there's the other side of the issue. Even if I'm trying to be honest and sincere, I know that I'm confronting my own sorted of "performance" anxiety - asking myself all sorts of questions.

• "How did I come across?"
• "Should I repeat this?"
• "I didn't like that part".
• "Let's do it over again".

So while it can seem fun to some.. it can also be work too - creating a slew of anxieties in my quest to realize some sort of "carefully crafted identity".

I guess what I'm saying here is that I'm incredibly conscious of these affective qualities and perhaps how difficult it can be to either confront them (to make the choice to do them), surrender to them (accept the fact that any such performance will not be perfect) or control them (trying to shape the final product through scripting or rehearsing).

Leading me to conclude, how I confront the use of multimedia and when I use it, is always likely to be a display of not only my technical expertise / skill in using them but my level of confidence in confronting how and when I think I can use them effectively.

Reflection - Providing Structure - "too much" or "too little"?

This matter about "structure" seems to be coming up serendipitously. At the same time I've reconnected with Vance Steven and his education blog.
http://advanceducation.blogspot.com/2008/09/connectivism-too-much-noise.html
He had recently commented on an item by George Siemens on

"how structure influences the ability for students to learn. Too much noise and learners are overwhelmed. Too much order and learners are not challenged. Some ambiguity in the learning process permits room for exploration and creativity." Noting that the course itself was 'traditionally' structured, he said "it's the conversation that's more chaotic...does that detract from the learning experience?"

THAT caught my eye... and so I read on.

I would say, too little noise, too little challenge definitely, but also too little emulation of what the real world is like. In fact, ambiguity is rampant and managing work and learning tasks involves filtering and reduction. If the work of filtering is done for you then the opportunity to learn is reduced, not only of the knowledge to be acquired, but of the heuristics to be applied in the real world.

I interpreted his point to mean that relatively unstructured "learning" environments are potential opportunities for students to learn how to manage these moments just as they/ we will be expected to do in the real world. So as educators we're left with yet another important decision to make when designing learning - how much structure is appropriate to provide for students at a given time? The problem becomes even more difficult to resolve in the context of elearning where we may not know the strengths / powers of our learners to overcome "planned" ambiguity until they tell us or somehow indicate it to us.

Summary - PDP work (Moon) - my notes - 1

The reflection continuum?
A 5 step process..

1. noticing - catching one's eye .. consciously or unconsciously
2. making sense of it - getting to know the material .. but only in how it interconnects (within itself)
3. making meaning - getting to understand that the material is "meaningful" .. a holistic view
4. working with meaning - getting to understand how the material relates to other ideas .. relationships with other materials .. which may change
5. tranforming learning - evidence that the new learning has changed / transformed one's understandings of things .. creative / idiosyncratic responses

Steps 1 & 2 are more indicative of surface learning

how do we demonstrate learning through reflection .. using this continuum?
Suggested from my reading that we

• simply realize / demonstrate stages 3 to 5
• represent / summarize our learning (i.e. writing an essay, to explain something in our own way / words)
• upgrade our learning (integrating what we have learned with our understanding of other things - i.e. tutorials, using the discourse of the subject .. integrating ideas)

how do we support reflection in learning?
Look at the characteristics of reflection .. (review what needs to be in place to support these characteristics?)

• reflection slows down activity (students need time to process material and make links with other ideas)
• reflection promotes ownership of the material (need to allow time for students to put it into "student" voice, one's own context)
• reflection encourages metacognition - awareness of one's own cognitive functioning (need to promote student awareness of their learning processes - study skills prog)
• reflection emerges out of unstructured material (need to reflect on material that is not structured, to make sense of it)

So online learning / elearning may potentially support reflection much more so than traditional "classroom" based learning because it arguably supports a student's need

• for quiet and time to process material,
• to summarize material in their own words,
• to put material into a personal context ..
  

However, it should preferably be structured so the learner is not obliged to simply follow it lock step yet it can't be unstructured so the learner is too challenged to realize access to the content s ( i.e. choosing from a variety of reading selections for a unit in H808).

Classroom management issues promote the use of a very structured environment (time / place dependent) . Classroom management issues and physical space / time limitations strongly direct instructional design…and type of learning possible because a teacher often feels pressured to present the material within a pre-set time frame (maybe not enough time for Ss to absorb and contextualize it).

• much less quiet and time to process material,certainly in the classroom
  
• much less time to summarize material in their own words,
• much less time to put material into a personal context ..
• to be aware of their learning style ..

Thus classroom instruction can indirectly support more surface learning from students.

Let me "reflect" on this.