Week 7 Blog

I, like many of my colleagues, found the Lynda training for Audacity significantly less overwhelming than the GIMP training.  As a musician, I have played around with GarageBand before.  I find that a lot of knowledge that I had for GarageBand can be applied to Audacity.  I feel as though adding effects to a track in Audacity may be much easier.  I suppose each tool is designed for a specific job.  GarageBand is more for music recording, whereas Audacity is more ideal for podcasts.

From looking at the Lynda tutorial, Audacity looks fairly straightforward- make a selection, delete; make a selection, add filter; place your time stamp, generate silence.  

When I was teaching grade 8, I actually had my students 

> Read a Robert Munsch book

> Record their voice in Audacity, save as mp3

> Upload audio to their Google Drive (make public)

> Get link from the audio

> Generate QR code from that link.

The idea behind it was that our Kindergarten students would be able to scan a QR code on a Robert Munsch book in their classroom and follow along with the recording as they read.

For example, here is "More Pies" by Robert Munsch as read by one of my former students.

Although I used Audacity with my students, I did not have an in depth understanding as to how to use it; especially for editing.  I know that this program can be incredibly beneficial in the classroom to diversify your teaching.