Musical Citation Project

There was a conflict with scheduling my use of the tablets today (a problem I like to have) so I had to come up with an extra project last night. I keep a list of future projects on my delicious account and found an interesting idea.

Reviewing Citations
Last year, I worked on the idea of saying thank you for images in a PowerPoint lesson for the fifth grade. I wanted to extend that thought in a new way. I do not like to over use PowerPoint and felt that I'd like to use images again.

The lesson found on Pics4Learning's website suggests that the teacher selects a piece of music that students can use with images in Pic4Learnings free photos.

I did a quick search for Creative Commons music and came across an article titled Creative Commons Music in Honor of Obama. I listened to a piece titled Taps-America the Beautiful by Obi Best. It is a beautiful piece with an attribution-noncommercial 3.0 unported license. This is perfect for the project. I was able to edit out the taps and have a minute and eleven seconds of song.

I used EasyBib to create a citation for the music and posted the lyrics, music citation, and link to Pics4Learning on our wiki page.

Learning Ahead
I introduced the lesson today. I played the piece and asked the students to think of images that came to mind as they listened. They enjoyed the music, swaying to the beat, humming and singing along. They suggested some images as starting points for each other.

I decided the best way to proceed was to teach them how to make a Bookmarks folder in Firefox. As they found images they would want in the presentation, they added a bookmark.

We're going to import the MP3 into iMovie and add the images to complement the music. The students haven't used iMovie yet. They already have plans to bring the music into Garageband to mix it up. I didn't plan that part of the project. It evolved in class as they asked for the option. It was a great opportunity to talk about the Creative Commons license selected by the artist which allows for remixing of the song.

Overall Plan
We will create a title and a series of images for America the Beautiful. The students will include citations for the music and all the images. We will eventually upload the completed movies to our school podcast page and/or my vimeo account. I'll have to determine this as I see the project evolve.

In the end, the students will have 24 versions of the song. We will do a little analysis at the end. The project is still evolving, but it seems like the students are going to have a lot of fun while they are reminded once again about citations AND begin learning about copyright, creative commons, and the public domain.

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Image Citation:
"America the Beautiful..." longhorndave's photostream. 2006 Jul 15. 2009 Oct 27.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidw/189892126/

Fourth Grade Podcasting

This is the second year in a row that my fourth grade students have created podcasts in Garageband. This year, I'm going to tie it into an Internet safety lesson.

The Project Outline
We started the project back in January. I have an outline document created in Word. The students are paired in groups of two. Depending upon the number of students in the class, I may have one group of three students.

The students open the document from the file server. They take turns being the interviewer and interviewee. Whoever is interviewing asks the questions and types the answers. By this point, the students are very good at basic word processing skills. They use proper capitalization, grammar, and spelling. They use one space between words and after punctuation marks. They understand word wrap and do not press the return at the end of lines. If we have students new to our school, this project gives them a partner to review and practice word processing skills. They switch seats and roles and complete the next interview.

When they are finished, they print a copy of the script and I review the copy for school appropriate language. I sometimes request more details.

Next Comes the Fun Part - Musical Intro
We open Garageband and learn how to open the Loop Browser. They learn to drag loops onto the time line, delete tracks, stretch and shorten loops, and delete segments of music. The program becomes a favorite piece of software for downtime when they complete projects the remainder of the year.

Recording the Script
Once all the scripts are typed and approved and the intro is complete, we get out the headphone mics to record the podcast. In this example from last year, we used the built-in microphones. There was so much background noise. This year, I was able to purchase some USB headphone mics. The Mac seems to only recognize one headset at a time. The students took turns recording questions and answers. The results are much better. I think you can hear the difference in this example. There were the same number of students in the room all recording at the same time.

Small Problems
One of my biggest disappointments in Garageband, and iMovie for that matter, is that it automatically brings up the last file in progress. This has resulted in file changes on several occassions. They were not malicious changes, students just didn't realize they were editing someone else's work and saved the changes by mistake.

As a result, when the students are finished, I come to each machine and save twice: once in the Garageband folder and a second time in the Documents folder. I name the file with the year, class, and student's names: 0809-4a-Ann-Kathy. I use the Share option to Export the Song to Disk as an MP3.

Even Out the Sound Levels
The music clips can be louder than the voices, so I've been using The Levelator to even out the sound levels. The only problem is that the file has to be a WAV or AIFF file. Zamzar comes to the rescue. I upload the file, wait for an email to tell me it's been converted, and download the WAV version of the file.

Levelator is so easy. I just drag the WAV file to the program and it generates a new file with the word "output" in the file name.

Where to Place the Files
I have chosen Podomatic to host my files. I started out with a free account. It is great, but I have decided to spend $99 to upgrade the account. It removes ads from the podcast page, gives me more storage space, and gives me detailed statistics.

Even in the free mode it is great. I copied the RSS feed for the podcast page to iTunes and the students can download their podcasts onto their iPods at home.

Tie-in to Internet Safety
One of the topics that I review each year with students is the concept of public and private information. This year, I plan to teach the lesson and then have the students review each podcast and determine how well their classmates did in keeping private information off the Internet.

Film School in Session

Last Friday, I spent the best sixteen minutes of my K12 Online Conference with Film School for Video Podcasters by Matthew Needleman. Not only did I benefit, but so did my eighth grade students.

Attention Grabbing
Matthew modeled great video podcasting. He opened with an intriguing story in images. Shot like a 1940's movie, I was drawn into his subject. As the presentation progressed, I was struck by the high quality of the video. Watching Matthew discuss his tips, I felt like I was watching a TCM interview with a director. He talks about storyboards, choosing shots, and the rule of thirds. There are many other hints along the way.

Why Show Students
My eighth grade students are working on a project tied into the annual DAR writing competition. This year's essay is based on the Gettysburg Address. After reviewing the first draft, the social studies teacher was concerned with the writing of some of the students. I suggested that the eighth grade could produce a series of short films for the sixth and seventh grade students.

The Video's Premise
I outlined the following for the students: In groups of three students, write a short newscast from 1863. You can either pretend: a) that you use time travel to go back to 1863 or b) that video interviews could be given in 1863. You will have one group member be the reporter. The other two will be people who were eyewitnesses to the event. We will be able to show the videos to the younger students. Hopefully, they will gain some additional insight into the speech from the perspective of farmers, soldiers, nurses, doctors, and wives of the men of the time. In order to prepare for the presentation, we looked at a sample of a newscast from Discovery streaming. It was a 1958 clip about President Eisenhower's wedding anniversary. Additionally, I wanted the students to see what could be done with images and sound. I followed the Eisenhower clip with a reading of the Gettysburg Address.

Eye on the Story
The students had worked on their story in Word for one class. When I saw the Film School for Video Podcasters session, I knew that my students would benefit. I chose the section on storyboards and the section on the rule of thirds. I could tell that they were drawn into the video. They were very attentive to what Matthew was saying. There was one boy who was literally sitting on the edge of his seat, leaning into the presentation. At the end of the rule of thirds section, he said "Wow, that's so interesting, I never heard that before".

Reality of the Storyboard
The students are still struggling with the idea of needing to storyboard their work. One of the students asked if they still needed to create the storyboard if they knew what they were going to do. I asked him if he knew what he wanted to do and he said yes. I asked him if the other two students in his group knew what he wanted to do, and he still thought the answer was yes. I told them that I still expected a storyboard, even if they didn't use it entirely in the recording of the video.

My Video Podcasting Past
Each time I create a video podcast, I learn something new. My videos have really been more like screencasts so far. The only full video I have created with students is a Population Density video from the sixth grade math class I taught last year. You can see how the rule of thirds was not even a thought in our mind. The students are centered in most shots and it is visually very boring.

Gettysburg In-House
The movies are going to remain in-house productions. I am not going to have the time to have the students find all copyright friendly images. If any videos can be put online, I'll explain it in a future post.

In the Meanwhile
If you have any interest in creating video podcasts, currently make movies with students, or create video podcasts with them - this presentation is for you. Spend a fantastic 16:31 minutes with Matthew and your videos will be on the road to being more interesting and take your student's work to the next level. Get ready to kick it up a notch.

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Image Citation:
Needleman, Matthew. Film School for Video Podcasters K12 Online Presentation. 2008 October 31. http://k12onlineconference.org/?p=329

Technorati Tags:
[k12online08ki10]

Podcasting Practicalities

I've been learning, over the course of the year, how to get podcasts together in a most expeditious and usable-for-students manner. I am not sure how practical all the steps are, but it seems to be what works best for me. Use the steps or suggest changes, I'm open to making the process more streamlined.

Garageband '08
I use Garageband since it is a very easy product for my students and I. I have taught grades four through eight how to use Garageband this year and they love it.

Once the recording is complete and I edit it for little mistakes, I am ready to export it as an AIF file. Why, you ask? Because I found a program called Levelator. It levels out the audio from one speaker to the next in a podcast.

Some students speak soft, others loud, so this evens everything out. The Levelator requires a WAV or AIF file, so this extra step becomes necessary.

Levelator
It couldn't be a simplier program to use. Drag and drop a file onto the interface's little black rectangle and it places a new file with a .output extension in the folder with your original file.

Open the File in iTunes
I open the file in iTunes and get ready to jump through another hoop. This one involves choosing the file and selecting from the menu Advanced - Convert Selection to AAC. This gives me a .m4a file. I ran into headaches with this earlier in the year when I was creating math review podcasts for my students. Not every student could play that file type at home. So... on to the next hoop.

Upload the file to Zamzar and Convert
It seem like everyone can play .mp3 files. I use Zamzar because it is free and quick. I do use the website a fair amount, so I did make a donation to them a while back. I also received a very nice thank you email from them. I find my .m4a file on my hard drive, choose to convert to .mp3 and supply my email address. A short while later, a link appears to my new .mp3 file. It disappears in one day, so I try to complete this step when I'm not pressed for time.

Upload the File to Podomatic
I'm in the clear at this point. I started a Podomatic account earlier this year. Again, free is good. I have 500MB of storage and I'm only at about 12% capacity after a year's worth of work. I am contemplating going pro for the better statistics and ad-free page.

When I started the account, I created an RSS feed to the page. My students can access all the podcasts by typing SMS Computer at the iTunes store.

For Those Without iTunes
With the end firmly in site, I make a link to the podcasts on my classroom wiki. I have a link to the classroom wiki on my Schoolnotes page. The students are usually very good at finding the Schoolnotes page since almost every teacher keeps one for homework assignments.

So There You Have It
A lot of steps, that may seem redundant, but it is working for me. I also end up with three ways that the students can find the files.

Any thoughts?

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Image Citation
Chan, Kelly. "iPod gathering." nikitac's photostream. 2005 Oct 28. 2008 June 2.
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/30/56898961_fa5b5d2f30.jpg?v=0

Analyzing Podcasts

My eighth graders created podcasts on Plagiarism back in November. I set up a section of my wiki to give people access to the podcasts, collect a little data in a ClustrMap, and there is also a link to a SurveyMonkey form.

My seventh grade is now in the process of creating podcasts on Website Evaluation. I want them to analyze their efforts before they consider the project complete. To this end, I went a bit bleary-eyed gathering the data.


Overall, the quality of the information was found to be:

Excellent: 48%
Good: 35%
Fair: 15%
Poor: 2%

The ability to understand what the students were saying was found to be:

Excellent: 49%
Good: 36%
Fair: 12%
Poor: 3%

Not bad for a class on their first attempt. I'd like the seventh grade to raise that bar. They have already listened to the podcasts back in December. I've been working on a plan to introduce the analysis to the seventh grade next week.

I want them to compare the following two charts and listen to the "most excellent" and "most poorly" rated podcasts and try to determine what caused the podcasts to get those ratings. These ratings were only those generated by "strangers". I did not include the results of the surveys entered by our student body.

Hopefully they will realize that while it's fun to use sound effects on the voice, it does not get your message across. I am also going to show them comments from the people who filled out the surveys. There were actually some teachers who were asked to listen to the podcasts for a class (as a teacher). There were also teachers who said they would like to have their students listen to the podcasts. That may open their minds to the impact their podcasts could have on others. I am still having a problem explaining that their work is public. This might show them the truth of their budding global voice.

Great Excitement from the Eighth Grade

I had my eighth grade in today. The listened to their podcasts and really enjoyed themselves. They were much more excited today about the ability to have to world listen to them with the project complete. They liked the ClusterMap. They can't believe they can download their podcasts onto their iPods. All in all it was great.

Now I'm going to put a link to the wiki from Classroom 2.0 and Twitter. I'm going to ask the world to listened, and complete a survey if they choose. It will be another way to show the students an audience.

For me, it is an experiment in seeing how this network that I have so recently joined can help me help my students. If you listen to a podcast, let me know what you think and how we can improve.

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Image Citation:
“iPod.” brotha’s Photostream. 26 Sep 2007. 30 Oct 2007. <>.

Expanding My Student's View of the World

My students created podcasts about plagiarism. As they were working, they didn't seem too impressed that their work was on the Internet and should be the best it could be. They ended up recording their projects twice on my insistence.

Today I spent a fair amount of time uploading the podcasts to Podomatic, creating a survey in SurveyMonkey, adding a ClusterMap, and adding a Statcounter. I want the students to see and hear from a global audience.

To that end, I am taking the advice from The Thinking Stick's Jeff Utecht. In his K12 Online Presentation, Online Professional Development, he clearly showed how he uses his network. I absolutely loved the way he gave the presentation. It was like sitting at the desk with him.

I've been playing around with Twitter, Ning, and a variety of other tools since returning from vacation in August. I have started following what I would call the "big names". Some people have found me and added me to Twitter. Now it's my turn to find other people and build my network even more.

I am hoping to tweet about my student's podcasts and put a note up in a couple of nings in hopes of getting the students some response to their work. I want them to see other people are interested in their work and will evaluate what they see. I'm hopeful that I will be able to generate more than a couple of hits and a global audience. I have a tiny voice in the edublog world, but I am enjoying it greatly. I want the students to experience this with the school work in a different way than they do with their IMing and social networks.

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Image Citation:
Francis, Mark Norman. “My Audience.” cackhanded’s Photostream. 15 Dec 2005. 27 Oct 2007. <>.

Eighth Grade Podcasts

The eighth graders were off and running again on creating their podcasts about plagiarism. They have all, at this point, recorded the actual script. Now they are enhancing the recordings with music and special effects.

I taught them how to share the GarageBand with iTunes and convert the file to the AAC format. Half the students have finished the project by adding the Info to the project. Over the weekend I should be able to upload them to Podomatic and attach them to the wiki along with the seventh grade VoiceThreads. Lots of fun all around.

To Be or Not To Be a Video Podcast

I've come a long way since the end of the last school year. I not only learned how to use iTunes with or without an iPod, I can create podcasts. I still need to do a lot of documentation of the process.

Last weekend, I really rushed to put together a video and audio podcast for my math class. I found out the first time around that if I wanted the video podcast to download to the iPod, it had to be in MPEG-4 format.

Today, we are off from school, and I was trying to figure out why my video podcast wasn't on my iPod. When I went into iTunes to compare the files, I found out that even though I saved it in MPEG-4 format, it was using a H-264 video codec. So...I just resaved it and uploaded it to my podomatic account. Now, I have to do the final tests. It should be fine. Also, it seems like it takes 24 hours, or overnight, or something for iTunes to sync up with the RSS feed.

Live and learn.

Podcast with images

I have finally gotten around to making a podcast with images. It's not a video podcast, per se. I also did it a little different than the first audio podcast. I only used GarageBand on the iBook to create the audio sections. I did end up saving each piece of audio for each associated image in a separate GarageBand file.

Now, my steps may be more convoluted than they need to be. I'll learn that as I go along. In GarageBand, I took each file and chose File - Export to iTunes.

I created jpg images of PowerPoint slides with <3>.

I opened iMove HD and imported images and sounds. I used the File - Share option when I was done and compressed the movie on Expert Settings. It seems like if I export as Movie to MPEG-4, I am able to see the podcast as a video podcast on my iPod.

Finally, I loaded the file up to my podomatic account. On their help screen, I found out that I could copy my RSS link to the files into iTunes. I created an iTunes account and after I submitted the RSS feed, they said they'd get back to me on the feed's entry into iTunes. I'm hoping it's a free service.

I showed my students how to access the podcast from my classblogmeister account which I have linked through my schoolnotes account.

Several hops, skips, and jumps later, I showed my math students. They seem to think it's a good idea. I'm very curious to see how many students actually use it. My first podcast was just a welcome to class. My second podcast is study notes for our first chapter quiz.

Good Day at the Ranch

I got a welcome podcast up on Classblogmeister. It may have taken more steps than necessary and I want to have an enhanced podcast eventually with multiple images, but I have a welcome podcast!

I used a podcast creation guide from Apple that I found on Google. I found background music at podsafeaudio.com. Mixed it up in GarageBand. Exported it to iTunes. Uploaded it to a podomatic account. Finally, added my citation for the music and downloaded it to my iPod.

This makes up for the Internet being down in the school. I'm still crossing my fingers that it's up on Tuesday after the workers in the building finish their work.