The first podcasting group at ISD met this afternoon and experimented with digital sound recording techniques and online blogging. What is podcasting? Well, put simply it is audio blogging, but with an RSS feed so that the mp3 files can be downloaded to your mp3 player for listening to at your convenience. We are not just talking about music here but all forms of audio material including interviews and reports etc. See Wikepedia's definition of podcasting. Also have a look at Sean Fitz's website on 'MP3 Players, Podcasting and Online Audio Materials in Education' for more information than you probably need.....but scroll down until you find the 'Educational Uses of Podcasting' section.
So, with the birth of Podcast Bangldesh comes a whole new era for ISD in online presence, multicultural awareness and global communication. I hope you get a chance to drop by and participate in a podcast this year.
I did mention RSS above. This stands for Really Simple Syndication, and it is! You will notice this blog has links to feeds that viewers can subscribe to. This is RSS. If you want to learn more come and borrow my current bible by David Warlick called Classroom Blogging: A Teacher's Guide to the Blogosphere (Teaching and learning inside the global conversation).
Handheld Club has a new lease of life
Thanks to Stuart C and his continued enthusiasm the ISD Handheld Club is back again and aiming for bigger and better experiences this year. One aim that Stuart has is to encourage a set of student mentors for the handheld program so that teachers and other students will know who they can rely on to help them with technical difficulties and software skill development.
Our Guest Columnist once again this week is Brendan with a timely word about audio recordings.
'Brendan Says'
Analogue Tape is better than CD?Most CD's are encoded with 16 Bit resolution even though 24 Bit, with a wider dynamic range has been available for years. This over compression is killing fidelity. Analogue tape captures the continuous stream of sound, hiss and all. Most digital audio recording cuts sound into 44,100 slices per second (44.1kHz), and introduces errors detectable by human ears. Dont get me started on MP3's that compress information a further 30% making music dull. Convenient yes, but make no mistake it is not better. So use your computer for music as a tool but dont forget to preserve the integrity of your recording as best you can. (Source Wired Mag July 05)
Brendan McGibbon
Links for the week:
- The Landmark Project: Home page of educational technology consultant David Warlick. This site has somethign for everyone....browse at leisure
- Kathy Schrock: Power in the Palm of your Hand I have mentioned this site before today (just once or twice ;-)) as it has numerous resources to support our handheld program at ISD.
Contributions wanted! Please contribute to the eLearning weekly blog and become a sharing member of the ISD community and beyond.
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