Hello to myself,

Mostly because after checking the stats. I am one of the only readers to the blog. Having said that, I will be checking Sue Watters how to increase traffic to your blog tips. I am involved with a TVDSB project to create monthly podcasts starting in September which I am very excited about. I am also helping to design a friend Ian Tyson’s cross Canada tour 28 day blog and subsequent DVD.

I have just recently returned from the Halifax Nova Scotia area. I was helping an old University buddy to run a Rock Boot Music Camp in Greenfield Nova Scotia. It was a great time and I have a lot to post and blog about that as well.

So time to get up some pictures and links to the camp’s website. etc.

Well, well, everything is swell. So finally, I consider myself lucky enough to have time to put together a new rant/post to share what I have learned. I feel like as a new full time Learning Technology Coordinator. I need to be able to summarize the key concepts of what I am absorbing through this new position and then pass it a long. Translation, if I am be paid to be driving from one place to the next, and I can learn about great new WEB 2.0 applications while listening to audio books and podcasts then I should take some time to spread the knowledge that I have adapted into my practice of technology in the class room.

Since my last post back in February, I have uncovered much about blogging, podcasting, twitter, and various other WEB 2.0 applications. This information has been for personal learning and of course there is great crossover into the knowledge I can forward to the teachers and principasl I work with on a daily basis.

One of the pojects I am invovled with has be centred around creating a “Podcast” series for childern by childern. In this case the podcast, now called Beyond the Bulletin board has been posted and we are well on the way to creating a monthly synicated program. My partner in this project has been another TVDSB Gr.2/3 teacher Michelle Cordy.  Michelle, has been a fantastic partner during this journey. She has amazing amounts of energy, knowledge, and drive to get things done.  This is the kind of person that helps get projects completed.

Basically, during the process, my job was to provide support for the technical/audio porition of the recording process. We used Audacity as our main piece of software. In regards to the transfer from .mp3 into Podcast, I feel that I have been perhaps about 5 minutes head my partner in terms of my knowledge of the whole WEB 2.0 world and creating an uploading a Podcast for syndication.  Michelle and I are very proud of the students. Heck, they ‘re only in Gr. 2/3 and they have now learned how to record their own material for the show in Audacity. This process also involves catelogin and then exporting their files as .mp3s. The final process involves Michelle stringing everything togethe with introduction music, transitional effects to create a “show” out of the student’s work.

http://rss.tvdsb.on.ca/

There seems to be something so much more internal when you actually read a book in comparison to just listening to someone else read it. I also know that, other drivers on our busy roads would not be impressed with the sight of me driving with a book propped up on the steering wheel, not to mention the car sickness I know I would suffer, and the possible loss of my license through careless driving. No car, no Learning Coordinator job equals no fun for me.

 I have actually read Will Richards book ” Blogging, Wikis, and Podcasting”. This has been our handbook for the entire process. Michelle set up a wiki the we have now be posting everything we learn about podcasting and recording with Audacity.

 Here is a brief summary of two of the books I have listened to:

“The Life of Pi” Life of Pi is a fantasy adventure novel written by Canadian author Yann Martel. In the story, the protagonist Piscine “Pi” Molitor Patel, an Indian boy from Pondicherry, explores issues of religion, spirituality, and practicality from an early age. He survives 227 days after a shipwreck, while stranded on a boat in the Pacific Ocean. ( thank you Wikipedia for the great summary)

The second book is “The Last Lecture” by Randy Pausch, which is a very inspiring lecture by a Carenige Mellon Computer Science professor.  To be clear, I listened to the audio book not the real video presentation lecture. I have included the link to Pausch’s

There are all kinds of great life tips in this lecture. Pausch does in fact really make you think about things from a grander scale of life, which was great for me while I was driving to and from my work destinations. 

 ”The brick walls are there to show us how badly we want something.”

“If you want to be invited the table, you need to have something to bring.”

“Nothing is impossible, you just need to work harder!”

You can hear the lecture at the link listed below. In my opinion, it is great to have this running in the background while you are multi-tasking.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo

Please have a listen to the student Podcast Episode 1 for the Beyond the Bulletin Board and let me know what you think.

Ryan

Hey, Hey, Hey,

It’s time for some PD that is paid for with money we placed in the 2008/2009 budget to help support Technology training for the class room teacher.

During the next few weeks. I will be posting several samples of student created audio podcasts, screen casts, and vblogs.

I hope to provide some samples of student work for the visitors to the blog.

I got a link from David Warlick’ www.davidwarlick.com site called www.tagclouds.com this is a really cool text summary tool. It picks up key words and places them into ‘brainstorm’ summary cloud.  This is a selection from the Ontario Language Curriculum.  Notice the key words in bold font etc. This is great justification for  providing PD funds to train teachers in various techniques for using Multi-Media tools to help motivate and generate engaging projects in our Ontario Classrooms.

<a href=”http://technorati.com/claim/7cmj2f9b59” rel=”me”>Technorati Profile</a>

saiditjan1909

Let’s get this started, Let’s get this started right here…

Welcome to the Blog/Podcast for Mid Janurary 2009. I had the great pleasure of being able to practice my Podcasting skills by hosting a brief interview with the Hip Hop Motivational artist Saidat.

Saidit really inspired the junior and intermediate students at LOCKE’s Public School.  Have a listen to the Podcast. Saidit discusses a few of the way Social Networking has given her career a jump start and she also discusses ways in which technology can be a musician’s practice tool.

Please vist her site

PLEASE VISIT SAIDIT’s site at:   www.saidat.ca

Music,

Mr. Technology

Happy New Year Music Folks,

 I have three main projects on the go currently.

 !) I am working on using Music Apps on my IPOD Touch.

The goal is to write and record my blog intro music using only I-phone Apps such as Diggi Drummer and the Virtual Synths and Garageband or Audacity.

Note: There is even a virtual Four track recorder I might download and test out.

2. I am working on promoting Portable Media Kits for Kids in classroom’s in the Thames Valley School Board.

3. Editing my band the Portside Bouys Celtic Christmas Party and then creating a couple of medly mixes for our myspace website.

One of the projects I am working as a Learning Coordinator for the TVDSB that I will be discussing during this blog entry is the concept of a  MEDIA KIT.  In my opinion a MEDIA KIT is way to provide portable technology for students and teachers that they can employ in and out of their classroom environment. When teachers and students do not have access to Desktop computers or laptops, I would love to be able to be able to send in the  MEDIA KIT.

Question: What the heck is a MEDIA KIT?

A MEDIA KIT is a camera bag or portable container that holds several key pieces of technology inside. The contents might include such items as an inexspensive handheld digital audio recorders/.mp3 player, a inexspensive cam corder ( Such as FlipVideo or Jazz Cam Corder), a set of headphone/mic, and a digital cardreader.  If a classroom teacher has access to 4 or 5 kits in their classroom students can become ‘hooked’ by the technology to help enhance their written presentations.

Comment: Sounds like more work for the teacher…What can I do with  Media Kit?

For starters it is not about the teacher. It is about the sudents. You could give the kits to your kids …hey….they’ll figure it out most likely quicker then you will. Technology is third sense for many of our students.

Students might record an audio reading of their written work to turn into a podcast. Students might make a short video

 Question: How do I get things going in my class?

Answer: Model it,  Model it , Model it….

Teachers need to pick one thing out and get really good at it. Then try to model i for the students. Trying a sample projects with students will go a long way to teach students how to work through new projects.  If you can produce something simple everybody wins.

Write something, word process it, practice reading outloud, then use the .mp3 recorder and record it. Copy to the computer, edit it using AUdacity. Post to it

The goal is to have teachers and students be able to sign out the MEDIA KITS to be able to enhence their written project work.

Recording an Journalist’sinterview

Presenting autobiographical information and Memoirs about students and their family, friends, and community members.

I will get some pictures up of the technology I am speaking. I am currently in the process of getting our board’s Webstore to approve a Kit. The goal is to keep the cost under $250.00 per kit. Schools could then budget around $1000.00 or !500.00 to purchase 4 or 5 kits.

More to come later…

http://www.acoustica.com/mixcraft/

Hello all,

Long time now post… I have been doing research on Mac computer systems. I think my wife and I have decided on a refurbished Mac Book. In the mean time however, I have been trying to find some kind of inexpensive software that is easy to use yet works well as a cool substitution for Garageband in the meantime. So far, I have come up with MixTrack 4. I created the introduction to this podcast using Mix Track 4. It took me about 15 minutes to get to the mix down to an mp3.  There was all kinds of loops built into the program to first audition in many different genres and styles. If you like what you hear, simply insert into a track. You can then loop, or copy and paste riffs or motifs to start building your piece of music.

Most of the time when I write these rants I assume that the people reading this blog are not professional recording engineers with advanced training. I would hope that my readers have access to average or middle of the road equipment. The stuff we buy at Best Buy, The Source, and Costco. These store are usually what seems to be in a professional teacher’s budget range. We the people who are working on tight budget at home and/or in school. People with access to high speed and decent laptops but… not much else.

Unfortunately, through trail and error I have basically come to the conclusion if you want to do any really decent live recording with a midi keyboard instrument you need to make sure you have ASIO capabilities on your sound card.  This will help avoid the slight delay in sound reproduction when you depress the a note on the piano keyboard of your midi controller. This delay is called ”Latency” and of course it is very annoying to deal with. A regular soundcard  in a newer P4 Laptop will still have latency somewhere in the 90s which is too high and will cause you grief.  If you choose to step record or block chords and key notes in one a time your controller keyboard should do the job just fine.  I personally like to be able to jam something out and then get the software to figure what I am playing.

The live recording features work as long as you a decent microphone to connect to your computer. By decent I mean some kind of mid range quality mic either on a good headset ( 45 to 80 range) or some kind of USB microphone in the hundred dollar range. Like the Blue Snowball mic.

Mr. Techradio