Thursday, November 17, 2011

Using Audacity in AISD

Making audio recordings in the classroom can be a great tool for assessment, a nice student product for class, or a necessary step for many high school students as they have a need to send language examples to colleges. The district supports Audacity as the standard audio recording tool.

The software is not already installed on the computers, but any teacher or student can install the software with their normal network login. (Schools using Deepfreeze will need to thaw the computer before installing software.)  You can find a video, Installing Audactiy Part 1, that will show users how to install the software.

Recording software is pretty easy. The buttons are the same buttons you find on a CD or cassette player. Audacity will create an audio track each time you press the record button. There are numerous resources online that will show you how to improve your audio recordings and even make multi-track recordings. A second video, Recording with Audacity Part 2, gives a very basic look at how to record audio using Audacity.

Lastly, the recording artist can save the file as an Audacity Project File, which keeps all of the sound edits made after recording.  You can also export the sound as a .wav or .mp3 audio file. Currently, all users will have to locate the .mp3 LAME encoder file before successfully exporting the mp3.  The thrid video in our series, Saving and Exporting with Audacity Part 3, shows how one can successfully export an mp3 when using a computer inside the school district.  That video has been embedded below for your viewing pleasure.



For more resources on using Audacity, check out  AtomicLearning.com and the rest of the internet.