The Easy Classroom Radio Show iPad App!

Teacher circles have started sharing the question, "Aye, it's the end of the year. What creative thing can we be do'in?"  Forgive the accent, but I just spent 15 minutes listening to Scottish Free Independent Radio on Spreaker.com.  It was a wee bit entertaining, without the haggis.

Radio Shows are great tools for student publications because you don't have a video track that necessitates a great deal of protection from the teacher.  Student voices can be anonymous sources and allow for much more flexibility in publishing original student work. 

Spreaker DJ is a FREE app that helps you create a radio show.  The app is very simple to understand and, with the free account, very easy to publish to the internets.  You have access to audio from your iTunes, two soundtracks with a fader for them, sound effects, and a few nice technical tools for those that want them.  When you start the recording, there is no pausing, so it's a one-take recording with no editing available.

Think of it this way, students must write, revise, and rehearse their show before taking a turn at publishing.  They will have a lot of fun with the creation of the show. The content could be the class' online Dailey Agenda or topic review.  What a great way to finish out the year by encouraging student publication of their thoughts and ideas learned in class!

 

Publishing the show can either be done as a live broadcast or recorded on the iPad and quickly published up to your Spreaker website.  Parents can be given the show's website address and keep up with the classroom events via the internet. 

I took 10 minutes to learn the app and make a recording.  Here is my first effort, as an example.

http://www.spreaker.com/user/5828508/the_one_that_started_everything 

"I don't have an iPad.  I am so sad."    Don't be sad!! Spreaker.com also has the ability to record your radio show off the website. 

I'd love to see what teachers do with this.  Please share if you get a class radio show online!

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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.