I made the narrated slide show as an example for my students, in the spring of 2011. In this post, you can read about
- the goals for this project
- the writing process
- the free Internet application we used
Students' Projects
You can see many projects from the students at my old blog: ESOL at Riis Settlement. Many of these students were using computers for the first time.
Goals for the Project
- Students will be able to write and speak about their lives.
- Students will be able to choose photographs that enhance their writing, and will be able to write about the photos.
- Students will be able to use an automated phone service to record their writing.
- Students will be able to use the Internet to assemble their recordings and photos.
- Students will be able to use the Internet to share their projects on the class blog.
I liked this project because it allowed students to work at their ability level. Low-Intermediate students could write short sentences ("I am a painter."). High-Intermediate/Advanced students could write descriptions and provide more detail.
I wanted to share some information about the Audio Stories, how students made them, and how I share them on this blog.
Drafting Scripts
Over the course of the fall 2012 semester, students drafted personal narratives about their lives and topics important to them. They used their final texts as scripts to record an audio story, something like a podcast or radio program.
To produce the audio files, we used a free audio editing program called Audacity. Audacity is open-source, and can work on Windows or Mac operating systems. It is also fairly user-friendly, and yet able to produce professional level recordings.
Recording
The students spent many nights practicing their scripts. They recorded using the built-in microphones in lap-tops, as well as voice-recorder applications on smart phones.
Editing
The pieces of their recordings were assembled and edited in Audacity, and many students added sounds they recorded, or music from YouTube and MP3s.
Publishing
The students shared their audio stories through a shared DropBox folder (DropBox is a free cloud file-storage application). We also burned CDs featuring the 11 completed recordings. We did not have a blog for the class at the time, so I will publish their stories here, as soon as I have permission from individual students to share their work.
On the Blog
Posting audio in Blogger is a little more challenging than attaching photos or videos. (Maybe I'm just overlooking something!) For Karina, Hakima, and Madjid, I was able to link through a podcasting service called PodBean. With PodBean, and other podcast sites, you can embed a player directly to the Blogger post by copying and pasting an HTML code. It's not as difficult as it sounds.
However, when I tried to upload another audio file to PodBean tonight, I found that I had reached my limit for this month! I will have to try some other alternatives.
-Eric, NYC
