Audio Project update

Filed under:discussion followup, announcements — posted by Carrie on November 29, 2007 @ 5:44 pm

I created groups in the Writing Studio for our audio project peer review session on Tuesday. When you visit our class page, click on “groups” and you should see a group names “Audio peer review.” In this group folder, upload your audio project. You can do this over the weekend or when you get to class Tuesday.

Remember that your audio file needs to be 5MB or smaller in order to upload in the Writing Studio. So, export your file from Audacity as an Mp3 and check the file size. If it’s too large, go to the “preferences” section of Audacity, choose the “file formats” tab and lower the “bit rate” under “MP3 Export Setup.” Now, export again; the file should be smaller this time. Continue to lower the bit rate and export until the file is the appropriate size. Lowering the bit rate also lowers the quality of the audio file, so only lower it as much as necessary to hit the 5MB mark you need to upload.

When working in Audacity, exporting as an Mp3 will not affect your original Audacity file. However, if you make a “quick mix” before exporting (this collapses all your separate audio tracks into one track) and save it, you are changing the Audacity file itself in a way that will make it really difficult to do further editing. The best thing to do when you are ready to start quick mixing and exporting is to open your Audacity project, choose “save as” and save it under a new name. This way, if you accidentally alter the Audacity file in a way you don’t want to during the exporting process, you can go back to the original.

Also remember that Audacity saves your project in two parts: a “.aup” file and a “data folder.” You need both of these files/folders in order to open and work with your Audacity project. So, if you are working at home and then bringing your project to class to continue working/ creating your Mp3 for sharing, make sure to bring both with you. The two files will look something like this:

picture-1.png

Portable Applications

Filed under:discussion followup, announcements — posted by Carrie on November 16, 2007 @ 11:52 am

Remember that if you want to get Kompozer, Gimp, or Audacity for portable use over the break, you can get the portable application from the network drives in Eddy 300, 2, and 4 today. These rooms will be closed over the break, so you must do this today if you want any of these programs on a CD or USB flash drive.

Go to one of these rooms, click “My Computer” and then on the network drive, and then on the folder “Portable Apps.” Drag the Audacity, Kompozer, or Gimp folder to your disk or USB flash drive. You can then run the program from your disk or USB drive on any computer without needing to put the program on the computer itself. This will be helpful if you will be using someone else’s computer over break and do not want to install software on it.

Technology Help!

Filed under:activities, announcements — posted by Carrie on November 13, 2007 @ 5:28 pm

Use this post to comment when you need assistance with Kompozer, Gimp, Audacity, etc. This way I will know who I need to work with during class work sessions and you can see if a classmate is having a problem similar to yours.

Microphone Checkout

Filed under:announcements — posted by Carrie on @ 3:35 pm

Audio Equipment Check-Out
If you need to check out a microphone to use with your computer you rent them from Classroom Support Services. Print and fill out the form below and have me sign it.

Academic Computing and Networking Services’s (ACNS) Classroom Support Services
The Check-Out form

Kompozer Tutorials

Filed under:something of interest, announcements — posted by Carrie on November 8, 2007 @ 2:58 pm

Hello everyone! Sorry to have been home sic on Tuesday because I know we have a lot of work to do. However, Tyler and Lisa found a good Kompozer tutorial website that you can check out if you are having trouble figuring out how to do something.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/show_ei/0,1976,FOOD_9958,00.html

Audacity Activity

Filed under:activities — posted by Carrie on October 30, 2007 @ 10:51 am

Today I will walk you through the basic steps of using the sound editing program Audacity. To prepare for the in-class activity, please download the following sound files to the computer you are using. These are the sounds you will remix in Audacity to create a unique 10-30 second audio file. You can also visit the website Freesound to get more audio clips if you like.
Door slamming
siren
wind and rain
thunder
whispering in Spanish
woman speaking in Dutch with answering machine beep
scary voice
children in a store
“angels”

To learn how to use the program you will watch the following tutorial video. I will walk you through this process and answer any questions you have. I will also show you how to upload the sound remix that you create during class to the Writing Studio so that I can hear what you have created.

Conference Week follow-up

Filed under:discussion followup, announcements — posted by Carrie on October 16, 2007 @ 5:30 pm

Hello all! I’ve updated the blog with a new page of resources for the web design and sound projects (see new page under “links” to the right). Let me know if you have any questions, especially about downloading software for use at home.

Class Follow-up for 10/9

Filed under:discussion followup, announcements — posted by Carrie on October 10, 2007 @ 10:40 am

Hello all! This is just an update to remind everyone that I will be posting comments to your web site analyses in The Writing Studio by the end of the day. I’ll send an e-mail to everyone to let you know when all the comments have been posted. My comments will be in the same folder in which you uploaded your draft.

The due date for the revision is now midnight, Friday 10/12. You only need to upload an electronic copy to the Writing Studio (same folder); I do not need a hard copy.

I’ve updated the Daily Schedule and the calendar in the Writing Studio to reflect the updates.

Let me know if you have any questions about my comments after you receive them, and I’ll see you in class tomorrow.

Class Follow-up for 9/25

Filed under:discussion followup — posted by Carrie on September 25, 2007 @ 6:07 pm

Today many of you discovered the wonders of computer code: the computer only does what you tell it to do in the code and not what your brain is telling it to do, and then only 90% of the time! But trust me when I say that the basics are not hard once you spend a little time practicing.

On Thursday, we will split class time up evenly between learning more HTML code and discussing the upcoming web analysis and web page design projects. The web analysis assignment details are up on the blog and the design project details will be available Friday. Please bring your homepage designs back to class on Thursday as our goal will be to learn enough code for you to start laying out your page.  Also begin thinking about what web site you will analyze for your paper and what sort of web site you would like to design.

In the meantime, visit the HTML website (see the previous post) that I showed in class, and practice the tutorials to familiarize yourself with more of the code.  See you Thursday!

Links for class 9/25

Filed under:announcements — posted by Carrie on @ 12:34 am

Here are the two links we will use in class today in order to practice building web pages:

HTML: http://www.w3schools.com/html/default.asp

COLOR: http://www.december.com/html/spec/color.html


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image: detail of installation by Bronwyn Lace