So, as promised in the last Lehigh Lab Notes, we made some digital movies last semester. And have lived to tell about it. See Norma Desmond's, er, I mean Julia Maserjian's article on our class elsewhere in this issue. The movie making will continue this semester (I was tempted to say -- for those of you following the Fellow's flimsy stream of consciousness -- that the sun will not set on the movie making), but what's next on the Lehigh Lab Fellow's horizon? Somehow, as I explained in a previous column (January 2005), it feels more in keeping with the ever forward-looking notion of Lehigh Lab for me to talk about what I'm thinking about doing rather than what I've done.
Preparing remarks for "Sound Advice: Using Audio to Enhance Teaching and Learning," the recent Cybertools Institute workshop at DeSales University coordinated by our Sherri Yerk-Zwickl and Robin Deily, I started to think about audio explorations on my horizon. With the help of our Lehigh Lab tech staff, in the past I have used Centra (both one-way and interactive) and Audacity (one-way only) to enhance my online courses with audio, but online is where one would expect those tools to be used. What about the possible use of sound tools to enhance face-to-face classes? What's the role of audio technology when the students "can hear me now" every class? Here's what I've been thinkin':
1) Feedback on student essays: I want to experiment with appending audio commentary using Audacity as a supplement to, and perhaps in some cases a substitute for, my usual practice of handwritten or typed inter-textual comments and concluding comments on student essays. I'm intrigued by the experience that Jeff Sommers of Miami of Ohio has had with this practice as reported very concisely and clearly on his Heterotopic Space web site. (Audacity is a free download at http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download )
2) Diagnosing problems: To give an example from one specific course, I imagine asking a student with grammar problems to use Audacity to record his or her thought process when faced with a decision about how to punctuate a sentence. Would this modification of the "think aloud" pedagogy help me help that student? Would a minute or two recording of what's going on in the student's head at decision time help me pinpoint the problem?
3) Student voices : Our first instinct, I believe, is usually to think about what use a new tool will have for the teacher . But seeing how easy Audacity works, my mind drifted to use by the students . Can we turn Audacity over to the students for important purposes? For instance, I wonder what impact audio discussion board posts would have on the quality of discussion? Would it increase engagement? Motivation? Relatedly, at "Sound Advice," Sherri and Robin introduced us to Audioblogger.com .(***Please note that since the publication of this article, audioblogger has ceased to exist. Please see more recent posting in LL Notes about iTunes) Thought-provoking!
4) Podcasting: I don't have an Ipod. If I said I wanted one or was going to buy one, my family would look for the pod in the cellar (movie-buffs will get that). One reason I went to the "Sound Advice" workshop, in fact, was to learn about them. I am intrigued by the mobility angle. I'm intrigued by the possibility that podcasting might be a way for me to reach out to students who never would take an English course beyond the required first-year courses. Specifically, I will be thinking about what role the Ipod can play in a new large-enrollment film course for non-English and non-humanities students I'm proposing for the fall.
5) Guest speakers: As a result of the "Sound Advice" workshop, I added at least one more idea to my list. It looks like my Fellow tenure is going to run out before I can experiment with the Internet 2 potential for bringing far-flung people together for live participation in class. But Sherri and Robin introduced us to free phone service through Skype.com , and I plan to see if I can involve "flunged" guest speakers from England and Australia into a course I'm doing this semester.
Now not all of these ideas might turn out to be effective, but I gotta say that these examples of sound in my sights are keeping the wind in my sails at the moment!
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