Monday 28 November 2011

Audacious Audacity.....It really Is Awesome!

Anything that is free is the right price for me.  Audacity is a great tool that I use regularly in my classroom to help my students gain an understanding of a certain concept or have them demonstrate what they know about a particular topic.  Here is a great video which gives you an overview of the basic functionality of this tool




So how have I used it in my classroom.  Before I went 1-1 (and I need to get back to this as well) I used to create a series of podcasts on particular topics that we were covering in class.  I would have the kids download the podcasts onto their devices and bring them into class when required.  It was a fantastic experience that the students certainly enjoyed.  One of the best ideas was one that one of my students implemented this year.  As I was explaining something, they were recording the audio of what I was saying.  Her logic was that she knew that she didn't understand this concept and she could go back later and look at her notes along with my audio.  It was a pretty impressive effort for a twelve year old kid.  I have also used Audacity to slice together our class radio show.  We had authentic audiences from all around the globe and the kids really looked forward to producing it each week.  After about week 2, I stepped back and left the totally production up to the students.  This is something that I want to dedicate more time to next year as well.

Overall, Audacity is a simple to use tool that gets the job done.

No comments:

Post a Comment