In today’s lecture we learned about sound editing and screen recording, as the title says. This can be used to capture images, videos, or even create your own videos to present in front of your class. There are plenty of different apps/platforms that can help you accomplish this goal and even MacBook already has a built in screen capture feature. The main program that we used today was Screencastify.
For audio editing we downloaded Audacity which allows you to edit sounds bites similar to that of iMovie but on a much more intricate scale. You could use something like this for a podcast project, however I recommend using a high quality speaker in order to get the best quality sound because you can edit it all you want, but if the sound isn’t clear then the podcast is basically worthless. This type of project is also a bit more challenging because it is quite advanced, and it puts lots of emphasis of sound editing which does take lots of time and could be a difficult tie into the curricular competencies depending on the grade level. However, if done properly students could have lots of fun doing this as a class and it would make an excellent inquiry project.
Speaking of inquiry projects, after the field trip last week and a good group discussion this week, it is important to introduce inquiry to students using something called a provocation. A provocation simply put is something that provokes students thought, wonder, and makes them want to ask questions about something. This is where the screen capture tools we learned about today could be out to good use. A teacher could simply start a screen capture and scroll through photos, or an article to present to a class to provoke thoughts. Another way it could be used is to record a GIF because they can be tricky to download and present in a slideshow format or via an overhead projector.
Moral of the story is that these two tools are quite simple in the grand scheme of things and do not take lots of talent or expertise to master. However, their uses and applications in the world of education is limitless depending on the users creativity and imagination.
Riley
