Well, I went a little crazy with various mediums and modes of technology for this assignment, but I had a lot of fun! I've wanted to learn how to record a song for awhile, and I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to practice. I checked out a microphone from the library and used it to record myself performing a snippet of Jimmy Eats World's "The Middle" on GarageBand. I'd used GarageBand as a kid, but mostly just to compile a variety of random sounds with my friends. This time, I figured out how to use a few of the basic functions to actually make a song! I started by recording the piano. Then, I was able to listen to the piano while recording my voice, then I added a recording of me playing the guitar. Then I decided to throw in some drums, because, heck, why not?! I had SO much fun doing this, and I think it's something I really want to work on. This is definitely a ROUGH draft. Each of the tracks were first or second takes, but I just wanted to have plenty of time to experiment with different things within the GarageBand program. I also created a SoundCloud account and learned how to upload my song to the account. Honestly, it was all a lot easier than I had anticipated.
As far as limitations go, voice and audio recordings on GarageBand don't allow for any sort of visual. I think that can actually be an affordance as well, though, especially if you were to create a podcast or an album of songs. It really just depends on the purpose. For this specific creative project, I loved how GarageBand has a relatively user-friendly interface with SO MANY options of pre-recorded tracks, sound effects, mixing styles, etc. The possibilities are endless! I think it's really cool how you can record several different times, and layer those recordings. That makes the actual recording process easier, since you don't have to be playing all the instruments at once.
I think GarageBand and SoundCloud could easily be incorporated into an English classroom. Students would have to engage in various processes, as they would need to decide on the medium, experiment with the interface, prepare either a script or song beforehand, and then have at it! I think it would be cool to give students the opportunity to make their own podcast, since they're so popular right now. Honestly, this assignment helped me not only to develop my own skills, but it helped me to consider all the different types of media that students could utilize in the classroom, and then adapt to suit their own personal needs and development!
I love that you chose an aural medium. So often, I only think about visual art but there can be great power and creativity in sounds. I like your examples of how students could use this in a classroom. A podcast could be a cool way to assess students! It would also be fun to challenge students to create a radio play or audio advertisement for a book they have been reading.
ReplyDeleteAbby, this is a such a great project and I am glad that you chose to focus on sound! Like Michael said, sometimes we focus so much on visual media (things that can be viewed online), but there is much more than just that! I'm glad that you have ideas about how to use this in an English classroom: a podcast would be so fun? What ideas do you have from the Thevenin reading about how students might respond to the works you present or that their peers present? How might this be different with aural media versus visual media?
ReplyDeleteGood work!