Category — daily activities

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 rainthunder

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.

I created folders in the Writing Studio for our audio activity. When you visit our class page, click on “dropbox” and upload y0ur file in the “Audacity Activity 1” folder. If that folder is full, use the “Audacity Activity 2″ folder.  Upload your audio file as a “.mp3″ file NOT a “.aup” file.

Audacity Tips
Remember that your audio file needs to be 5MB or smaller in order to upload in the Writing Studio and it must be in the correct file format: “.mp3″ or “.wav”. Mp3 is the best file format for most online spaces because it creates a smaller file that loads faster. 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. When you begin work on your formal audio project it is good practice to start each work session by doing a “save as.” This way, if something goes wrong you won’t have to start over from scratch—at worst you will lose only a few hours of work.

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, make sure to bring both with you. The two files will look something like this:

Finally, Audacity often creates a backup file with the extension “.bak”.Never, never open this file or use it in any way. Doing so could corrupt your project files making them impossible to open!

Portable Applications
If you want to get Audacity for portable use on your USB flash drive, you can get the portable applications from the network drives in Eddy 300, 2, and 4. 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 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.

The plan for today is code, code, code.

We will learn how to do a little bit of old-fashioned HTML coding so that when you learn to use Dreamweaver, you will understand the basics of the code that the program is writing for you. Think of computer code as a foreign language: our goal is to develop basic reading and grammar knowledge of the code, and not necessarily the ability to do advanced composing in the the language.

So, here is the order of business:

1. turn in posters. I will collect hard copies. You will upload a back-up to the Writing Studio dropbox. Don’t forget to make sure your reflection is posted in the Writing Studio forum.
2. turn in website design plans and mod boards
3. comment on a classmate’s blog
4. finish discussing the requirements for the personal website assignment
5. practicing HTML coding using the program Notepad on the computers and this sample file: HTML_examples.doc.

Below are examples of academic web pages that we will use in class today during our discussion of Patricia Sullivan’s article “Practicing safe visual rhetoric on the World Wide Web.”

Cynthia Selfe (university template)
Gail E. Hawisher (university template)
Lisa Langstraat (university template)
Anne Frances Wysocki (university template)
Katherine Gossett
Derek Van Ittersum
Spencer Schaffner
Danielle Nicole DeVoss
Douglas Eyman
Janine Solberg
Carrie A. Lamanna
Ryan Griffis
Deke Weaver
Joseph Squier

In class today, we will be learning how to use Photoshop by working through the tutorials designed by Madeline Sorapure. Photoshop is what is called a “robust” program. This means that it has hundreds of functions—more than we can possibly learn in a few days and more than we need to learn in order to complete our projects.

Several of you already know how to use Photoshop, and I hope that you will be willing to help out those around you when they need assistance.

As you complete each tutorial, submit it to the proper folder in the Writing Studio Dropbox.

The instructions for the tutorials are linked below. The images you need for each tutorial are also listed below.

Photoshop 1: Interface, filters, and adjustments

Photoshop 2: Text & brush

Photoshop 3: Selecting & compositing

Image for Tutorial One:
ruins

Images for tutorial two:
coast
girl
crowd
driving
girls
city

Images for tutorial three:
hands
cellphone
house

Here is the plan for today:

1. comment on a classmate’s blog
2. take quiz
3. Typography activity (see previous post)
4. Poster activity (see below for materials)

We will practice using Robin Williams design principles by redesigning a poster that I found in the Eddy Building. You will do this activity in groups and use whatever software program the group is most comfortable with—Word, Illustrator, Photoshop, Publisher, etc. Here are the materials you will need.

the original poster

Lyons photo

Arigo photo

CSU logo

ASCSU logo

more CSU logos

Here is the plan for today’s class:

1. Manifesto peer response: I will place you into groups of three and you will follow the instructions on the peer response sheet to provide feedback to your group members.
2. Typography activity: We will listen to “The Fear” by Lilly Allen and then with your group members, you will design the lyrics to reflect the meaning of the song. Your design may only use type, color, and basic page layout—no images including fonts that are icons rather than letter and numbers.

Here is the agenda for today’s class:

1. Complete “About” pages of your blogs (20 minutes)
2. Group activity: Develop your own revision of copyright law for the digital age using stasis theory as your method of invention (30 minutes)
3. Discussion of manifestos (20 minutes)

As part of our discussion of manifestos, we will watch this performance of the Declaration of Independence as it is the United States’s most famous example of a manifesto.

In class today we will start by setting up our Wordpress accounts going over the technical basics of blogging. Next we will continue our discussion of copyright and remix culture with an emphasis on developing our own ethical code for composing in online spaces such as our blogs. At the end of our discussion you will have the opportunity to to explore Creative Commons and add a license to your blog if you want.

Hello all! I hope you enjoyed watching the Clay Shirky video at home. I had intended for us to watch it in class the first day, but I thought we had run out of time, so I didn’t play it. After you all left I realized that I had let you out extremely early! That’s what a crying baby and 45 minutes of sleep will do to you :O Don’t get used to it—I talk a lot and usually class runs a few minutes late.

So, the agenda for today is as follows:

1. Make name plates and introduce ourselves
2. Log into the Writing Studio and read and respond to a classmate’s post.
3. Discuss the implications of our uses of digital technologies. I would like to focus on how and why we use particular digital technologies and then discuss Carr’s argument the Google is making us stupid.