Podcast, Music, and technology, the latest reply all podcast is a combination of things we like. Reply all is a podcast all about the internet and this week they highlighted Song Exploder a podcast the examines the technical aspects of how music is created and the artist’s process.
Also,look for us at the October 2nd First Friday Music Walk where we will be DJing and showing you how to make your own music.
In years past for orientation we’ve had streams of first years coming through the media center before being whisked off to their next event, small groups pop in for couple hours with just enough time to make a quick iMovie mashup, and even a group sing along in one of our podcast rooms. This year we got to work with a group of enthusiastic first years over four days to create radio stories as part of the Pre-Orientation program.
Our program included an interview technique Q and A session with Tony Moore and Joseph O’Neill from Marketing and Communication, audio production session, a DJ booth practice run with WDCV technician Tyler Garrett, and quick study session of our favorites like This American Life, Planet Money, and RadioLab. The result was five great stories which then aired live on WDCV during orientation.
Check out the programs below and the full stories with pictures on WDCV.
Students in The Cold War in Southern Africa created podcasts profiling a twentieth-century Southern African leader. Sarah Koch, Weston Hayes, and Luke Kaledin chose Nelson Mandela because they had learned about his leadership of the African National Congress (ANC) in South Africa, the founding of the ANC’s armed wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe (“spear of the nation” in isiZulu) following the government’s decision in 1960 to ban the ANC, and Mandela’s subsequent arrest and imprisonment. Mandela became a symbol of apartheid’s injustice until his release from prison in 1990 and election as South African president in 1994. Mandela died at the age of 95 at the end of the fall semester 2013.
Here are some of the Media Projects done this past Spring.
Part of an on going project created during the class Greek 112: Introduction to Greek Poetry, taught by Christopher Francese that consist of a passage from Homer’s Iliad discussed, translated into English, and then recited in Greek.
Michael Fratantuono’s class create mini video lectures on current global economy topics.
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Final Projects for Todd Arsenault’s Digital Imaging course
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Another semester is coming to a close so what better time to showcase all of the fantastic student projects that were created this fall. Here are examples from just some of the fun classes we were able to work with.
Sustainability
“The Evolution of a Cheeseburger” is Professor Scott Boback’s FYSM where students research where our food comes from and how food production and our eating habits have changed through the industrialized production of food. Students chose a topic to research and created a podcast that includes interviews with experts on the subject.
One student chose “How to Grow a Personal Garden”. Have a listen below!
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Jenn Halpin and Matt Steiman’s course “The Pleasure, Politics and Production of Food” allows students to learn, in-depth, everything that goes into being a 21st century farmer. Jenn and Matt should know, as they run the Dickinson College Organic Farm. Students researched different topics related to farming and food production.
Here is a playlist of all 6 of the videos the students created!
Here is a sample of one of the projects. Another great one by Emily Bowie.
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First Year Seminars
Professor Karl Qualls’ FYS Utopias, Dystopias and ‘Engineering Progress’ looked into different aspects of society and devices we use to ‘fix’ what is wrong in our communities. His class incorporated multiple technology based projects including blogging and creating podcasts and videos.
Their podcast project looked into different areas of Dickinson/Carlisle that could be improved. It is intended to be a persuasive piece which incorporates the student’s own opinion.
This one looks into a “Student’s Connection to Education”.
Their final project was to create a video that was a “persuasive project that connects to a class theme or seeks to illustrate and solve a current social, political, economic, or cultural problem”.
The following example is an in-depth look at the Indian city of Chandagar.
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Abroad & Foreign Language
After graduating from Dickinson last spring, Anna moved to Toulouse, France to work at the Dickinson in France Center and teach English at Lycée Ozenne, a French high school. On her blog, Anna discusses French lifestyle and culture, complementing her experiences and observations with delicious culinary adventures.
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Russian Rooms: An Exciting investigation of how Russians organize their personal space
Curious about Russian culture or just how other people live? Check out Maria Rubin’s artistic investigation of Russian rooms and lifestyles. Documented on her blog, Maria interviews a variety of people living in Moscow, photographing them and their living space, to create a unique portrait of Russian life and culture. Russian Roomsis still a work in progress but Maria provides this brief description: (translated from Russian)
“This mini research project exploits our natural curiosity about the man and his personal space. We see the room and try to intuitively guess: who lives in it? We tried to imagine the inhabitants – the owner of the space, mentally draw a portrait of him, and then compare with the actual expected. On one hand, it was important to take a picture of a person beyond the interior of the room to emphasize his personality, but on the other it would update the link between man and the place he spends much of his time.”
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English
Read creative posts by students in Professor David Ball’s “Experimental Fictions” course. Students are given assignments to write poems and short stories while giving them writing constraints that ensure that the piece is anything from your standard research paper. Examples include only using 100 random scrabble tiles to write or writing by using only one vowel throughout entire post.
Education
Professor Liz Lewis assigns her students to create presentations for her Educational Psychology using Prezi. They then descend upon the Media Center and give poster presentations to the classmates and others just passing through. Here is a gallery of images from this years showcase.
What did you do so far this morning? Well, PJ Crowley has already had interviews with NPR & BBC to discuss Libya. The Media Center was happy to host him for his Skype call with the BBC and we will be setting him up for his CNN call later today (around 4:30pm today if you wanna tune in!).
Thanks PJ, for keeping the Media Center connected to the world outside of the Dickinson bubble!
“Digital Storytelling is the practice of using computer-based tools to tell stories. As with traditional storytelling, most digital stories focus on a specific topic and contain a particular point of view. However, as the name implies, digital stories usually contain some mixture of computer-based images, text, recorded audio narration, video clips and/or music. Digital stories can vary in length, but most of the stories used in education typically last between two and ten minutes. The topics that are used in Digital Storytelling range from personal tales to the recounting of historical events, from exploring life in one’s own community to the search for life in other corners of the universe, and literally, everything in between.”
“Tell me a fact and I’ll learn.
Tell me a truth and I’ll believe.
But tell me a story & it will live in my heart forever.”
-Indian Proverb
“Digital Storytelling is the modern
expression of the ancient art of storytelling.
Digital stories derive their power
by weaving images, music, narrative
& voice together, thereby giving deep dimension
and vivid color to characters, situations, experiences,
and insights.”
– Leslie Rule, Center for Digital Storytelling
Faculty and Students
Instructor Led – Overview or Hands on
1 hour
Want to learn more? Take a sneak peek at our training outline.
Audio Examples
Image Example
Video Examples
Podcast types
Discussion-Best Practices
Presentation Methods
Audacity
Garageband
IMovie
Posting Podcast
Subscribing to podcast
Example Assignment
Discussion – with Faculty – Project Consulting
Music
ccmixter-variety of music styles
Museopen-free classical works
Sound Effects
Freesound.org
Images
Flickr Commons – Museum Collections
Creative Commons
Video
Archive.org
Copyright
Fair Use Checklist-Help deciding if you can use a copyrighted work in your project
Tutorials
We had the pleasure of working with Professor Amy Wlodarski again this semester and her class will be showcasing their work during an electronic performance open to the public. Sounds like a hoot and we hope a lot of people show up to enjoy the show!
On Thursday, April 28th, Music 102 will present their annual performances of John Cage’s composition, Circus On: A Means for Translating a Book into a Performance Without Actors, a Performance which is both Literary and Musical or One or the Other (1979). The students, in compositional teams of major and non-majors, have each selected a book to translate into a chance-determined musical soundscape (complete with original poetry) according to Cage’s meticulous score.
The four compositions will last ten minutes each and will be preceded by a short preface. They are electronic compositions, so please do not expect live performances. In some cases, the outcomes are dramatic and lively. In others, the outcomes are subdued and sparse. Laughter, outrage, dismissal, and fun are all appropriate responses. As Cage once famously said, “I would rather people laugh at my pieces than cry.”
The students have worked hard for three weeks to execute these compositions, including studying Cage’s writings and authoring a manifesto explaining all of their creative and aesthetic decisions. As such, the compositions are not random but highly-controlled sound spaces in which space is translated into time and events in the book into creative sonic forms according to objective or chance-determined criteria.
The performances will be held in Weiss 235 and will begin promptly at 1:30pm. Should you join us later, please slip in the back door of the classroom.
During the fall 2010 semester, Professor Sheri Lullo’s Introduction to the Arts of Asia course created podcasts using images of the pieces held by the Trout Gallery. The images were incorporated into Imovie and a narration was recorded over the video, walking the viewer through the history of each piece. Students took a slightly different approach to the assignment as is apparent when you watch some of the examples below. By incorporating storytelling, imagery, music and sound effects these beautiful examples of Asian art are brought to life.
Japanese Print: “Beppu Kankaiji” by Kawase Hasui
Podcast By Brandon Howard
Chinese Lacquer Box
Podcast By Anne Newall
Buddha Statue: The Evolution of Buddhism
Podcast By Nickolas Baller
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