Audio/Video/Podcast Activity - Multimedia Interview Assignment

Ahhh, finally.

I had huge hopes and dreams for this project, as soon as it was assigned, I knew that I wanted to interview Shalin Hai-Jew, Instructional Designer for Kansas State University.  She is such a wealth of knowledge.  After scheduling the interview Shalin respectfully declined to be video recorded, so I thought I would take advantage of this opportunity and use Xtranormal!  I bought a new app for my phone, because I had seen a multi-media presentation where this app was being used to interview people out in the field, for those of you that know my line of work, that is the real field, with dirt and in this specific case, sorghum.  So that was probably my first mistake, as I am fortunate enough to have some great audio recording equipment that I use with my program and should have gone with what I know, so strike one!

Strike two arrived once we started the interview and Telecommunications showed up looking for ports in her work area.  We had already started the interview and I wanted to respect her time, so I didn't stop the interview and was hopeful that I could "clean" up the audio in Adobe Audition after the fact, so what you will hear is some background noise of the Telecommunications.

Strike three arrived on Saturday when I had effectively cleaned up the audio to the best of my ability and went to include my own interview questions and found that I couldn't clean them up, so using the tools I had, I tried to record my audio independently.  Xtranormal doesn't like the Mac OS, so here we are, a day late and more frustrated than proud of my project with several different levels of audio in the presentation.  Regardless, it was a fun way to present our interview.  



Overall, I really enjoyed the experience, I learned some valuable lessons, and SoftChalk is a great tool that I would like to integrate into some future courses.  Here is some additional information regarding SoftChalk, including a link to the game that Shalin created.

Creating an Online Global Health Course and Game (EDUCAUSE Quarterly) | EDUCAUSE.edu

 SoftChalk
 

Audio/Video / Podcast: Pros and Cons for Adult Learners.

First and foremost, thank you for stopping by since I am really late on getting this post, I totally missed this assignment and have been working on my interview.  I love Podcasts!  I actually download them on my iPhone and listen to them in the car on my rides between Manhattan and Kansas City.  One of my favorites is from TED and the most recent one I listened to was regarding heart disease and women.  You can view them at  http://www.ted.com/.  What is great is that there are different ways to produce and enjoy them, some of video, but I am a fan of the audio only variety as they allow a little more flexibility in how they can be enjoyed.  It seems like there is a podcast for everyone, from church services to running, photography, you can find a podcast from almost everywhere.  I am a huge Apple consumer, so I find most of my podcasts at the iTunes Store and what I really love is the vast array of free podcasts.  We have become a society that loves to share, so it is great to find like-minded people sharing information. 

Pros to integrating audio and video podcasts into the curriculum are:
- Interactive way to engage students
- Easy way to integrate quick pieces of information that can be interchangeable as materials/information change 
- Can appeal to all types of people depending on if the visual aspect is utilized or not

Cons
- Copyright and legality issues (Kind & Cox, 2011)
- Validity of the information presented in the podcast

Overall, I think they are great, and use them in my personal live so I would love to see them in my "student" life as well!

References:
King, K. & Cox, T. (2011). The Professor’s Guide to Taming Technology. Charlotte, NC: 
Information Age Publishing.