Audacity Unit Plan

James Simon Education 402 Spring 2011 April 4, 2011 Overall Concept to be Taught This unit will cover the basics of the audio recording and editing program “Audacity”. This will be done through lectures performed by the teacher, as well as hands on, individual work to be done by the students. By the end of this unit, students will be able to perform basic recording and editing functions (multi-track recording, importing audio, cropping/cutting samples, balancing, equalization, and use of built-in effects) within the program, as well as have a variety of resources to access if they wish to perform more advanced operations.

Ohio Content Standards – Fine Arts: Music Benchmark B: Apply technology in creating, performing and/or researching music.

9-12 Indicators: *Incorporate subject matter common to music and other academic areas into a music presentation. *Demonstrate one or more uses of technology in creating, performing and listening to music.

Pre-assessment The pre-assessment for this unit will take the form of a classroom discussion, led by the instructor. The instructor will ask the students if any of them have any experience in working with the program before. The instructor will then ask those students who have used Audacity before to share their experiences: what they did, what the context was, and their overall experience in using the program. The instructor will then share his own experiences with the program in the same manner.

Relation to Previously Learned Material Before this unit, students have been studying and working with hardware involved with music technology, including sounds systems, mixing boards, and analog recording devices. This unit will show the students that the tasks of recording, editing, and performing music can be done with software on a computer, and will give students an opportunity to use this knowledge in a practical application. Relation to Future Learning Once this unit is completed, students will be able to use the skills that they have gained to further their use of music software. They will also be able to use the program directly for projects both inside and outside of the Music Technology classroom.

Daily Lesson Plans The following lesson plans will be used for the instruction of this unit. They can be modified, altered, updated, and improved as needed by the instructor.

Timeline/Calendar of Instruction The following is a time line of instruction. Tentative dates for each lesson are given in (parentheses)

Lesson 1: Introduction and overview (March 14) Lesson 2: Explanation of terms, control panels (March 15) Lesson 3: Performing simple operations (March 16) Lesson 4: Explanation and demonstration of effects (March 17) Lesson 5: Resources, Introduction of assignment (March 18) Lesson 6: Recording audio for presentation (March 21) Lesson 7: Editing audio in library's computer lab (March 22-24) Lesson 8: Presentations (March 25) March 14 Music Technology – Audacity 1 st Period

Objective: To introduce the sound recording and editing program Audacity, and give a general overview of its features and capabilities.

Materials: Computer with and internet connection, the latest version of Audacity (currently 1.3.12), connection to an overhead display (Smartboard), and microphone (USB)

Prodecure: Attendance

Introduce Audacity *Lead discussion on students experience with audacity *Make note of students with experience vs. those without

Show students how to download and install the program *http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ - Audacity program *http://lame.sourceforge.net/ - LAME MP3 encoder

Lecture – general layout *Show where main display, control panel, toolbar, level bars, and task bars are *Record short audio sample to show how recording and plaback works – regular speech is fine

Leave time for questions at the end of the lesson

Follow-up: Ask students to download the program on their home computers and familiarize themselves with the programs layout. March 15 Music Technology – Audacity 1 st Period

Objective: To introduce and elaborate on the control panels, task bar, and terminology associated with the program

Materials: Computer with and internet connection, the latest version of Audacity (currently 1.3.12), connection to an overhead display (Smartboard), and microphone (USB)

Procedure: Attendance

Terms to be explained *Import/export *Split/join *Oversub, Software playthrough, Sound activated recording *Mix and Render, Resample, Align tracks, Labels *The entire “Generate” menu *Effects (Just mention this. Go into more detail in lesson 4) *The entire “Analyze” menu

Control Panels *Control, Edit, Meter, Mixer, Selection, Tools, Transcription

Leave time for questions at the end of the lesson

Follow-up: Ask students to explore the program at home and re-learn any terms that they didn't fully understand in class. March 16 Music Technology – Audacity 1 st Period

Objective: Demonstrate for the class how to perform simple operations in Audacity

Materials: *Computer with and internet connection, the latest version of Audacity (currently 1.3.12), connection to an overhead display (Smartboard), and microphone (USB) *Pre-recorded sound file, non copyright (guitar riff)

Procedure: Attendance

Importing Audio

Layout *Zoom in/out *Adjusting dB display

Selection *Highlight *Copy/Cut/Paste *Delete *Move

Generate *Silence *Static (three kinds) *Tone *Click track (IMPORTANT!!!)

Follow-up: Email sound file to students so that they can experiment with simple audio edits at home. Also ask them to explore the effects and have questions prepared for tomorrow. March 17 Music Technology – Audacity 1 st Period

Objective: *To explain and demonstrate the useful effects that can be found in Audacity's effects panel *To explain the use of the “Analyze” tab

Procedure: Attendance

Effects *Amplify *Change *Click Removal (untested) *Echo *Equalization Preset vs. custom (spend some time on this) *Fade In/Out *Repair *Others can be interesting, but aren't practically useful

Analyze *Contrast *Plot Spectrum (not particularly useful) *Find Clipping *Finders (Beat, Sound, and Silence)

Follow-up: Have students play around with more advanced effects at home and prepare questions for the next lesson. March 18 Music Technology – Audacity 1 st Period

Objective: *To introduce resources that can be used for further information and assistance in using Audacity *To introduce and discuss the Audacity portion of students Power Point presentations

Materials: *Computer with and internet connection, the latest version of Audacity (currently 1.3.12), connection to an overhead display (Smartboard) *Handout detailing assignment

Procedure: Attendance

Built in resources *Quick Help *Manual

Online Resources *Wiki http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Audacity_Wiki_Home_Page *Forum http://forum.audacityteam.org/

Introduction of assignment *Hand out assignment sheets *Read through sheets with class *Make sure there are no questions

Follow-up: *Have students write up scripts for recording on Monday *Make sure students know to bring headphones for editing audio and a flash drive to keep their files on March 21 Music Technology – Audacity 1 st Period

Objective: For students to record the audio that they will use for their Audacity projects.

Materials: *Computer with the latest version of Audacity (currently 1.3.12) *Microphone with UBS connection *Flash drive to store files

Procedure: Attendance

Hand out and go over project sheets.

Take students to library, set up recording equipment in back room

Call students in one at a time to record their audio

Make sure students have a copy both on the flash drive and their user drive (U:/) so that they can access their file from any computer.

Follow-up: None March 22-24 Music Technology – Audacity 1 st Period

Objective: Students will edit the audio that they have recorded so that it will be ready for presentation on Friday

Materials: None – everything needed is in the library's computer lab

Procedure: Attendance

Take students to the library's computer lab

Walk around, make sure students are on task, answer questions, and assist as able

Follow-Up: Make sure students have their completed projects saved on a single flash drive to streamline presentations on Friday March 25 Music Technology – Audacity 1 st Period

Objective: Students will present their completed projects

Materials: Computer with PowerPoint, media player, and SmartBoard connection

Procedure: Attendance

Show presentations, grade on the spot

Have students discuss each presentation immediately afterwards

Follow-up: None Music Technology Audacity Project

*For your Audacity project, you will be recording the audio for the Power Point presentations that you have made. This will include the speech and any audio clips that you wish to use in your presentation.

*You must submit a typed plan for what you will say, when to change slides, when audio samples will be used, and any other information that pertains to your presentation. This is the “script” that you will use to record and edit your speech.

*This script will be used by Mr. Young or myself to line up your slides with the audio, so it needs to be specific and exact.

EXAMPLE: Slide X: The information for each slide will be written out exactly as you want to read it. If you are going to have any audio clips used put exactly when you want them as a note in (parentheses). It may help to include the length of the clip, although it is not necessary. You should have one of these paragraphs for each and every slide that you have in your presentation.

Timeline

March 14-18 In class instruction March 21 Recording audio in the library March 22-24 Editing audio in the library March 25 Presentations

*You will turn in your script and an MP3 file of your audio on a flash drive by the end of class on Tuesday, March 22. Assessment Formative - The instructor will regularly ask students if there are any questions after a particular topic has been discussed. In addition, the instructor will ask students general questions as lectures are given to gauge the level of attentiveness and understanding.

Summative -Students will be graded on the overall quality of the audio that they will record, edit, and present. This will gauge their ability to use Audacity in a practical, rather than theoretical, application. Additionally, a standard participation grade will be given for days spend in the library's computer lab in which they were working on their projects rather than performing other, non-approved tasks. Rubric The following rubric will be used to grade the Audacity portion of your PowerPoint projects.

____/5 Audio was recorded from a written script

____/10 Any mistakes in speech are seamlessly removed

____/10 Background music and/or sound effects are well balanced with the recorded speech

Total:_____/25