EDID6508- DEVELOPING INSTRUCTIONAL MEDIA

 Reflection on the process
1.Recording of the audio files and processing was done on my Dell Latitude 3510 laptop which has 8 GB of RAM and over 200GB of hard drive space. The laptop came with Audacity pre-installed. Initially I completed some detailed reading on the best free programs that are similar to Audacity. In the end I chose to stick with Audacity as I had previously used it. Using Voice Recorder in Windows 10, I recorded my greeting several times using my headset on occasions, or the webcam’s built-in microphone on other occasions because I found that the sound of the crickets in the background kept overpowering my audio whenever I rechecked it. Finally, my timing was perfect and I was satisfied with my efforts. Having to download files to use as background music was another challenge I encountered. While it was easy to find non-copyrighted music that I could use from YouTube, it was difficult to actually download the audio files of the music. In the end, I used a free website to download the background audio files. Once I opened them in Audacity, I came across another challenge: the files would not play. It turned out that I had paused another file in Audacity and the program refused to play other audio streams until I had completely stopped the first audio file. Once I was certain that the music was working in Audacity, I set about mixing my voice recording and the background music. The background music was much longer than my 30 seconds of audio and I had to quickly learn how to cut the excess audio from the background music. Finally, I was able to line up the recording of my voice with a segment of the background music that I liked by cutting parts of the background music. The last challenge I encountered was that the background music was much louder than the voice audio when I mixed the two. I eventually had to considerably reduce the volume of the background music to prevent it from drowning out my voice. The process took much longer than I anticipated, as it seemed pretty straightforward to begin with.

2.I have a greater appreciation for software and proper equipment. The use of both Audacity and Voice Recorder gave me some additional technical experience in the field of mixing audio files and I strongly believe the activities and assignments were worth accomplishing. I am able to appreciate the tools that students have available at their disposal; especially during a pandemic where many students may not have been able to capitalize on borrowing some of the tools needed for maximum output or recording in a soundproof booth or sound treated room. For those who have the resources, the temptation is great to purchase software and hardware to manage quality, usability and time constraints. This exercise was very informative and useful. Now I am able to use any of the two programs to record myself to leave engaging instructions for my students in any online/virtual classroom. I am also able to create Read-to-Me versions of difficult material to aid some of them with correct pronunciation. This helps to maintain our intimate relationship as some of my students absolutely hate to complete school activities with their parents. 

3. I found that I would have really benefited from having a sound treated room. It really struck me how certain equipment can be more sensitive to certain frequencies of sounds. The microphones easily picked up the distant sounds of crickets. Even if I had recorded during the day, the microphones may have picked up the sounds of passing traffic. I also think that having easier software to use or having a tutorial on the software would have been beneficial. I had to watch a few YouTube videos in order to figure out how to manipulate Audacity to give me my desired results. Audacity proved to have been a one stop shop however some conversions had to be made. I am tempted to purchase software with more features to manage time constraints better.
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​4.I would encourage everyone to learn and practice using the basics. Software is sometimes like candy - very appealing to look at but once you begin using the software, the experience can be less than stellar. In some cases trial versions of software do not offer much beyond the basic functionality. Learning the basics allows you to manage and improvise better; it gives you more control over your desired end product. The only drawback is that It costs time to learn and experience software.