Distance Learning Mentoring Group

Minutes for April 7, 2005 - 4 P.M. - 5:00 P.M. CTL Work room

In attendance at the DLMG meeting : Keri Sanders, Bob Klassen, Sandra Woien, Julia West, Danene Richardson, Marcia Graber, Lorna Peralta, Ken Costello, and Peggy Johnson.

Ken Costello has created an extremely creative online chemistry course. You can view his course at this URL: http://www.chemistryland.com Ken's course is not password protected so you can click on the link and explore what he has developed. It is extremely rich in multimedia resources for students.

DOWNLOADING AUDACITY

Audacity is a free software program that makes it relatively easy to create and edit audio files to put on the web. It is a small enough program that you can even carry the whole program on a thumb drive with you to different computers (Audacity software does not have to be installed on a computer to use Audacity).

Use this URL to download a copy of Audacity to your computer (assuming you have a Windows machine) : http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ or you can always type in "Audacity" into a search engine (such as http://www.google.com) to find a download source.

Select the appropriate platform you use (Windows or Macintosh) and download the file named audacity-win. exe into folder on your computer (such as the Program Files folder).

DOWNLOADING LAME

You also want to download the LAME MP3 Encoder Library. This enables Audacity to save files as MP3 if you so choose. MP3 provides a good compression (small file size), which is highly desirable. If you are on a Windows machine, this page has the LAME Encoder: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/windows.php

Hint: It will make it easier for you late if you download the LAME MP3 Encoder into the same folder as the Audacity program you downloaded. Otherwise, the first time you use Audacity and tell it to save a file as MP3, you will have to browse to show Audacity where the LAME MP3 encoder is located.

RUNNING AUDACITY

Load Audacity by opening the exe file you downloaded. I've created several documents with directions on how to download and use Audacity. They can be found at the CTL homepage at this URL: http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/other/ctl/_ctl_SD/resources/helpdocs/how_to/index.html

Go to this site and scroll down until you see the "Other" listings. You will see several files that pertain to Audacity.

If you want to create a short audio "Welcome" message for your homepage, you can do this easily with Audacity. For a sample, look at Peg Johnson's course homepage.

You could use Audacity to create sound files into your Powerpoint slides. However, it is probably easier and quicker to use Breeze Presentation for this purpose now that MCC has a site license for Breeze.

SITES TO BOOKMARK

You can find many free audio files on the internet (music, speeches, sound effects, advertisements, etc.). One way to find them is to click on Google search engine (http://www.google.com) and then type in something like "nature sounds wav mp3" if you are looking for nature sounds of "wedding music wav mp3" if that's what you are seeking. "Wav" and "mp3" are two formats of audio files that are used a lot on the web.

Ken recommends http://www.freeplaymusic.com/ as a good site to download free sound effects.

Microsoft has a great library of free audio files and clip art. It can be found at http://office.microsoft.com/clipart/default.aspx?lc=en-us

Another good site to bookmark for free audio files is : http://www.pricelessware.org/thelist/index.htm

When you find an audio file you like, right click on your mouse and select "Save Target As". Type in the name you want to use for the file and save it on your computer.

You should be following copyright rules when you include audio files you have copied in your password-protected website. You should only use a short segment of the music. Ken thinks you are allowed to use 30 seconds of music. Others in the group thought it might be limited to 10 seconds. There are a wealth of resources on copyright law on Peg's DLMG Resource Page at http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/~johnson/DLMGRSRC.HTM

NEXT WEEK

Paul Hietter, MCC's Distance Learning Coordinator, will show us his online history courses and discuss the use of CPR (Calibrated Peer Review) with his students.

Peg Johnson