Software - Adobe Audition CC

Because I have been working heavily with SOUND the past couple of days I have gotten to know the Adobe Audition CC application a bit.... I am NOT an expert at it, but have some good working knowledge...

In the past I used either older, and more inexpensive sound-editing programs, OR I downloaded free TRIAL versions of sound-editing software.

It has been a PRIVLEDGE to be able to use the professional quality sound editing program of Adobe Audition CC that comes along with my Adobe Cloud subscription.

Screen Shot from Adobe Audition CC - A sound editing program

If you have used any sound-editing software you will be familiar with some of this program. It is basically TWO programs in one: A sound recorder/editor AND a Multi-Track sound editor.

The MAIN reason you will want to use a program like this (instead of simply using whatever sound-recorder came with your computer) is for SOUND QUALITY. Above you can see a sample of my daughter's first voice-over recording. What I did next was use an EFFECT (or, FILTER) on her entire file called "noise reduction". Basically you high light a section of the file that is just BACKGROUND noise, where no one is speaking, and the program analyses that sound to create a specialized filter that will reduce the specific frequencies of sound by the specific amounts to bring them down to near-zero. Then you run this filter on the file. It makes an AMAZING difference in the sound quality. Not only do you SEE the "quiet" sections of the sound wave go "flat", but you can HEAR the difference.

Two tips for making good quality sound: (1) get a nice microphone (garbage in equals garbage out. If you want nice sound you have to start at the source.) and (2) set your sound editing software file to a fairly HIGH quality so that your FILTERS will produce high quality effects. (see the image below for the setting that I used to record my daughter.) 32-bit depth was the key. When I tried working in 12-bit, which will probably be close to the final product itself, the sound-reduction filter caused my daughter's voice to be tinny and fake.

NOTE: The link that I have included to Adobe Audition shows some features of the newest edition of Audition, which is really neat. HOWEVER, the stuff that the guy is doing is WAYYYYY more complicated that I actually did with my daughter's voice over recording. Do not be dissuaded by the apparent complexity shown. (For example: To reduce background noise I did NOT use the color spectrum that he is showing. All I had to do was click-drag across the flat line in the wave form and select "capture noise print". Then I just selected the entire waveform and applied selected "Effect" and "Noise Reduction".)

Another advantage to using Adobe Audition is that IT WORKS SEAMLESSLY WITH ADOBE PREMIERE. This means that I will be able to open the video editor (Adobe Premiere) and the SOUND editor (Adobe Audition) at the same time.... allowing me to edit the sound tracks and the video simultaneously. (more on that on another day.... I have not really gotten into the new version of Adobe Premiere yet.... BUT I AM ABOUT TO START... TODAY....)

My Voice Over SECRET WEAPON

The past couple of days I have been working on VOICE OVER for my videos.

I am about to bring out my "secret weapon" when it comes to voice overs... My daughter.

She is only 12 years old but she has already had some experience, especially with working with her Girl Scout Troup, in doing PSAs (Public Service Announcements). The girls did a project earlier this year where then went to for several days to record some SWEET sounding announcements that were actually played over local radio stations. (We are lucky to have Modesto Sound Studio based at a nearby High School.)  I was blown away when she brought home a CD that they created.

So I put together a SCRIPT for my first video (it was four pages long, typed, and font 12). I found that my daughter is very capable at READING and ENUNCIATING the lines. Of course she has a cute little girl voice as well.

Her clear girl voice juxtaposed with Physics jargon may be just another great "hook" for my students. (I KNOW that my students get SOOOOOOOO tired of listening to ME talking all-of-the-time... So why not mix-it-up!?)

New Microphone - Blue Snowball iCE for USB

It is about time that I start to make some actual VIDEOS.

The two microphones that I am using are "ok", but they allow a bit too much background noise. Even after using filter software it is still apparent, and the voice comes out a bit "tinny" because of the filters.

I did some research and decided to purchase a Blue, Snowball iCE microphone.

This was chosen for the following reasons:
(a) Reasonable price
(b) Good sound quality for the price (HD, 42khz at 12 bits)
(c) Good reviews
(d) Had nothing extra. (You don't pay for stuff you don't need.. No software. No buttons/knobs etc)
(e) The Snowball iCE version (compared to the original, $100 Snowball) only has one microphone capsule inside. It is designed for high quality, simple, VOICE capture in MONO.

It was seventy bucks at Best Buy.

Cost: $70
Time: 2 hours

One Interactive Question - Under Four Hours

I have built up a small, but useful, stack of tools to put together various interactive questions.

As a result, my newest, multi-step question about a cat (below) took just under four hours to complete, from concept (hand-written notes) to end product. (The only new element was the diagram of the cat itself. Everything else was re-used from previous questions.)

This is the final screen of the problem.
(The previous screen had students write/solve the equations.)

My Flash programs are designed using ARRAYS to help me create new questions more easily. Instead of having to re-program every question I mostly just change the contents of various arrays that the program uses. Don't get me wrong. There are still things that have to be directly manipulated/programmed for each question. However, the brunt of the work is done using arrays.

A basic question works like this: There is an array of "draggers" (which are graphics or text elements that the student can click-and-drag around the screen.... The student manipulates these.). Then there is an array of "dots" (which are graphics elements that the students can drag objects TO. This is where they place the elements.)  For each sub-question I have a logic array of "Legitimate moves" which tells the program which "dots" the students may correctly place each "dragger" on to. There is also a logic array of "NON allowed moves" which tells the program what combinations students are NOT allowed to do.

Here is a photo of the page of notes used to create the cat question:

 

The sub-scenes are numbers on the left (There are four sub-scenes for this question.)

"draggers" are numbered in boxes. For example: along the left side of the page you can see the first downward arrow with "20N" next to it. That is "dragger item 1" in the array. It will be a graphic of a vector with two division sections on it, and it will point down. "Dragger item 2" will be an UPWARD graphic of the same vector.

"dots" are numbered in circles. "dot item 1" is almost always a trash can. (Most of my questions have extra "draggers" that the student will need to drag into he trash.) "dot item 2" is just the basic DOT (the pink dot in the center of the cat to which the students will drag the vectors to.)

The rest of the notes on the page are basically the logic information to plug into the "Legitimate moves" array and the "NON allowed moves" array. For example: "1,2, 20 newtons down" means that "dragger item 1" may be placed on "dot item 2" and when the student does this the words "20 newtons down" will be temporarily displayed in yellow nearby.


Time: 4 hours

AUTOMATION is TAKING OVER THE WORLD

How may automation be changing the world of education?

Even as early as ten years ago I recall walking in to Sears and heading over to the hardware department where there was a watch/key service counter on which was placed an array of key blanks. The man that worked at that counter had various jobs, one of which was to duplicate keys.

I handed him my house key and he looked it up in some catalogue, flipped through his available supply of key blanks, and then turned to me, holding one up, said "Yes, I have that one. I can make you copies of your key. It will be about ten minutes." Then I would walk around Sears a bit while the man worked diligently with his electric grinding tool, or whatever, and made me two duplicates of my house key.

Fast forward to today.

I happened to be walking through my local Lowe's and found this...

It is an automated key copying machine. Self-Service. A close up of the machinery will show you your key being duplicated WHILE you watch:

BENEFITS: (a) COST EFFECTIVE- This device requires NO SKILLED LABOR (other than the periodic maintenance required by the company that provides the machine.... Much like what occurs if the store owned a Soda Machine. Someone has to come in and resupply the machine, remove the cash, and make sure it remains in operating order.)  (b) It is QUICK, only a couple of minutes required to duplicate a key. (c) It supplies it's service ON DEMAND (you don't have to wait in line for someone else to be available to help you.) And (d) it is EASY TO USE OVER AGAIN if you need to.

LIMITATIONS: (a) It DOES NOT WORK ON EVERY KEY (since it has a limited supply of blanks as well as a limited tool-set.) (b) It doesn't make the BEST keys. The keys made with this device may be a bit "sticky" or "rough" and you may find that they do not work at all once you try them on your lock. These limitations can only be surpassed by having a skilled person and a wider variety of tools and supplies available.

Hopefully you can see how this might relate to EDUCATION (and, also, to my www.colbysworld.net project?)

Let's consider Depth Of Knowledge in education. (Here is a useful diagram).

In common core education there are four levels of depth of knowledge: Level 1 is the simplest (basic recall of facts). Then Level 2 (students begin applying the basic facts... skill). The higher Level 3 and Level 4 require more problem-solving, creative thinking, and in-depth applications.

What I am proposing to do with my "flipped classroom" is to AUTOMATE PART of my lessons... I want to use the computer to help students learn the Level 1 and some of the Level 2 concepts. Much like a key-duplicating machine which can effectively handle the more simple, pattern-based topics. The computer is SELF-SERVE, available 24 hours a day, and allows the student to learn on their own, bypassing that bottleneck that is the "classic" model of the teacher being the soul source of tutoring/learning for the student.

Obviously automation can not handle everything. But it just may free up the teacher, and valuable classroom time, allowing one to focus more on those elusive, Level 3 and Level 4 topics....

Question-Maker Improved

After making four questions to work in the "Puzzler" I have moved back to my first interactive activity (Unit3.1).  Having gained much experience with the Puzzler I was able to make a few changes to Unit3.1 code.

Most Importantly: By taking advantage of using tags in COMMENTS it will make it possible for me to more easily TRANSFER A SINGLE QUESTION DIRECTLY amongst various programs.

This means that, after spending three-to-eight hours creating a single interactive question I can then duplicate it in other forms:
(a) Interactive Activities (ie: Unit3.1) for GUIDED PRACTICE
(b) Puzzlers for INDEPENDANT PRACTICE
and
(c) Quizzlers for TESTING (formative assessments)

First: Here is a frame of my newest question that I added to Unit3.1

New elements that were added into this question were the SIGMA (sum) elements. This is my first try at having students create equations (using variables such as Fg) and then SOLVING them (plugging in the numbers) using my format above. I have also added three text elements for sub-text. (In the scene above there is Output2.text = "Step II Write the equations...", Output3.text = " = ______ + ______" and Output4.text = "=________=")

But here is where the big improvements were made..... An example of some of the code. Pay attention to the COMMENTS, which are marked by "//" and are in green

If I choose I may take this whole 1200 lines of code for this scene/question and copy it over to the Quizzler for use in that progam...

Everything marked "// (Q)" is for the Quizzler program. All I have to do is delete the comment tags "// (Q)" from the front of these lines and it will allow the question to work within the Quizzler.

Everything marked "// UNIT ONLY" is for the Unit programs (like Unit3.1).  I would go back and MOVE the comment tag "// UNIT ONLY" to the FRONT of these program lines to make it work within the Quizzler.

Examples of how I might need this:

() Line 380 and 381 - The Quizzler does not automatically make the Help button available to the students. Certain requirements must be met. However, line 382 and 383 make the Help button available immediately to students if this is the Unit3.1 interactive program.

() Line 389 and 390 - The Quizzler only makes the FastForward button available to the students if they have enough "skip ahead" points available during the Quizzler. But in Unit3.1 (lines 397 to 401) the Fast Forward button is "clickable" if the student is not currently on their MAXIMUM scene number.... Students are allowed to fast forward past scenes if they have completed this assignment before, or if they have skipped BACKWARD scenes and wish to skip AHEAD again to their current MAXIMUM scene.

() Line 403 etc. - There is a Score Bar while using the Quizzler (which requires a whole lot of coding/coordination in that program to make the various score effects, music, etc) but there is NO score bar while the question is used in Unit3.1 (The Units have PAGE NUMBERS instead of score bars.)

In the end, I am trying to make my code as RE-USABLE as possible. This will allow me get the biggest "bang for the buck" out of each of my interactive scenes/questions.

Time used: 8 hours.

In "the groove"

It has taken all of this time to develop a "system" in which I can enter a basic physics question that allows students to interact with it in a way that can be similar to a test/quiz situation, but using the computer to make the experience more interactive.

With my "puzzler" set up it took me about four hours today, start-to-finish, to realize a multiple-step problem that includes graphics, text questions, and graphics/text draggers.

It is easiest to type out the question set on MS Word (including each subquestion) Then I type out the draggers/dots for each test question. Then I number all of the draggers/dots and write the legitimate choices for each subscene. If necessary I go into Photoshop and create any required new images. I import the images into Flash Builder and turn them into Action Script classes.

This question (above) took four hours. So, for now, I'll assume an average of four hours to develop new questions.

Time: 4 hours

School Year Over (Finally!)

It has been a long while since I have gotten back into my project. I decided to focus on the last few weeks of school and final exams. The first week of Summer is over as well. (I had some personal distractions this week.)

Before I went on break I started creating a third question that was mostly text-based.

The past two days I spent a number of hours getting back into my code... trying to become re-acquainted with my program. I had to re-map it out into a logic table. Then I found some improvements I could make. I want to be able to "crank out" questions so I have made some of the code more modular (using arrays more often).

Rather than posting the details of those changes I'll just leave it at that and get back to work....

Time: 10 hours