Mixing – Jason Toal

October 4, 2015

Disco kids

A typical set up for Dr. Jones ~ summer 2015

Here we are in October and I’m still processing and publishing pics from the summer. Although I said last week, I missed sharing some stories at the transition of seasons, I’ve realized in fact that I did a lot of sharing through music this year. The ‘Summer Grooves’ series at Club Ilia this summer was my most prolific effort to date, generating almost 20 hrs of recorded mixes in 2 months. I’ve shared some links over on twitter, but not refined them enough for the mixcloud.… YET.

One small observation I had over this summers residency, was how awesome it was when the kids came out to dance. Club Ilia is a very public venue with an upwardly average crowd. But when the kids are getting into the groove, dancing and generally being rambunctious its truly rewarding and a great eg. of unbridled community. The above GIF was taken at a friends summer dinner celebration in which I INSISTED to provide the sound. Well worth the effort to set up the space to dance and revel on the warm summer evening, a highlight of the year for sure. I look forward to continuing bringing music to my friends, family and work colleagues this year, big plan are brewing including a new “TINY SOUNDLAB” project. More details on that coming soon.

September 18, 2013May 25, 2014

Dawson City Road trip w/ timelapse and maps

Compiling a few media artifacts from (one of) my summer vacation(s) this year, the Whitehorse -> Dawson City sojourn, I had to share this sweet timelapse video I created from the RV drive up. I was travelling with my sis and her family, to check out the Dawson City Music Festival, and if you don’t blink, you may be able to catch one of my nephews pit stops along the way.

Whitehorse —> Dawson City: Timelapse #DCMF – On My Way from jason toal on Vimeo.

The entire journey was 532 km, but we started the video on the second day from a little place called Carmacks. Total distance 355 km. In geeking out to write this post I created a G map to both check out the distance and give this video some context. To take it a step further, here is a test of the embedded map. (which was not as straightforward to create as it should have been).

View Larger Map

You can’t post a timelapse video without a sweet piece of music to bring it to life, and I got lucky with the audio here having recorded many of the performances I saw at the festival. Listening back to my archives I came upon this amazing track from Sam Martin recorded SANS the haggard, but in a gospel set at the St. Pauls Anglican Church. The lyrics to “On My Way” (Mavis Staples version) not only fit the theme perfectly, referencing travelling to freedom land with my sister and brother, but also was a match at 3 minutes and 33 seconds exactly!

To complete this post I felt some photos were necessary, since I got some amazing ones of the churches in Dawson and as well I’ve been trying to figure out a workflow to use google services for photo sharing. Nothing good to report here! I created an album in G+ which I think is public but I cant embed here as a slideshow like I might with flickr. There does seem to be ways to accomplish this using Picasa, but synching these photos to cloud services is still confusing me greatly. Finally I gave up and stumbled into making a collage in in Picasa.

Dawson City Music Festival 2013, A roadtrip with nephews — Some churches in Dawson City while on roadtrip with my nephews to check out the #DCMF

January 30, 2013May 25, 2014

Amplify your teaching – DRAFT

Anyone ever publish a draft post before, CAUSE I JUST DID.

It was either that or not publish at all, and that is simply not an option this week. The following info was used as the outline for my mini lesson today in the Instructional Skills workshop. I did not use any visual aids, simply played the auditory fragments I have included below, and talked through them. Even though I have not completed this post, (poorly embedded media, incomplete notes, missing several pieces of the BOPPS!) its more my intention to get the links out there and move on. My over-arching mission here is to create some useful open learning resources out of the ISW experience and share them with #etmooc, but we will have to leave this one in DRAFT stage for now. I have to publish it and start preparing for my next mini lesson tomorrow!

Start: To complete this lesson, please download the Soundcloud app from (from the app or play stores respectively), install it on your mobile device and make sure you have your account set up.

Outcomes:

To listen to several different types of educational audio.
To record and share a short audio reflection from your mobile device.

Using recorded audio in the classroom is old as recorded audio itself. Educational uses of audio were predicted to be amongst the primary uses of the phonograph intended by Edison in 1878.

Edisons top ten list

Letter writing, and all kinds of dictation without the aid of a stenographer.
Photographic books, which will speak to blind people without effort on their part.
The teaching of elocution.
Music-the phonograph will undoubtedly be liberally devoted to music.
The family record; preserving the sayings, the voices, and the last words of the dying members of the family, as of great men.
Music boxes, toys, etc. – A doll which may speak, sing, cry or laugh may be promised our children for the Christmas holidays ensuing.
Clocks, that should announce in speech the hour of the day, call you to lunch, send your lover home at ten, etc.
The preservation of language by reproduction of our Washingtons, our Lincolns, our Gladstones.
Educational purposes; such as preserving the instructions of a teacher so that the pupil can refer to them at any moment; or learn spelling lessons.
The perfection or advancement of the telephone’s art by the phonograph, making that instrument an auxiliary in the transmission of permanent records.

The audio test recaptured in this historical audio recording from 1927.
Thomas Edison Mary had lamb

Some reasons you might consider offering audio recordings to your students:

Recorded audio can be used in numerous academic contexts.

To provide students with a study aid they can review after lecture;
To enable students to review the lecture in preparation for discussion and debate;
To demonstrate a task, procedure, or complex concept that would benefit from multimedia presentation and/or the ability to watch repeatedly;
To use on an ongoing basis as a reference for students;
To free up class time for discussion. Making recorded lectures available before class meetings makes more time available for discussion and hands-on activities. In the classroom context, multimedia can be a powerful tool for helping students learn and retain complex ideas and phenomena.

These days, with the internet and an average computing device, recording and sharing audio has never been more accessible and possible, yet how often is it used in the classroom?

Typically, audio from lectures can be easily be recorded and distributed to students, as a means for those that missed the inclass lecture, or for the sakes of review. These audio clips can tend to be the full length of the lecture in some cases more than an hour in length. SFU has this service integrated into many of its lecture halls and is available to instructors by means of a checkbox.

Sample audio – “Lecture”

An eg from SFU podcasts.

SFU lecture

Modeling Social Phenomena – http://www.courtneybrown.com/classes/ModelingSocialPhenomena/mp3/CB_MSP.xml

Recording-1024x842

Sample audio – “Pro” Lecture Media 112

In Storytelling: History 451 Audio was used to demonstrate a task or procedure.

http://blogs.sfu.ca/courses/fall2010/hist451/?page_id=233

http://blogs.sfu.ca/courses/fall2010/hist451/

DS106: Learning to Listen

DS106, the preeminent digital storytelling learning experience, is very comfortable with the medium of audio. One of many assignments and resources available from this community.

Activity: On a voluntary basis, please use the Soundcloud app you have installed on your deive, and record a short (30-60 second) reflection on audio in the class room. Tell a story about your experience LISTENING to learning, give me feedback on the lesson, the workshop, or just make something up. I will add it to the “Amplify your classroom” set on soundlcoud if you forward me your audio.