Assignment 2 – The Sight of Sound – #edtechcca2

Air raid sirens wail in the distance. Hurried footsteps and the murmurs of a crowd. A hysterical scream and the sobbing of a child. The ‘ack ack’ of a distant anti aircraft gun. The approach of  enemy aircraft announced by a steady drone. The apprehensive, terrified silence pierced by the inevitable whine of a dropping bomb…

Sound is a powerful but often forgotten medium. Play sounds at the start of a class and the students’ chatter will fade; they’ll tune in and try to make sense of what they’re hearing.

For this assignment, combine audio effects into a soundscape to represent a place or an event. This assignment may not be suitable for all educational areas, so please feel free to create a soundscape for a scene from a favourite book or a poem, or come up with another idea.

Ideas (or come up with your own)

• English – the above example could set the scene for a book about WW2 evacuees e.g. War Boy.
• Drama – set the scene with sound as Antonio’s ship is caught in The Tempest
• Geography – recreate the sounds of the Amazon Rainforest
• History – recreate the sounds of a famous battle

Where to get sound effects

• Soundbible – free sound clips
• Freesound – registration required
• Sound FX Now – more free sound clips

Tools

Suggested tools for mixing sound

• Audacity – free audio editor for Windows or Mac (you may need to add the free mp3 plugin). Tutorials
• Myna – Aviary’s free online audio editor. Tutorials
• Other tools – links to other audio tools

Audio sharing sites

Use a free audio service to host your soundscape. Embed the sound in your blog or link to it on the audio service.

• AudioBoo
• SoundCloud

Hashtag #edtechcca2

Out 25th Jan 2012

Due 1st Feb 2012