1. “Can you hear me now?”
Easy and Effective Ways to Enhance
Teaching and Learning with Audio Content
Janet Jordan
Steve McDermott
Institute for Teaching and Learning
University of Connecticut

2. Things we listen to
• Music: instrumental, vocal
• Spoken word: stories, literature, News reports, Lectures,
Interviews, Commentary, comedy, Language lessons,
Weather reports, Explanations
• Instructions: meditation guide, exercise
• Sounds of nature: wind, ocean, waterfall, insects, wildlife
• City sounds: traffic, sirens, honking, buses, subway
• Human sounds: Voice disorders, heart beats, accents,
breathing
• Animal sounds: bird calls/songs, moo, roars, barks

3. Teaching & Learning Applications
• Examples:
–Step-by-step instructions
–Normal vs. abnormal heart sounds
–Supplemental lecture material
–“Field trips” via podcast
–Recorded comments on language skills

4. Student Generated Audio Content
• Peer review of writing
• Foreign language samples
• Reading poetry, lit passages, plays
• Creating news spots, conducting interviews
• Observations, comments, explanations
• Giving explanations, examples
• Contributing questions

5. Where do audio files come
from and how are they
made available to others?

6. Finding Audio Content
• Internet Archive
• Creative Commons
• University collections (Johns Hopkins,
Berkeley, MIT)
• Museum sites
• Organizations/Agencies (NASA)
• News/broadcasting services (BBC, NPR,
PBS)
• CDs that you own

7. Creating Audio Content
• Audacity software
–Open source sound editing application
–Cross-platform
–Use to create and/or edit sound files
• Digital Recorder

8. Podcasts
• True Podcasts:
– Audio content delivered via RSS feed
• RSS = Really Simple Syndication
• Process for listener
– Subscribe to a feed
– Get automatic updating of your content
– Listen using MP3 player on computer and/or
portable device

9. Podcasting
• Create audio content
• Make it available as RSS feed for
subscribers
• Process for creator
– Use Audacity or other tool to create MP3
– Upload (post) file to podcast hosting service
(e.g. PodBean.com, Libsyn.com) or learn the
code needed to create the RSS feed file
needed to provide podcasts from your own
website

10. Using Audio without Podcasting
• In HuskyCT
– Post on Folder Pages or in Learning Modules
– As Discussion, Mail, or Assignment
attachments
– In Quizzes questions
– Narrated PowerPoints
• In Class
– Off a USB drive or CD
– In a PPT

11. EDITING AUDIO
• Audacity – PC & Mac
• Many other options
www.tucows.com
www.macupdate.com
WAV – CD quality sound
MP3 – compressed audio (smaller file)
WMA – PC
AIFF - Mac
Audio for PowerPointAudio for PowerPoint

12. Inserting Audio ClipInserting Audio Clip

13. Prepare a Presentation Folder
My Show FolderMy Show Folder

14. My Show FolderMy Show Folder
Transferring PresentationTransferring Presentation