Audio for Podcasting: Hard Disk Recording

When digital audio first appeared, tape-based digital recorders using Digital Audio Tape (DAT) were the only viable system for recording the relatively large amount of data required by a digital audio recording system. This was because tape was less expensive to manufacture than hard drives, and tape was easy to store for later reuse. As hardware became more sophisticated, disk drives started to grow in capacity and performance, to a point where by the mid-1980's digital disk recorders started showing up in professional recording studios.

However, storage limitations and exorbitant costs meant that a 10MB drive could cost over $2000, and could hold only about a minute of audio. This worked great for MIDI and music sequencer applications like Cubase, running on the Atari ST computer (see Figure 1) but was insufficient for recording and editing high-quality voice-over narration.

Figure 1. Start of an audio revolution: Cubase 1.0 for Atari ST
[Click to enlarge]

However, as computers became more powerful, so the hard disk capacity used to store data on a computer grew. Its now common to see disk drives that store 100, 200, or even 500 gigabytes (GB) of data. Storing digital audio on hard disk makes a lot more sense and in fact now the most affordable alternative. Today you can buy a one terabyte hard disk for about $300 that gives you hundreds of hours of stereo, 16-bit recording at a 44.1K sample rate.

Advantages of Hard Disk Recording
There are a variety of reasons why hard disk recorders are more versatile and powerful than their tape-based cousins. Advantages include:

1. Instant access time. The most expensive part of most tape machines is the motors that control the motion of the tape, called the transport. Transports are often very complex mechanical devices with very precise tolerances. Since a tape machine has to physically move tape linearly across the tape heads, and shuttle the tape from beginning to end, a powerful and reliable transport is required. The better the transport, the faster you can get from one portion of the tape to another, which saves time.
   
   A hard disk drive does not have this limitation. Hard drives are now fast enough so that any data stored on a hard disk drive can be accessed in an instant of time. This means that locating any portion of a song can be done almost instantaneously since there is no tape to wind. The elimination of rewind and fast-forward locate time is a huge benefit of hard disk recording. The less time spent winding tape, the more time can be spent getting the best take recorded instead.
   
2. Flexible and powerful editing. In tape-based systems, there are two methods of editing the audio on tape: re-recording over it, or physically cutting the tape. You can record over existing material on a tape deck or record between two tape machines insert new portions of audio or move audio into a new location. The problem with editing with tape this way is that in order to perform the edit you must wipe the original material by recording over it; this is sometimes referred to as "destructive editing". In addition, since you are recording, it takes at least as long as the length of the edit to perform it, that is, inserting a one-minute audio segment will take one minute.
   
   With hard disk based recording, the data that is on the disk can be re-arranged without having to be deleted. This is often called "non-destructive editing". The audio data on disk can be also be manipulated in many different ways. The power that a disk recorder provides over tape recorders in terms of editing is substantial.
   
3. Processing the audio. In addition to editing the digital audio data stored on a hard disk (by cutting, copying and pasting), audio can be processed using software algorithms called digital signal processing or DSP. Using DSP, audio stored on hard disk can be stretched and squeezed, raised and lowered in amplitude, put on its head and turned inside out just by re-arranging the zeros and ones. Additionally, a DSP-based hard disk recorder provides one of the most substantial benefits of digital audio in the first place because audio can be manipulated and processed while remaining in the digital domain. The only practical way to perform DSP operations on digital audio is when it is stored on hard disk. Tape-based systems, with their linear recording processes makes advanced DSP features impractical to implement, regardless of tape format used.

Next time: Authoring your podcast using an audio editor.

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Moodle 1.9 Multimedia – Book Review

I've used Moodle for about four years, and in that time I've found it to be an exceptionally useful, high-functioning and user-friendly learning management system (LMS). In my view, the one deficiency in its suite of resources is that it is less than intuitive in the way it enables administrators, teachers, and learners to create, integrate, manage, and deliver images, audio, video, animations and other media types.

Enter Packt Publishing's Moodle 1.9 Multimedia by João Pedro Soares Fernandes.

I opened my copy of the text with a high expectation that it would be an informative and practical reference text. Why? Packt Publishing have been providing Moodle reference books for some time now, and their texts are usually either very good or excellent.

Now read on...

Using open source software can be a daunting experience, regardless of your technical or business experience, and this text's purpose is to shorten Moodle users' path to competency in designing, developing and delivering multimedia on the platform. Broadly speaking, the text covers seven Moodle-related media-based activities:

1. Evolution of Multimedia
2. Using Images
3. Sound and Music
4. Video
5. Web 2.0 and other multimedia forms
6. Multimedia and Assessments
7. Synchronous Communication and Interaction

The author assumes previous knowledge of Moodle, but not prior experience of multimedia development. Appropriately for a book about Moodle, Fernandes uses a Constructivist approach to instruction, and the content is structured so that the reader learns experientially – you learn by doing. This is a very good idea indeed: for newcomers this goes some way to providing an understanding of why multimedia in Moodle 1.9 looks and works the way it does, it acts as a pertinent reminder for experienced Moodlers, and sets the context for the content creation chapters in the book.

The book is designed in a logical and linear fashion: the author aims to guide you through the basics of content creation in each featured media type. For example, in Chapter 2: Picture This you find out about using the open source image editing called GIMP to capture and enhance images, integrate images into Moodle, create comic strips using the free-to-use Strip Generator, export PowerPoint create slideshows, and use online resources like SlideShare.

Given the assumption of little or no technical background in multimedia development, the author spends a goodly proportion of his time - in detail and very effectively - spelling out the advantages, and disadvantages of various media types, as well a processes, "how-to's" and "gotchas" of using digital media in Moodle. With nearly 12 years experience as an learning professional specializing in e-learning, I would consider that I have a pretty comprehensive knowledge of digital media tools, technologies, and services. I'm delighted to say that Moodle 1.9 Multimedia introduced me to a range of resources that I had not encountered before. This is great: any resource that enables me to deliver content to learners in a more engaging and immersive fashion is a winner with me, and this book fits comfortably into that category.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this review, I think that Moodle 1.9 Multimedia would be an invaluable companion for those new to using media on the Moodle platform. As an experienced Moodle user (and media expert), I will use the book very much as a "just enough, just in time" resource rather than as an end-to-end guide through image, sound, and video development, though I would suggest that the text would work very well if used in this fashion.

Some other positive aspects of my "user experience" of the text included the author's accessible and direct writing style, and the availability of a sample Moodle course for learners to access and "have a play with." In my view this text is a straightforward and reliable companion for those who seek to find out more about - and use - multimedia in Moodle 1.9.

Click here to navigate to Packt Publishing’s Moodle 1.9 Multimedia web page.

Click here to download a sample chapter of the text (2MB PDF).
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Podcasting for E-Learning: Benefits of Digital Audio

The first principle of digital audio is:

Digital audio is the study of discrete values.

This characteristic is very important: it allows us to manage audio information very efficiently. Using digital techniques, the capability to process information is greatly enhanced.

In a previous post, I discussed a little about the basics of digital audio. Today, I want to talk about how digital audio technology benefits podcasters. What are its advantages over an analog system of recording?

Here are a few specifics:

1. Less noise than an analog recording system.
   In an analog recording system, magnetic particles are oriented by the tape head in a manner that is analogous with the audio signal that is driving the tape head. The tape itself has billions of little magnets on it, and it is physically impossible to orient every single one correctly. These remaining magnetic particles are randomly oriented, which shows up on playback as what is called tape hiss. With a high enough sample rate and resolution, digital audio produces recordings that have significantly less noise than analog.
   
   The noise in an analog recording system is usually expressed as a "signal to noise ratio". The signal to noise ratio tells you how much more signal there is on the tape recorder outputs compared to the noise in a audio signal. For example, a digital audio system using a resolution of 16 bits will often yield a signal to noise ratio of more than -90dB (in EMG’s in-house studio the noise threshold is, for example) for decibel, a unit of measurement in the audio world. -90dB means that the noise floor is 90dB below the signal level.
   
   It would take a very high-end and expensive analog recording system to produce even a signal to noise ratio of -60db. This difference of 30dB is dramatic: the noise floor in the analog recording system will be 1000 times louder than the noise floor in a digital system. The reason for this is quite simple: a digital recording system records only the binary numbers, not analog signals which accumulate noise from the imperfect recording process. Since a digital system only records numbers (zeroes and ones, or bits, to be specific), as long as the bits can be recorded and read by the digital tape or digital disk system, then the only thing that matters is the theoretical 6dB per bit of dynamic range that is determined by the resolution of the digital recording system.
   
2. Ability to make copies without signal loss.
   Another advantage of digital audio over analog is the ability to make as many copies of the original as you want without degrading the signal quality. Every time you duplicate an analog recording, you lose audio quality and add even more noise. Remember that digital audio is just a group of digital samples, made up of zeros and ones that represent the audio.
   
   These numbers can be "copied" to another device or medium in a way that ensures that the result is the same as the original. This means that the copy is a "clone" of the original and sounds the same. This is true for the first copy or the seventy-first. Each time you copy an analog recording, you introduce between 3 and 6dB of noise, which further reduces the signal to noise ratio. Clearly, for pristine back-up want to use multiple copies of material during production, digital has the advantage.
   
3. Better audio quality for a lower cost.
   Digital audio used to be much more expensive than analog. This was because the early digital tape recorders used expensive and precise reel-to-reel mechanisms and early digital technology which was inherently more expensive. As recently as five years ago, the cheapest digital multi-track on the market was over $10,000 - analog reel-to-reel machines could be had for a fraction of that price. Now, digital technology has advanced to the point that this is no longer true.
   
   This is much in part to the advancements made in digital technology due to computers as well as cost reduction of other technologies important to digital recording like video cassette mechanisms and hard disk drives. Since digital audio technology uses similar components as the computer and multimedia industries, digital audio devices can take advantage of the lower cost of components due to their high manufacturing volumes. The result? Today's digital audio multi-tracks not only out-perform analog machines, costs less to manufacture, and is quite easily integrated into a multimedia production environment.

More...

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New E-Learning Curve’s Other Podcast episode release:

Part 7 of Transatlantic: The Flying Boats of Foynes

In Part 7: End of an Era

The War in Europe ended on May 25th, 1945. As normal life re-established itself, times also began to change for Foynes. Larger and more powerful airplanes had been built and operated successfully. A new land-based airport was established at the far side of the river. It was called Shannon International.

In this final episode of Transatlantic: The Flying Boats of Foynes, Chief Operator of Launch Operations Frank Buckley describes the end of the flying boat service in Foynes, Ireland, and the emergence of Shannon airport as the new home for transatlantic aircraft in the Post-War years.

Click here to listen to the podcast (MP3, 8.5MB).

Click here to view the transcript of this podcast (PDF, 24K).

Even though this is an e-learning blog, the observant among you will notice that the podcast isn’t about e-learning. That’s OK – the point of e-learning is to provide training professionals with a means of creating and distributing content that enables people to acquire information, knowledge, skills, and expertise on a diverse range of subjects: as e-learning practitioners, it’s our job to facilitate this process.

Some interesting Moodle audio visual plugins just released

I've been discussing podcasting in some depth recently: today I've decided to take a break from the topic, and tell you about a related subject.

Now read on...

Let's pretend for a moment that you've followed all my advice, tips, and suggestions about creating, authoring, recording and producing podcasts with alacrity. Your content needs to be stored somewhere to be distributed to your audience. In the e-learning world we use learning management systems (or LMS) to manage this task.

An LMS (or the related Learning Content Management System) is software for delivering, tracking and managing training and education resources. LMSs range from systems for managing learner records to software for distributing coursesvia the Internet, typically including features for online collaboration. LMSs can also automate record-keeping, as well as for:

• Registration of learners for classroom and online courses
• Student self-service (e.g., self-registration on instructor-led training), training workflow (e.g., user notification, manager approval, wait-list management)
• The provision of on-line learning (e.g., Web-Based Training, podcasts)
• On-line assessment
• Management of continuous professional education (CPE)
• Collaborative learning (e.g., application sharing, discussion threads)
• Training resource management (e.g., instructors, facilities, equipment)

One of the most popular, effective, and easy-to-use LMSs is Moodle. Moodle has been taking part in the Google Summer of Code, and it looks like some interesting new plugins have emerged from the project. Among them are the Nanogong and the Riffly plugins for Moodle 2.0.

The Nanogong plugin allows audio-only recording inside Moodle repositories. Captured in WAV format, files are stored in Moodle using the ImaACPCM or Speex codecs. Recorded files and the recording applet are available in all places where the repository is used to select files.

The Riffly plugin allows audio-only or audio-video recording inside Moodle repositories. Encoding in Flash FLV forma,t files can be stored on riffly.com servers or downloaded to Moodle. Recorded files and the recording Flash object is available in all places where the repository is used to select files.

Note that Moodle 2.0 is under development, and is UNSTABLE. It should NOT be used for production sites. For developers, testers and any other people who helping create the next generation of Moodle. The latest stable release of Moodle is 1.9.5. I recommend that your download, install and have a play with the platform if you haven't done so already.

Next time: Back to podcasting

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Podcasting for E-Learning: Critically Analyzing Podcasts

My previous blog posts on podcasting have focused the human side of podcasting: narration, story-telling, communicating with your audience. I've looked at what you say, and how you say it, dipping liberally into the eighty or so years of accumulated skills and knowledge from radio broadcasting to reinforce my arguments - after all, content is king, and radio is still the place where people talk.

Now, it's time to spend a little time understanding the technical aspects of podcasting. Don't worry if you've never so much as looked at a sound file before. Recording and producing your own content is great fun, and I hope you'll find that there's tremendous satisfaction to be had creating and crafting your own little corner of the internet.

As you begin to hone your podcasting skills, you'll find that you're also taking a remarkable learning journey. It's one that I think will enhance the way to sense and think about the medium of sound. If you are a musician, you'll already know what I mean. Those of you who can play (even if it's only a few chords on the guitar) know that you listen to music in a qualitatively different way to those don't play. The very act of learning an instrument teaches you to become an active listener and a critical analyst of sound. How is that musical piece orchestrated? How are the harmonies arranged, what technique is that soloist using? What melodic elements hold your attention? As well as just enjoying a musical number on its own merits, you can apply a critical ear to the music, and I would suggest appreciate a work in a much more profound way than the casual listener. The same principles apply when you begin to podcast.

Jack Herrington (2005) agrees with this interpretation. In his text Podcasting hacks: tips & tools for blogging out loud, he considers that there are four elements you should critically examine:

Podcast Structure: Analyze content for recurring or format elements used to keep the listener engaged with the podcast, and to motivate the listener to return for future elements. Is the "interesting stuff" (p.51) at the beginning, the middle, the conclusion, or distributed throughout the pod cast presentation.

Technical Elements: Podcast should take advantage of appropriate Web 2.0 and multimedia components to be effective. In some instances, this can mean a voice-over narrating a story very simply. In other contexts, a podcast may take advantage of music, wildtrack, multiple voices, and sound effects.

Content: Try to understand what holds your attention. This is especially vital: according to Herrington, it's what "primarily keeps people coming back" to listen again. The author suggests that

"When something moves you, listen to it over and over to figure out what is keeping you engaged."

(p.52)

Next time: Fundamentals of Digital Audio Editing

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New E-Learning Curve’s Other Podcast episode release:

In Part 6: The Flying Boats at War

During World War II, the civilian airlines of the Allies continued to fly, though perhaps the nature of the passengers had changed. As the US, Britain, and their allies prepared for the invasion of Europe,

In this episode, Chief Operator of Launch Operations Frank Buckley describes working on the flying boats during the War, the hazards that the aircraft encountered, searching for the German battleship Bismarck, and the excitement of the night-time take-offs and landings.

Click here to listen to the podcast (MP3, 11MB).

Click here to view the transcript of this podcast (PDF, 24K).

Even though this is an e-learning blog, the observant among you will notice that the podcast isn’t about e-learning. That’s OK – the point of e-learning is to provide training professionals with a means of creating and distributing content that enables people to acquire information, knowledge, skills, and expertise on a diverse range of subjects: as e-learning practitioners, it’s our job to facilitate this process.

___________

References:

Herrington, J. D. (2005). Podcasting hacks: tips & tools for blogging out loud. O'Reilly Media, Inc.

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Without Les Paul I wouldn’t be an E-Learning Professional

Les Paul, inventor, guitar legend and sound engineering genius died yesterday.

While most of the tributes to this most rounded of individuals rightly focus on his contribution to music, both through his virtuosity on the guitar and his invention of his eponymous Gibson instrument. I'd like you to consider this: if you work in e-learning or digital media content development you probably wouldn't have a job without Les Paul’s influence and inventions.

Why?

He invented multitrack sound recording.

Multitrack recording (also known as multitracking for short) is a method of sound recording that allows for separate recording of multiple sound sources to create a cohesive whole. Today, this is the most common method of recording popular music, radio documentaries, and podcasts. Back in the day, I learned to record sound to magnetic tape (including the black art of editing sound by physically splicing bits of tape together), before moving to DAT, mini-disc, and finally recording and editing audio in a purely digital environment about 10 years ago.

Today, I use multitracked audio to create podcasts for distribution on the web and via iTunes, demos, simulations, training videos, and a host of other learning applications.

All of these developments occurred because of Les Paul's innovations in multitracking 60 years ago. He was so influential that modern digital audio editors (and digital media editing tools like Adobe Premiere and Techsmith Camtasia) still use the multi-channel / multi-track timeline user interface paradigm, and still sport controls for cutting, splicing, and cross-fading the content stream, same as in the physical magnetic tape editing I used to do many years ago.

Source audio for a podcast in a digital multitrack editor

"Big deal" I hear you say, "if he hadn't done it, someone else would have."

Maybe, but he did it. And it was his musical artistry and fame as a recording artist (with his then-wife Mary Ford) that popularized the technology in a way no 'man in a white coat' could ever have.

So thanks for the music, Les, and the guitar.

And the career. Requiescat in pace.

Les Paul (1915-2009)

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Podcasting for E-Learning: Digital Audio Basics

Really exceptional podcasts transmit a sense of "being there."

Well-designed, planned, narrated and produced audio content has the facility to engage the audience and transport the listener, providing the right cognitive environment for learning or entertainment or whatever goal the podcast seeks to achieve. As the old story goes, “there are better pictures on the radio.” Denis Nowlan, Deputy to the Controller for BBC Radio 4 describes this as

the wonder of radio [and sound] …the conjuring of magical sounds, Prospero-like, out of the silently teeming air. And the sense of joining, instantly, with a vast community of listeners.

(2005)

Of course, this cognitively experienced sense of “being there” is a completely artificial construct, none more so when you consider audio podcasting. The journey the podcaster takes us on is based on nothing in nature; that is, a narrative transmitted as binary data: electronically-mediated zeros and ones.

I will discuss this phenomenon in detail next time, but for now, read on…

Digital audio is actually very similar in concept to motion film, where a rapid series of still photographs make up a “motion picture.” Digital recording reproduces audio signals by taking many still “pictures” – or samples - of an audio waveform and then reconstructing the waveform for playback digitally (see Figure 1).

Figure 1. Digital Sampling of Audio Waveform
[Click to Enlarge]

In film, the number of still images (frames) we move through the projector per second improves the smoothness and quality of picture we see. Similarly, the size of the film's light-sensitive crystals in each frame determines the visual resolution of the image - and we all know movies look better in 70mm as opposed to the 35mm or 16mm film.

In digital audio, an analog signal is typically sampled 44,100 times a second. Each sample is created by taking a "snapshot" of the amplitude (or strength) of an analog audio signal at a particular moment in time. and converting that amplitude into a binary number.

The number of samples contained in each second of audio is called the sample rate. The greater the number of samples per second, the greater the resolution of the audio signal.

Let’s return to the film analogy: the faster the film rate through the camera, the better the ability of the film to pick up motion. For example, if you crank a film camera too slowly, then motion past a camera is not smooth since the frame rate does not capture enough frames in a given amount of time to stop the motion from appearing to jump or jerk - too much action happens in front of the camera "between frames" for the motion to appear natural.

Time for an example: The resolution of an audio CD is 16 bits and the sample rate is 44.1KHz. This means that the audio is sampled 44,100 times a second and a series of 16 zeros and ones is used to define the amplitude of the waveform at each of those 44,100 points.

This resolution – commonly called “CD Quality” and should be your baseline for recording a podcast. When recording voice-over narration, capture all of your audio at 16 bit, 44.1KHz, in mono using the WAV format in Windows, Au format for Unix-based systems (like Linux), and AIFF for Apple Mac.

More...

__________

References:

Nowlan, D. (2005). Radio: where the pictures are better: Denis Nowlan speaks for the medium which leads you by the ear. [Internet] Available from: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0KZH/is_1_19/ai_n15928065/ Accessed 12 August 2009.

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Podcasting for E-Learning: Introduction to Audio Production

Having outlined the conceptual terrain of podcasting, it's time to look at the nuts and bolts of podcast production. In this part of the series, I won't delve too deeply into script-writing: I'll return to that subject in a later series of blog posts, but if you have a look at my series of articles on instructional design to understand my orientation on theoretical and pedagogical approaches to this activity.

Today, I'm going to talk about digital audio, and the basic hardware and software you'll need to begin creating your own podcasts. As I indicated yesterday, the principles of multimedia have been understood for over 80 years, but wide usage of digitally factored technology did not begin in earnest until the 1970’s, because theory had to wait for hardware and software to catch up.

Until recently, recording audio cost many thousands of dollars, used specialized and sophisticated equipment, took up lots of space (in the form of a dedicated recording studio), and required years of specialized training, followed by years acquiring hard-earned OTJ experience to make even the most basic recordings.

In the last five years however, the price of recording audio has gone down, while the quality of consumer recording devices has increased exponentially. Now, it’s even possible to create and deliver reasonable quality audio via your cell phone with a Edge connection to the internet. But we’re not going to do that today. Today, I will describe the essential hardware and software you’ll need to begin recording and producing good quality audio for integration for podcasting and e-learning.

You will need…

Activity	Requirement
Audio source	A Narrator
Capture	A Microphone
Encoding	Audio editing software Audacity Sound Forge WaveLab GarageBand
Recording Medium	Audio Tape (i.e. DAT) or PC Hard Drive
Playback	Playback Device PC Laptop PDA Cell Phone Portable Media Player Speakers Headphones

And this is the audio production process (see Figure 1).

Figure 1. The Audio Production Process
[Click to Enlarge, 145k]

Production Step	Component	Process Description
Audio Source	Voice–over narrator	Reads script based on objectives of learning initiative
Recording Device	Microphone	Captures analog sound waves and coverts to electronic signal
Conversion	PC soundcard	Turns electronic signal into a series of digital bits
Encoding	Audio Editing Software	Software saves the audio as a sound file (i.e. WAV)
Editing	Audio Editing Software	The audio file is edited, & enhanced. It is rendered in a playback-friendly format like MP3
Distribution	LAN, internet, CD, DVD, memory card	Content is published for distribution via the Web as an audio only file (i.e. podcast), in a format like Flash, or for delivery via CD/DVD, memory stick
Playback	Soundcard, Speakers, Headphones	Media is reproduced via software or hardware player

More...

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Podcasting for E-Learning – Storytelling and Teaching

Sound – especially the human voice - has been a fundamental part of the transmission of information and knowledge since pre-history.

In Western culture, for example, the oral tradition – story telling – was the primary means of passing on the learned, shared values of culture, encoded in legends, myths, and fables until the invention of writing. We still have these stories today – Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey are two examples well-known examples. Significantly, these texts begin with the words “Tell us…” and “Sing to me…” respectively, demonstrating their origins as stories told to audiences.

Half a millennium later the philosopher Plato, founder of the Academy in Athens - the first institution of higher learning in the Western world - chose to render the teachings of his mentor Socrates as a series of dialogs.

We can all think of great orators. Consider Winston Churchill’s speeches in WW2

Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.

In this 40th anniversary year of the Apollo 11 Moon landing, think too of JFK’s 1962 speech:

We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard…

A few years later, Martin Luther King inspired a nation with his immortal phrase:

I have a dream.

Only a few months ago, Barak Obama popularized the slogan "Yes we can" during his 2008 US presidential campaign.

We can say then, that audio has be a core component of teaching for at least 3000 years. The problem with sound though, that it is ephemeral – it is not permanent – once spoken, the words are gone forever. Until the later 19th Century, transcription was the only way to capture spoken words permanently.

This all changed in the late 19th Century, when the basic components of what we know today as multimedia were invented.

In 1876 Alexander Graham Bell patented the telephone. One year later, Thomas Edison’s invented the phonograph. These devices enabled the mechanical recording and reproduction of audio, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects for the first time in history. In 1878, the first motion-based pictures were filmed in England.

So within three years of each other, mechanically recorded audio and video, supported by an electronic transmission infrastructure were invented, and elements are still the core elements of recording, reproducing, and distributing media content.

Next time: Digital audio and podcasting for e-learning

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New E-Learning Curve’s Other Podcast episode release:

In Part 5 of Transatlantic: The Flying Boats of Foynes

Part 5: Foynes goes to War

Appeasement has failed. On September 3rd 1939 Britain and her allies declare war on Germany after the Invasion of Poland. In neutral Ireland, the government initiates a state of emergency, an official euphemism used by the Irish Government during the 1940s to refer to its position during World War II. The flying boat service In the west coast town of Foynes in County Limerick. Rationing is introduced, but the influx of passengers and cargo ensures that this town on the River Shannon has it a little easier than the rest of the country…

Click here to listen to the podcast.

Click here to view the transcript of this podcast (PDF, 24K).

Even though this is an e-learning blog, the observant among you will notice that the podcast isn’t about e-learning. That’s OK – the point of e-learning is to provide training professionals with a means of creating and distributing content that enables people to acquire information, knowledge, skills, and expertise on a diverse range of subjects: as e-learning practitioners, it’s our job to facilitate this process.

--

Podcasting for E-Learning: Putting it all together

I've been discussing one of the lesser-covered aspects of podcasting: delivering effective voice-over narration. So far, we have covered three of the four 'P's' of engaging your audience:

• Pace - click to view article
• Pitch - click to view article
• Projection - click to view article

Today, I will talk about the Art of the Pause.

In my view, narrators are afraid to take advantage of a dramatic pause. Anyone who has worked in media (particularly radio) will tell you that they constantly worry about 'dead air' - silence. Perhaps counter-intuitively, a stop or pause in a narrative actually motivates your listeners to (unconsciously) anticipate the next word - after all it must be important if you've paused - rather than causing the listener to 'switch off.' Used correctly and in concert with the other 'P's,' pauses or caesuras will direct listeners' attention as you choose, creating the appropriate amount of expectation or to emphasize the key points and messages that you want to convey.

However, if your speech is too staccato - stopping and starting, leading your audience to multiple points of anticipation, without any special meaning or pay-off, any pauses will serve only to irritate and frustrate your listeners.

This speech pattern is most apparent when a podcast has not been designed, planned and scripted properly. I can best illustrate how to do it, and how not to do it by example.

Here are two excerpts from podcasts about aspects of the Roman Empire from iTunes U.

The bad news first: Sample 1 (MP3 | 1.3MB | 1 minute 26 seconds | click to play in your browser | right click to download) is from UC Berkley's History 4a course, The Mediterranean World (2009). In this excerpt, the speaker introduces the course, before going off-topic

As usual one page of my lecture is sitting in my office…

Sooner after, the speaker digresses again:

So that [pause] actually, ehh, [pause] I've got a couple of good quotes for you and I wanted to discuss that with you. So ehm, we're going to be [pause] [sigh] finishing up here, right?

The lecturer then digresses yet again by discussing a final exam, but has "no idea where it is" (the location is "apparently...online"). I have edited this piece down a little but in the unedited version of this podcast, the lecture proper does not begin until nearly two minutes into the podcast.

Contrast this with Sample 2 (MP3 | 1.0MB | 1 minute 05 seconds | click to play in your browser | right click to download) from Archaeology: Pompeii and the Roman World (Open University, 2009). Here, the speaker Phil Perkins defines an empire, before expanding on the theme of statehood and polities. He then discusses interaction, rivalry, competition, power, and war, before getting to the learning objective of his podcast:

Is dominance enough to create an empire?

...all in just over a minute, and in less than 150 words.

Which podcast did you find more engaging and informative? Which kind of podcast would you prefer to deliver? Which type of podcast has more value for your audience?

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References:

Pafford, I. (2009). Twilight in the West. History 4a: The Mediterranean World. UC Berkley [Internet] Available from: http://deimos3.apple.com/WebObjects/Core.woa/Browse/berkeley.edu.1625336377.01625336380.1623195422?i=1284407406 Accessed 3 August 2009

Perkins, P. (2009) Archaeology: Pompeii and the Roman World. World archaeology. Open University. [Internet] Available from: http://deimos3.apple.com/WebObjects/Core.woa/Browse/itunes.open.ac.uk.1544964539.01556024330.1827251501?i=1680120285 Accessed 3 August 2009

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Podcasting for E-Learning: Emphasize to Enhance Meaning

In over the last few articles, I've discussed some voice techniques used to assist e-learning content producers create more effective, engaging, and immersive podcasts. I have also defined some heuristics or rules of thumb associated with the techniques:

Allow enough time to each learning point for it to be well understood. Then move on.

Anticipate how your audience could interpret a word and understand how it might affect interpretation of your meaning.

Now read on...

At the conclusion of yesterday's article I considered single word or syllable emphasis as a useful way to counteract a monotone delivery of content. This techniques is called 'projection,' and it's the third of the Four 'P's' of great podcast narration.

Our vocal range naturally becomes more dynamic in certain circumstances: we tend to speak more loudly when we're interested, passionate, or excited about something, and we tend to add more emphasis to key words or phrases when we're attempting to persuade a listener to understand our point of view; we speak softly when we want to create a sense of reflection.

Try this exercise: say the following phrase loudly:

LISTEN TO THIS!

Now, more softly:

Listen to this.

The mood changes instantly. The amount of projection you employ triggers very different reactions in anyone involved in a dialog with the speaker, and you can use the full dynamic range of the human voice when recording a podcast.

One thing to avoid at all costs is projection in the theatrical sense - actors on stage project to ensure the whole audience right to the back row, and up to the gods can hear what they're saying. Modern microphones can pick up and transmit the loudest and softest of sounds, and if you try to declaim your narrative in the mode of a stage thespian, you'll just sound shouty (if you're lucky) and even aggressive - either way, you're audience will hit the Stop button, regardless of the quality of your content.

Using the full dynamic range of your voice in concert with appropriate inflection and delivered at a good pace will really add meaning to your narrative.

'Michael Hanley learning consultant and blogger' tells you who I am and what I do. I can influence how I want someone to perceive me by modifying I phrase those three pieces of information, by changing the pace, pitch, and projection of the text.

So:

Michael Hanley/pause one beat/learning consultant and blogger emphasizes my profession

Michael Hanley/pause one beat/learning consultant and blogger tells you who I am

Michael Hanley learning consultant and blogger equally weighted, describes who I am and what I do.

Did you see the script direction /pause one beat/? A 'beat' is the duration of a pause in a narration. More properly called a caesura, it denotes an audible pause that breaks up a line of text. In most cases, a caesura is indicated by punctuation marks which cause a pause in speech:

• a comma
• a semicolon
• a full stop or period
• a dash

Punctuation, however, is not necessary for a caesura to occur.

How long should a beat be? Good question. In my part of the world, we usually tell people that it's the length of time it takes you to say "a thousand and one" (in your head of course). An American voice-over artist of my acquaintance assures me that where he's from (San Francisco), they say "one banana" to measure a beat. Use whatever works for you: the key thing to remember is to take you time, and concentrate on how you can elicit the maximum amount of meaning from your content.

More...
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References:

Ahern, S. (2006). Making Radio: A Practical Guide to Working in Radio. Allen & Unwin

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Podcasting for E-Learning: Inflecting the voice

In yesterday's post, I discussed the importance of narrative pace to audio podcasting. In the article, I suggested that a good rule of thumb to follow is:

Allow enough time to each learning point for it to be well understood. Then move on.

However, pace alone is not enough to encourage listener engagement with your podcast. Working in symphony with it are the three "other" 'P's' - pitch, projection, and pausing.

A few weeks ago, I was talking to a newly-accredited Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) instructor. She loves the job and working with her students, but she mentioned a particular frustration that occurred regularly: the substantial number of homonyms and homophones in English. She told me that her students couldn't understand why "bow" /baʊ/ (-vb. to bend the knee or body or incline the head, as in reverence, submission, salutation, recognition, or acknowledgment) could also be a noun, and was pronounced like "bough" /bou/ (-n. a tree branch, especially a large or main branch), while at the same time was spelled like /boʊ/ (-n. a bend or curve, a flexible strip of wood or other material, bent by a string stretched between its ends, for shooting arrows).

The reason for this is of course that the English language is what Stephen Fry calls "a mongrel mouthful." The language is fundamentally based upon an aggregation of Jutland Danish-Frisian and Lower Saxon dialects, heavily influenced by the Romance language (mainly French, Latin, and Greek) and thousands of borrowed words from all points of of the former British territories (and beyond), not to mention a grammar structure that's a mystery to many people, including native speakers of the language.

It does neatly highlight the importance of context in any verbal communication, something that's even more necessary when communicating in audio only, when we do not have the visual and other cues we typically use to elucidate precise meaning. Equally, it emphasizes the point that we, as content authors and producers, can never assume that a word has one meaning. If you think that will be any confusion, change a word for a synonym: for example, if you're talking about the secret life of the forest, say "branch" rather than "bough" if you think that your listeners could misinterpret the word or the usage; they usually don't have the benefit of a script in front of them as a reference or to check the meaning.

So, the second heuristic for writing content for podcasts is:

Anticipate how your audience could interpret a word and understand how it might affect interpretation of your meaning.

The right emphasis can be achieved by using the Four P's. According to Steve Ahern in Making Radio (2006):

The whole sense and emotional feeling of a phrase can be changed by simply changing the way we stress words.

(p.73)

Take the phrase "How are you?"

How are you? is a common pleasant greeting
How are you? can represent a concern on the part of the inquirer
How are you? shows interest in the other person

In most western languages (it's different for tonal languages like Mandarin Chinese) voice pitch - or inflection - is used to trigger certain responses in the listener. The High Rising Terminal in declarative questions ("Did you find the CD?") is an obvious example. Similarly, a downward inflection at the end of a word, phrase, sentence or paragraph communicates authority and command over the facts ("The airships never flew again").

Try this yourself by saying the following phrase, first with an upward inflection, and then by pitching your voice down at the end of the statement:

"This is a good podcast?"

"This is a good podcast."

Between these two extremes is the steady tone, which is used to keep your audience's attention. Aim to keep your inflection and pace steady, and to flow smoothly between phrases and sentences. However, be careful not to fall into monotonous delivery - what my good lady wife Mrs. E-Learning Curve calls a "robot voice."

To counter a dull and uninteresting delivery, it's useful to inflect key words or phrases in a sentence. By emphasizing the right word you will enhance the meaning of the sentence and increase its effectiveness.

More...

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References:

Ahern, S. (2006). Making Radio: A Practical Guide to Working in Radio. Allen & Unwin

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Why is podcasting so successful if 93 percent of communication is nonverbal?

This post on podcasting for e-learning professionals will consider some aspects of narrative, and debunk an urban myth.

The term pace has already entered this series of E-Learning Curve Blog articles about creating podcasts. In this post I will discuss pace, and then the related concepts of pitch, projection, and pausing, over the next few days.

Now read on...

Famously, there are three major elements in human face-to-face communication: body language, voice tonality, and words. According to Mehrabian and Ferris (1967, pp.248-52)

• 55% of impact is determined by body language - facial expressions, eye contact, body posture, gesture
• 38% by tone of voice
• 7% by the content or the words used in the communication process

Anyone who has ever taken a course on presenting will have heard the instructor assert the axiomatic 55-38-7 formula to their learners as if it were inviolable, like fundamental physical constants like 0 Kelvin, c, or that TOS is better than TNG*.

David Lapakko (1997) asserts that this formula for communication is part of the "catechism" (p.63) of linguistics, proxemics, and psychology.

And that there is good empirical evidence that it is wrong.

According to Lapakko,

A closer look at the Mehrabian and Ferris (1967) study reveals severe limitations that call for prudence in interpreting their results... the findings may be an artifact of [a] small sample size.

(p.64)

His views are supported by other researchers' findings, including Burgooon, Buller and Woodall (1998), and Hegstrom (1979). Burgoon et al consider that:

[The 55-38-7 estimate] is erroneous. It is based on extrapolation of two studies, one comparing vocal tone to facial cues... and one comparing vocal tone to single words... rather than comparing all three.

(p.155)

Hegstrom agrees that:

The formula was pieced together from two different studies.

(p.135)

Indeed, Mehrabian himself believes that his findings are "often misquoted." In Intercultural encounters: The fundamentals of intercultural communication (1995) he wrote that :

...all my findings ...dealt with communications of feelings and attitudes...Clearly it is absurd to imply or suggest that the verbal portion of all communication constitutes only 7% of the message.

The refutation of the 55-38-7 formula is great news for podcasters in general and e-learning professionals in particular, because of course it means that we're not operating in some notional margin of communication, but in its mainstream, as anyone who has ever created a podcast (or even used a telephone) to communicate meaningful information already knows.

In a sense, content delivery works independently of content; some people, as the saying goes, can make the phone book sound interesting. For those of us without this gift, we have to consider how to maintain interest and engage the audience. One of the ways we do this is to pace the dialog appropriately. I would assert that a narrative must be kept moving at a fairly brisk rate. The secret of pace is:

Allow enough time to each learning point for it to be well understood. Then move on.

Pace is impossible without intelligibility. Conversely, it depends in part by not going too fast. Pace depends on the precise shaping of the meaning and the words in time, and it provides the foundation upon which everything else is built.

When a podcast has a lack of pace, it is often down to another, subtler fault: a lack of organization in the underlying form of a podcast's content. In the design of almost any good podcast, there should be a series of basic units of information, each occupying a few minutes. Each of these should contain one major learning point and sufficient supporting detail to help establish it as clearly as possible. The format of the podcast should provide light and shade within a piece, allow details to emerge, and a story to develop.

Certain types of verbal and linguistic construction don't work in podcasts: they contain too much content, too little time, or both. For example, the cold, clear logic of a computer language like Java, or a turgid mass of detail are both death to clear, intelligible verbal constructions in sound.

With that in mind, here is the latest episode from my ‘Other’ Podcast - Transatlantic: the Flying Boats of Foynes (’New and Notable’ according to the iTunes Podcast Store). If you choose to listen to the podcast, you’ll notice that the piece is not merely a narrator telling a story: along with narration, there’s dramatization, eye-witness accounts, and incidental and background music. Other sound elements included in the series of podcasts include archive recordings, wild track, and a very cool sound collage to set the scene for the outbreak of World War 2 in September 1939.

In Part 4 of Transatlantic: The Flying Boats of Foynes

It's 1939.

In Ireland, the town of Foynes in County Limerick becomes a boomtown because of its airport, and a tourist attraction because of the flying boats. The ground staff of Pan Am, and BOAC became part of the community, and the various Irish, British, and American communities live, work and play together.

But in Europe, events leading to the greatest conflict of the 20th Century are beginning to move apace as Fascism rises in Europe.

Autocratic single-party regimes in Germany and Italy have become totalitarian dictatorships. As their military might grows, their leaders lay their plans against the nations of the West...

Click here to listen to the podcast.

Click here to view the transcript of this podcast (PDF, 26K).

The observant among you will notice that the piece isn’t about e-learning. That’s OK – the point of e-learning is to provide training professionals with a means of creating and distributing content that enables people to acquire information, knowledge, skills, and expertise on a diverse range of subjects: as e-learning practitioners, it’s our job to facilitate this process.

More…

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*Humorous Remark Alert! No Trekkie flames please; we all know that Picard is a better captain than Kirk...

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References:

Burgoon, J. K., Buller, D. B., & Woodall, W. G. (1989). Nonverbal communication: The unspoken dialogue. New York: HarperCollins/Greyden Press

Hegstrom, T. (1979). Message Impact: What percentage is nonverbal? The Western Journal of Speech Communication, 43, 134-142.

Lapakko, D. (1997) Three Cheers for Language: A Closer Examination of a Widely Cited Study of Nonverbal Communication. Communication Education, 46. [Internet] Available from: http://resourcemagazine.co.uk/acatalog/lapakko.pdf Accessed 31 July 2009

Mehrabian, A. (1995). Intercultural encounters: The fundamentals of intercultural communication (3rd ed.). Englewood, CO: Morton Publishing Company.

Mehrabian, A., & Ferris, S. (1967). Inference of Attitude from Nonverbal Communication in Two Channels. The Journal of Counselling Psychology, 31.

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