The Israeli Power Ranger - A Podcast




I learned two key lessons from this project: I have a profound respect for podcasters, and I do not have a voice for radio. There were a few hiccups along the way, such as my first interviewee disappearing and my own inability to get my hands on a copy of Garageband, but the assignment turned out to be far more engaging than I initially expected it to be. I wound up using Audacity to edit my tracks, and just seeing all the different ways I could manipulate the audio was a blast. I stuck to some pretty basic features, like removing background noise and using some audio level manipulations, but there was definitely a lot of power there for it being a free program.

I tried to use music as a framework to the piece and to move it beyond just being a recording of people talking. I was really pleased with the song, "Paint the Sky" by Dysfunction_AL ((c) copyright 2015, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license). I searched a few creative commons music sites, but had difficulty sorting through the songs in any way other than just listening to them all. I knew my interview talked about color, so I clicked on this song and lyrics and tone just clicked. I think it really helped to shape the tone of my own interpretation. I listened to the whole thing a few times before adding it between the transitions, and I tried to blend it in as best I could. I am not totally pleased with my first to uses, but I think it forms a much stronger close to the interview than any followup I could have offered. It is, in a sense, a distilled (and much better sounding) rendition of what I would have said.

I chose to interview someone who I know is extremely confident speaking publicly, and it really shows in the natural flow to his unrehearsed dialogue. My own lines, on the other hand, I had to script, and I am pretty sure that shows as well. It is an odd realization to have that I am far more comfortable speaking in person than I am recording my voice and putting it on the world wide web for all to hear. I played the audio for my 5 year old daughter, and her response was, "That sounds like Oren, so why doesn't it sound like you?" I blamed the difference in recording equipment.

It is a very interesting experience to hear one's own writing style as spoken word. That alone seems like an interesting application for this sort of technology in an ELA classroom. I could see it being used in an activity about editing or proofing to see what differences student's notice (or don't) in their writing when they read in compared to when they speak and hear it. Perhaps it would even work better to have students perform the writing of others to give that extra bit of critical distance.




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