Week 8: Digital Storytelling

This week was focused on digital storytelling technologies, audio media, and how these different tools and Medias can be used for teaching, learning and communicating. In an interesting newspaper article from the New York Times, the irony of digital storytelling was explored. It seems that as digital technology becomes more advanced, many people yearn for the simple Polaroid period of the past. In regard to audio media, I learned about the history of audio formats and about the most popular digital audio formats used today. An audio format is a medium used to store sound and music. Today, music is recorded and then distributed using numerous audio format varieties. The first media format was the phonograph cylinder in 1877; it became known as “records” during its popular era. The most recent audio format since 2008 has been SlotMusic, which is a type of memory card that is preloaded with music in an MP3 format. An audio file format refers to a file format that is used to store audio data on a computer system. There are several different types of formats including uncompressed audio formats, lossless compressed audio formats, and free and open file formats. A well know proprietary format today would be mp3. This week, I also explored the Prelinger Archive to view a variety of commercials and images from past eras which allowed me to see societal changes in values and how technology has advanced.

Audio media is an important tool that can be used in several ways in the field of education. Last week I explored how digital storytelling can help to improve student’s analytical skills by presenting pictures and slideshows to enhance class lessons. Similar to this, audio media, such as podcasting, includes important tools that can be utilized in the classroom to enhance presentations and share information. Allowing students to create podcasts or listen to audio, can help to stimulate the imagination, evoke emotional responses and help those students who are aural learners. In addition, audio media, like visual media, can help improve student’s analytical skills. For example, an audio clip from NPR may be a useful tool to use in my classroom in order to broaden or add to a specific lesson from class.

http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Computer_Science/2005/digital_audio_formats.asp

I found the link to the website above to be informative and an easy way to understand some of the common audio formats for PC computers. Before, based on the articles from class, I was having a difficult time understanding the difference between the three main different types of audio formats. I now understand that uncompressed audio formats means that all data is available at the risk of large file sizes, while lossless compression doesn’t degrade the quality of an audio file. Finally, lossy compression has a small file size and tosses what is sees as irrelevant information. I took note of common Windows compatible audio formats such as MP3 and WMA. In addition, the key terms section at the bottom of the webpage also helped me to grasp a greater understanding of audio formats and the language that is often associated with the subject.