Learning in Hand

This episode features lists of apps for Apple's handhelds. It also showcases apps that educators have shared on Twitter. Transcript is available at tonyv.me/22.

Learn about recording an audio podcast and publishing it using only an iPod touch--no Mac or PC required. See how the free blogging service Posterous makes this possible. Transcript is available at http://learninginhand.com/21.

Learning in Hand: iPods Episode #19: Maps, Screenshots, & Comics shows you how to take a tour of Washington, D.C., take photos along the way, and use those photos in a comic strip--all on an iPod touch. The Maps app, the screenshot feature, Google Earth, and Strip Designer are used to create an informative comic strip.

This is Learning in Hand: iPods. My name is Tony Vincent and this is the show where I share tips, how-tos, and ideas for iPods in teaching and learning. Episode 14, "Voice Recording" recorded September 2008, happens now!

A popular student and teacher use of iPods is voice recording. While you can use a computer for recording, it's handy to have a portable recording device for lectures, class discussions, announcements, interviews, and notes.

Portable voice recorders can also be useful for recording podcasting segments. Sean Porter's 4th graders in Lincoln, Nebraska have a segment in their Club 4Cast podcast called "Word of the Week." The students ask others in their school building what the word of the week means. One response is the correct one and it's the listener's job to figure out which one that is. Let's listen...

(Segment Plays)

Another great use for portable recording is to document field trips. These are sometimes called "Sound-Seeing Tours." I like these because it makes students very aware of what they are seeing because they have to describe it with words. A couple years ago I used my iPod to record my trip through the Sonoran Desert Museum in Tucson, Arizona. The museum is actually outside in the hot, hot desert. I rested under a tree because it had a light mist floating in the air. There were two docents under the tree, so I asked about the moisture I felt. Let's listen to what I recorded...

(Segment Plays)

Note that that recording was made using an older iPod--an iPod that could only record in low quality. Today's iPod's record in CD-quality. In fact, I'm using an iPod nano right now to record this whole episode. Sounds pretty good, huh?

Unlike many other MP3 players, iPods do not have built-in microphones. You'll have to purchase a microphone attachment. The good news is that iPods with click wheels have the Voice Recording software onboard--attaching a microphone activates that software. This means you don't have to worry about loading an application on the iPod to make the recorder work.

Voice recorder attachments connect to iPods using the dock connector at the bottom of the player. These attachments cost between $30 and $80. iPod nanos and classics released after September 2008 have the ability to record from the headphone jack. You can use earbuds with built-in microphones on the wires to record--headphones like the ones used by iPhones. Though, attachable microphones are better for recording more than one person and for capturing sounds that are far away, so I do prefer attachable microphones. Some of the dock connector attachments have a port to plug in your own microphone, like a lapel mic. They might also have a place to plug in a power supply so you can record longer without having to remove the attachment to charge the device.

iPod microphone attachments might offer other features too, like built-in speakers so you can listen your recording without earbuds. Some offer stereo recording. But, for voice recording, stereo isn't very important at all.

After attaching a microphone, you should see Voice Memos listed in the iPod's menu. Selecting it will give you a screen where you can start recording. After you begin recording, you can pause recording and start recording again, save, or delete. When saved, the voice memos are stored and listed by date and time. Newer iPods give you the option of labeling the recording with categories like podcast, interview, lecture, idea, meeting, and notes. The labels might come in useful if you end up with a lot of recordings on your iPod.

There are two ways to get the recording off your iPod. The first method involves syncing the iPod to iTunes. If there are voice memos present on the device, iTunes will ask if you want to import them. If you click yes, the recording will appear in a playlist titled "Voice Memos." That recording will be in WAV or Apple Lossless format. Apple's iPods released after September 2008 record in Apple Lossless. Its file size is about 40% the size of a WAV file but is full CD-quality. The problem is that while all Apple software recognizes the Apple Lossless file format, most other software does not. You may need to use iTunes to convert the Apple Lossless file to WAV or MP3 formats.

The other way to copy the recording off of an iPod is by using disk mode. With disk mode enabled, you can open an iPod like a flash drive. In the main folder will be a Recordings folder. Open that and you can see the WAV or Apple Lossless files inside. Just drag and drop these to your desktop or other folder to copy them there. Using disk mode means you don't use iTunes to sync the recording from the device--which is nice because you may want to use the recording on a computer that doesn't have iTunes or a computer that the iPod doesn't normally sync to.

You can expect a WAV file to be about 1MB in size for every minute--that's 600MB an hour. When you convert a WAV file into MP3 or AAC formats, it's about 1/10th the size. By default, iTunes will convert to AAC. Just select the file in iTunes and click Convert Selection to AAC from the Advanced Menu. You can change import options in iTunes' Preferences to use MP3 or WAV instead of that AAC format.

You might like to use Audacity or GarageBand to edit the recording. If the person doing the talking is anything like me, there will be plenty of goof-ups, requiring editing. To make editing easier, I suggest clicking the center button to insert chapter marks when a mistake is made. However, only the newest of iPods have this feature. And if you convert the file from Apple Lossless to WAV or MP3, you'll lose the markers anyhow. So another tactic to mark where editing needs to occur is to scream into the microphone. This way when it's imported into the audio editing program, you can clearly see the waveforms from the scream--and then that's where you need to edit (and your listeners will appreciate you editing out the scream along with the mistake). If screaming isn't your thing, you could simply blow for a few seconds into the mic instead. You'll notice this waveform in the editing software, again signaling you where to edit.

I've found that iPod nanos work better than classics for voice recording. That's because the classic has a hard disk that spins up and down and you can actually hear that noise in your recording. The nano doesn't have a hard disk since it only uses flash memory, making it completely silent. You might think a classic would be better because it offers more capacity so you can record longer. Well, recording a WAV file take up about 600MB per hour. So if you have 4GB of free space on a nano, you can record for nearly 7 hours before running out of space. The battery will run out before you run out of storage. But if you need more recording time (or need to store lots of long recordings because you can't immediately transfer them to a computer), then maybe a classic is a better iPod for recording for you. But, for most all teachers and students, a nano is the best choice.

With its current software, iPod touch cannot use an attachable microphone. When attached, the touch says that the device cannot be used. However, the newest 2nd generation iPod touch can record through the headset jack. It's a matter of installing an application that allows you to record, as this is not currently built into touch's software like it is in click wheel iPods.

No matter what kind of iPod or microphone you use, recording yourself or others is a powerful way to learn and create. My nano and TuneTalk microphone helped me create this episode.

That's it for Episode 14. Thank you very much for listening. If you like this podcast, I'd appreciate you giving it a good review in iTunes. Stay lovely everyone!