A learning experience that I had that helped me greatly in my major of Broadcasting Telecommunications and Mass Media was when I had to record and edit my own fake radio broadcast in my class last semester in Intro to Radio with Amy Caples. In this class I learned how to digitally recorded my voice, then how to use the audio editing software Pro Tools 9 to its full extent. The TA whose name is Asher taught the labs and taught me how to better my audio editing skills. During labs he would be hands on and show us how to set of the mic and audio booth for recording. He broke it down and show us it was only 5 steps. When I was unpracticed at recording it was intimidating to go into a audio booth alone becuase there is several consuls and several ports to plug in the patch wires.
When it came time to editing I was not very good at editing, I used inferior audio editing programs that were less complicated and more user friendly. Pro Tools 9 has lots of options to enhance, distort and edit sound and even the ability to adjust recorded sound waves. During the labs Asher would show some of the commonly used sound distortion programs, basic sound wave editing and what was the bare requirements for the project and what could be done to make the project extravagant.
In relation to what I have learned in class and read so far, i have used divergent thinking when it came to solving problems during that fake radio project. Sir Ken Robinson and Jerome Bruner both believe that any one can be taught any thing it only matters on how it is organized. The way my TA organized his teaching methods resonated with me and I was able to work through my problems and help other class mates with their own. Jerome Bruner also states that learning to manipulate symbols is a fundamental in developing a mind. In my case the symbols were all the options I had at my disposal to edit my audio. A knife blade = cut and a needle= splice are just 2 two examples of many. but after rewiring my brain to correspond to a new set of symbols, Pro Tools became a breeze.
When it came to setting up the audio booth for recording there are several ways to do it. Asher the TA said it was possible to patch the mixing board and microphone to the recording program. but at first showed us the straight forward easy to do it. But as I got better I experimented in different set ups. I could trouble a few common problems that fellow students were having. The process I used was acquisition and learning. A process that James Paul Gee says goes hand in hand. He states “Any discourse (Primary or secondary) is for most people most of the time only learned through acquisition.” That previous statement means that any problem encountered can be learned from and not happen again if you solve it hands on.I learned by instruction and demonstration from the TA on basic audio recording set up and through experimentation to learning how trouble shoot problems. Problems such as why signal is not going through the Mic, no sound and the most common the mix board lights were not on.
I did not know it at the time but I learned through divergent thinking and acquisition.
Rich Becker
Beckdaddy's Blog 