E-4: Virtual Worlds
Harvard Extension School
Mondays 7:35-9:35pm EST, Fall 2007
Berkman Center Conference Room and Live Webcast on Berkman Island
Instructor: Rebecca Nesson

Assignment 6 -- Empathic Argument Audio

Total Points: 100
Due Date: November 26, 12:00 noon EST

Broadcasting from E4!

100 points

In this assignment you will create a short audio recording that uses empathic argument to state the problem/question that you will be addressing in your final paper. The only constraint is that your recording may not be longer than 2 minutes in length. You may be surprised with how much you can do in two minutes! 50 of the points for this assignment will be for the technical process of completing the recording and uploading it to a blog. 50 points will be based on the quality of your empathic argument and the creativity/engagingness of your recording.

Recording the Audio

You may use any audio production software you like to record your audio. As noted above, your finished piece must not exceed 2 minutes in length. It must also be in .mp3 format. The following instructions explain how to go about recording your audio using Audacity, a free software application that is available for both Windows and Macintosh computers. If you would like to use other software, you can skip these steps.

  1. Download and install Audacity from http://audacity.sourceforge.net/.
  2. You can record either from a microphone that you plug into your computer or using the built-in microphone on your computer. (If your computer does not have a built in microphone, you may have to find one that does or borrow a microphone you can plug into your line-in jack on your computer). Before you can record, you will need to make sure that your computer's audio settings are properly configured for the recording method you will use. Go to your System Preferences (Mac) or Control Panel (PC) and open the section on sound. For sound input source, you will select default or built-in microphone if you are using the built-in microphone and line-in if you are plugging in a microphone. On both Mac and Windows you will have a meter that shows you the audio levels that the computer is currently receiving. You should make sure that when you talk, you see this meter fluctuating accordingly.
  3. Open Audacity and make sure that the correct audio input source is selected in the upper right hand corner of the window that appears.
  4. Test out recording by pressing the button with the red circle. This should create an audio track and as you speak, you should see the wave form for your speech being recorded. Press the yellow square to stop the recording. Then use the green triangle to play back what you have recorded.
  5. There are lots of very useful features of Audacity that can help you make a good quality recording. I'll just mention a few things that you may find useful:
    • Save early and often while you are working so that you don't lose any of your work!
    • Each audio track has a mute button next to it, so as you record different "drafts" you can keep around old drafts by muting them and still work on new drafts. This means you don't have to create many different projects in order to edit your piece and you also don't have to throw away things that might be useful later.
    • You can create a new audio track in the Project menu. This is useful if you want to record drafts, if you want to record your piece in different segments, and if you want different layers. For instance, you might want to add a soundtrack to your piece, which you can do by adding an audio track for the soundtrack.
    • You can import audio, such as a soundtrack, into new tracks.
    • Each track has a volume adjustment setting that will let you adjust the overall volume.
    • You can highlight and cut and paste pieces of an audio track. This is often useful to get rid of dead air before and after you speak so that you don't have to feel pressured to start speaking just at the moment that you hit record.
    • Explore the Effects menu and the different buttons to learn about doing things like fade ins and fade outs, echos, or detailed volume adjustments.
  6. Once you have a finished product, you can export it. In the File menu, choose Export .mp3. Give your file an informative name -- ideally one that includes your own or your avatar's name so that we can easily identify it as yours.

Uploading Your File

We will be collecting your files on a blog simply because this is the easiest way for us to allow you to upload these files to a common place. Please follow the steps below to upload your file.

  1. Log in to the blog by visiting the blog at http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/cyberonepodcast and scrolling to the bottom of the screen and clicking the "Login" button. You will be able to log in with the username and password you received by email to our Google Group. (If you are an at-large participant who would like to participate, please email e4staff@gmail.com so that we can send you the username and password.)
  2. Select the "write" tab to get to a screen where you can write a short blog post.
  3. Enter a title and a bit of text to describe your blog post. You must include your name or your avatar's name so that we can identify your post.
  4. Scroll down to the Upload section. Browse to your .mp3 file, enter a title for it in the Title box. Click "Upload".
  5. Once the file has uploaded, click the "Browse All" tab right next to the "Upload" tab and find your file. Click on your file. Copy the text from the "Link to file" box and paste it into the "Post" box above where you are writing your post.
  6. Then click the "Publish" button.
  7. At the top of the screen right-click on the "view site" link and choose to open the link in a new tab or window. You should now see your post on the blog. Check to make sure that you can listen to your .mp3 file and that your post looks how you want.
  8. If you want to further edit your post, click on the "Manage" tab, find your post, and click the "edit" link next to your post. When you are done, publish it again. Please be sure to only edit your own post -- everyone is sharing one account, so this is particularly important.