cristina :: Blog :: How to webcast – Lesson#2

Today Carla, Dennis and I met again for another joint learning session.

Our mission: to record both ends of a skype conversation using audacity.

I had had problems audacity before, as i hadn't never being able to set it to record both sides of a skype talk till now. It became quite frustrating and so I decided to adopt other strategies. I started by using the free version of Pamela, but 15 minutes free recording is really not that much! You have no idea how much time I (we) can spend online chatting. Conversations can go on and on for hours, as we change topics and keep talking about what we like best in a fun, relaxing way: education is usually the central topic. Family, friends and personal related issues also blend in in the discussion in a very natural way. Today I was reading an article, where this intertwining of personal and professional topics is referred to as human learning. In the WiA we called humanware! Different ways of addressing the topic, but you get the idea. The social component is indeed our main source of motivation to learn and also the reason we are always so eager to do it together. Collaboration is again the word of the day. That how we learn. With one another. You will hear that mentioned in our recording.  

But as I was saying, so Pamela didn’t do the trick for me, and powergramo, another tool that was suggested was far from being perfect. It was in fact creating serious problems in my machine and I almost saw the disaster happening, as it several times blocked my computer. I had to give up on it. Carla and Dennis also encourage that decision as they made a point that a good webcaster uses audacity. And so we gave it another try. Carla was leading the way once more. She had tried it already and had been able to set it up in connection with the voice repeater and skype. She went through all the steps with us. As she and I are PC users it was easier for us to understand the process, but Dennis was also following it and giving his prompt feedback. (Next meeting it’s about recording with a Mac. Can’t wait, Dennis.)

After some ups and downs, and especially after uninstalling powergramo, I was able to record both ends of the conversation. I will upload the recording of this experience soon. I want to edit first – hopefully during the weekend, as now it is almost time to connect to Japan and do the same people have done to me today: help others in their learning path, by walking it through with them.

But not without stopping first by  CP2 to contribute to the discussion about Communities of Practice which John Smith and Sus Nyrop (my mentor) so kindly are hosting as part of my dissertation Fest. The discussion has just started. Those who are part of it or have been invited as special guest can now start contributing. Those who aren’t can still get an invitation. Just get in touch, please.

In short, it has been a busy, fun day!