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"May 25, 2010, 02:00 PM ET Integrating Digital Audio Composition into Humanities Courses By Prof. Hacker Edison Phonograph[This guest post is by Jentery Sayers, who is a PhD candidate in English at the University of Washington, Seattle. In 2010-2011, he will be teaching media and communication studies courses in Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences at the University of Washington, Bothell. He is also actively involved with HASTAC. You can follow Jentery on Twitter: @jenterysayers.] Back in October 2009, Billie Hara published a wonderfully detailed ProfHacker post titled, "Responding to Student Writing (audio style)". There, she provides a few reasons why instructors might compose digital audio in response to student writing. For instance, students are often keen on audio feedback, which seems more personal than handwritten notes or typed text. As an instructor of English and media studies, I have reached similar conclusions. Broadening the sensory modalities and types of media involved in feedback not only diversifies how learning happens; it also requires all participants to develop some basic-and handy-technical competencies (e.g., recording, storing, and accessing MP3s) all too rare in the humanities. In this post, I want to continue ProfHacker's inquiry into audio by unpacking two questions: How might students-and not just instructors-compose digital audio in their humanities courses? And what might they learn in so doing? Designing Courses with Audio Composition in Mind One of the easiest ways to integrate digital audio composition into a humanities course is to identify the kinds of compositions that might be possible and then find some examples. Below, I consider five kinds of digital audio compositions: * recorded talks * audio essays * playlists * mashups * interviews Each entails its own learning outcomes, technologies, and technical competencies. The recorded talk consists of students reading their own academic essays a

"815 Free Art Books from World Class Museums: The Met, the Guggenheim, the Getty & LACMA"

When I rezzed in Second Life, the first thing I wanted to do was shop. But like many newbies, I had no idea where to buy clothes, had pretty low standards for outfits and no lindens, so I haunted freebie warehouses and collected everything I could get my virtual hands on. I've finally deleted most newb finds, but my quest for free or inexpensive, yet stylish, fashion remains. Among the many fashion choices in SL, like many librarians, I like classic, professional looking styles that I would feel comfortable wearing anywhere - Second Life or real life.

"...this is a time-management strategy for overwhelmed faculty. "I'm swamped for time so let me just blast this all out at once. Phew. I've done my part; now the rest is up to them." In struggling to help manage our own information overload, we pass the overload along to our students. I don't believe it's our intention to pass the buck, but you know what they say about good intentions.