Kids + Radio: Projects?

[Sam Greenspan]

Greetings,

I'm the new multimedia (i.e. radio & new media) instructor at the Art + Media House at the Latin American Youth Center in Washington, DC. I'm working on designing short activities for our students (ages 14-17) as a means of teaching them Pro Tools. In other words, trying to come up with small projects that will allow kids to learn Pro Tools through the creation of the project. That way they get to become acquainted with all the greatness that is audio editing without having to listen to me blather on about sound regions and trimmer tools, etc.

Also, check out our website! http://artmediahouse.org

Hope we can work together, yours,
Sam Greenspan

[Jones Franzel]

Sam -

Congratulations on the new gig! Super exciting. I've always been a fan of giving students small, satisfying exercises to start out with. One easy start on ProTools: give them a P.S.A. that's full of coughs and stutters that they can edit and add music to. Once they've mastered that, the ever popular vox pop is an easy next step...

This is SUCH a great question; it'd be great to have the answers as a resource for others on GPRX. You might consider posting this to our listserve for youth radio leaders and encouraging them to answer here... (or share what you learn!) I'll send you an email with more information

Best!

Jones

[Sam Greenspan]

Hi Jones,

Yes, I can definitely post the curriculum I come up with.

The first activity I'm going to have them do is pick a song that they like that other people probably know. Then, interview friends or strangers or whomever about the song, asking for their favorite part or maybe sing a little piece of it. After getting the tape, students load it into Pro Tools, and find their favorite 60-90 seconds of tape. At this point I can teach them about narration, and what is necessary to hold the segments of tape together. They then voice their narration, and mix it into the session.

That's the plan anyway--I'll let you know how it goes.

Best,
Sam