DS106 Audio Assignment

For the next three weeks, you will be working in small groups to produce a 30 minute radio show to be broadcast on ds106 radio. Here are your guidelines:

• Work in groups of 3-4 and come up with a group name (these groups have already been set for UMW face-to-face and online courses, but open course can do this however they like—might be fun for you hippies to group up and start working together).
• Pick an overarching theme for your show.
• Start playing as soon as possible by producing a short sound effect story. Be sure to blog your results with the appropriate assignment tags.

Here is an excellent example from last semester’s ds106 renegades: http://ds106.us/wp-content/audio/audio_story.mp3

• Your final show needs to be at least 30 minutes, and you can have as many segments as you like. Use the audio assignments on ds106.us as inspiration for segments (although you are NOT limited to these).
• If you don’t see an assignment you like on ds106, then submit one for a segment you’d like to do — this is a way for us all to help each other come up with segment ideas.
• By February 24th, you must have a segment of your show ready to share with the class. This segment should be 5 minutes long. This can be an entire segment or part of a segment. It doesn’t need to be finalized, but it needs to be good enough to share. You must upload your segment to the ds106 dropbox by 5:00 on the 24th. When you upload your file, make sure the mp3 file is titled “ds106showsegment_YOURGROUPNAME_.mp3?.
• On February 24th and March 10th, the ds106 sections will be meeting collectively (location to be determined) and will spend the class broadcasting a live radio show. Martha Burtis and I will host it, and each group will share its five minute segment. We will then interview the group (and take questions from the live studio audience) about the work they’ve shared. Not all groups will be able to present on the first night, but everyone must submit their five minute segment by the first night!
• Your final show is due on Friday, March 11 at midnight. You must upload your show to the ds106 dropbox. When you upload your file, make sure the mp3 file is titled “ds106showfinal_YOURGROUPNAME_.mp3?.
• Over the course of the following weekend (March 12 & 13), all of the shows will be in rotation on ds106 radio.

You will be evaluated on the following:

• how creatively you interpret and present your show theme,
• how effectively you tell the various stories you present, and
• how your show sounds. We don’t expect perfection, but we DO expect you to grapple with the technology to present the best product you can.
• In addition, at the end of the process you will be asked to blog about the entire experience. This will be an opportunity for you to share the challenges you faced and how you tried to surmount them.

Now obviously the online open ds106 folks can riff on this however they like, as with everything.

This assignment was co-authored with Martha Burtis, but like with everything, she did most of the work.

Image credit: Andrew Allingham’s awesome ds106 radio poster/design