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AudioBook ‘em Dano

If you’re picking up on that somewhat obscure reference then kudos to you. You have, in some part of your life, plopped yourself in front of a TV and watched an exciting episode of the original Hawaii 5-0. While I won’t be taking you to some exotic location his week, I do want to share with you how you can create an audio book on any computer (Mac and/or PC) using iTunes. The steps are quick, easy and, I think pretty darn cool. Your end product could be a learning center in your classroom, a homework assignment, and/or a new way to engage your ELL or struggling readers. But more on that later.

For now let’s explore the eight simple steps it takes to build an Audiobook. And for that you’ll need to swipe your iPad, scroll down, or do whatever it takes to read the next page.

Matt’s Media Tips 3-19

Take Teaching to the Next Level Where Microscope and Mouse MeetConnecting to a

Global Community of Educators

All credit for these steps go to David Bell. I found his article on CNet.com and I am citing his work below.

To create an audiobook file in iTunes first import the audio you want to use by:• Ripping an audiobook from CD Downloading an audiobook from the Web,

(Like the Hunger Games found inside Discovery Education- I’m just sayin’)

• Recording your own audiobook using Audacity or Garage Band• Drag and drop the audio into iTunes • Or import it using iTunes' "Add file to Library" or "Add folder to Library"

commands, found in the iTunes File menu

Find the imported files and select them all by clicking on the first file, holding down the shift key and clicking on the last file. With all the files highlighted, go to the iTunes File menu and select "Get Info" (or just right-click and select "Get Info" from the context menu).

Under the Options tab of the Get Info window, change the Media Kind to Audiobook. Changing this setting will effect all the selected files in one shot.

While you're still in the Options tab, change the "Remember position" setting to

“Yes.”

Click over to the Info tab and enter in any relevant information you want to include about the audiobook, as well as any cover artwork.

By opening up a browser window and performing a Google image search for the book title, you can typically find what you're looking for and just drag the image directly from the browser into the iTunes artwork field. Hit OK.

December 5, 2008, David Bell, CNET Reviews Image Galleries Music and recording http://reviews.cnet.com/2300-3669_7-10000057.html?tag=mncol;txt

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Your audiobook files should have vanished from your music collection and relocated to a separate Audiobook library, found in the left column.

If you don't see an Audiobook library, open up your iTunes preferences in the Edit menu and check off the selection for books in the General tab and hit OK.

Once you've found your book, double click on its cover to reveal the list of audio files

To make sure your files play sequentially, you'll need to make sure the files fall in the correct order when sorting by name.

In this example, the first nine chapters were titled with a single digit "Chapter 1" instead of two digits "Chapter 01", which placed the file named "Chapter 2" immediately before "Chapter 20"This will prevent your files from playing out of order.

Once your audiobook is all set in iTunes, just connect your iPod/iPad/iTouch/iPhone and sync it over.

Remember, your audiobooks won't appear in your iPod/iPad/iTouch/iPhone music library (this is a good thing).

Audiobooks are found in a separate Books folder within the Music menu.

December 5, 2008, David Bell, CNET Reviews Image Galleries Music and recording http://reviews.cnet.com/2300-3669_7-10000057.html?tag=mncol;txt

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Create an Audio Book Learning Center Where Students Can:

1. Create their own vocabulary books 2. Create and/or build upon each others stories3. Create original cover art for their books4. Keep a journal5. Create their own quizzes

Discovery Education Webinar ScheduleDiscovery Education Webinar ScheduleDiscovery Education Webinar Schedule

Dates Time (EST)

Link

3/19 7pm - 8pm

Discovery Education Science Middle School 101. This webinar provides an overview of the Discovery Education Science for Middle School service. Learn how to navigate the sections to interact, watch, and read, using virtual labs, videos, and articles. The webinar also shows you how to use assignment builders and assessments to guide and measure your students.

3/20 5pm - 6pm

Discovery Education Science Techbook Overview. Discovery Education presents the Discovery Education Science Techbook. During this session we will provide an overview of the Science Techbook, focusing on the resources and lessons found within the service.

3/21 1pm - 2pm

Looking at Atoms Through The World’s Biggest Microscope - STUDENT WEBINAR!For Classrooms (high school focus) Everything around us is made up of atoms. Even we are. But if we look around us all the materials we see and use in our everyday lives are different. If we want to understand the properties of materials we have to look inside and see how the atoms are organized. The question is how do we do that? We need a special microscope. In this webinar Dr. Ian Anderson of Oak Ridge National Laboratory will introduce the idea of using beams of neutrons to study not only where atoms are, deep inside materials, but also how they move.

3/22 5:00 - 5:45pm

Resources Available With a Click In this event we will investigate report viewing basics within the Discovery Education product. We will discuss how to engage in PDF Teacher, PDF Student, and Detail Export reports and the possibilities available to educators with each. This webinar will also highlight the tools and resources available pre-log-in and through the help tab and more

Molecules makes today’s feature free app list. From the App Store: “Molecules is an application for viewing three-dimensional renderings of molecules and manipulating them using your fingers.

You can rotate the molecules by moving your finger across the display, zoom in or out by using two-finger pinch gestures, or pan the molecule by moving two fingers across the screen at once. These structures can be viewed in both ball-and-stick and spacefilling visualization modes.”

New molecules can be downloaded from either the RCSB Protein Data Bank (http://www.rcsb.org/pdb), an international repository

of biological molecules and their 3-D structures, or NCBI's PubChem (http://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov), a public database of compounds. Molecules can be downloaded directly to your handheld device and stored there for later viewing. Custom molecular structures can be downloaded to the application via iTunes file sharing, or through the use of custom URL formats. For more details, please visit our website.

Molecules is a BSD-licensed open source project.Molecules - iPad/iPhone linkSimilar Android link

What is a DEN Star Member?12/12/2011 50 Ways to Use Discovery Education Tips and tricks galore iSwifter App - Flash for iPads

11/28/2011 What I am Thankful for Building out your PLN Wordspree and Math Acorn Apps

11/14/2011 Things I Stole From the Community DEN Tips, Four really cool you can do with Google. TED and Animoto Apps

11/7/2011 First Six Weeks Aggregated

11/4/2011 Creating an “iCenter" How to create an ePub using DE videos. Spirit of Innovation Challenge

10/24/2011 Spooky Edition Digital Storytelling, Web 2.0 Piqua City Community Night, Crazy Pumpkin and Halloween Card Creator Apps

10/17/2011 Stick it to IT Collaborative Note Taking Site Educator Spotlight - Jennifer Everett, ToonTastic and PuppetPals Apps

10/3/2011 Opening Up Closed-Captions Closed-Captions for Macs and PCs, 10 FAQs Customer Service Receives

9/26/2011 Common Core, Web 2.0 and DE Three cool sites that integrate nicely with Discovery Education. Administrator Spotlight - Molly Hay!

9/13/2011 Can you Hear what I’m Writing? Embedding an eReader into your Writing Prompts, Getting to know Discovery Education SCIENCE

Miss a week? Catch back up here!3/12/2012 It’s All About The Sharing. Uploading, sharing and accessing your own content within Discovery Discovery Education. Cel.Ly app polling device via any device.

2/27/2012 Teacher Center Treasure Trove of Resources. Interactive Calendar Atlas, STEM Connect explored. Socrative App (student response).

2/13/2012 Special Valentines Issue - Things I love about Discovery Education. Five Minute Preps, Images, Coaches Eye App

2/6/2012 What did you say? Closed Captioning on an iPad? Getting Closed Captions to play on your iPad, GreenScreens on iPhone/iPad with GreenScreen FX app

1/30/2012 Let’s Give Them Something To Sing About Differentiated Instruction Using Songs, First Student Media Contest of the Year, ShowMe and Educreations Whiteboard Apps

1/23/2012 Meet the Faces of Discovery Education Get up close and personal with the Discovery Education on-air talent, special student webinar series, Story Kit app

1/18/2012 In a Class of Their Own Setting up Discovery Education Classrooms, Discovery Education Live Webinars, Quizlet App.

1/9/2012 Building out the New Year Five of my favorite things you can do with the Discovery Education Builders, Rover App for DE Students

12/19/2011 Special Holiday Edition 13 Tips from Educators around the US and Canada, Videolicious App

The Discovery Educator Network (DEN) is a global community of educators passionate about teaching with digital media, sharing resources, collaborating, and networking. With over 100,000 members providing professional development to over 600,000 educators worldwide, the DEN connects teachers both on-line and in-person. Discovery Educators have exclusive access to a wide range of resources, professional development activities, networking opportunities, exclusive Discovery Educator events and more. Find out how you can be part of this dynamic and supportive community. Become a DEN Star today!

DEN STARS GET COOL STUFF!

We’re providing all DEN STARs with the DE Science Techbook for the rest of the school year! Get your free passcode by logging into the DEN Community page. To get you started we’re hosting a series of webinars to provide an overview of Discovery Education Science Techbook. At the end of February we will enter all of the attendees from the webinars into a drawing for an iPad 2. Find out more here on the DEN Blogs.

DEN Summer Institute 2012Get your cowboy boots ready! The DEN Summer Institute is heading to the wild, wild west. DENSI2012 will take place from July 21-26, 2012 in scenic Bozeman, MT. Find out more about this year’s institute and how to apply today!

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