“This is Not a Bowl of Potato Chips”

The worlds of audio drama are created by sound, and only sound. Ordinary looking actors and actresses become super heroes, gangsters, and cowboys without even a wardrobe change. In these worlds rattling keys can be a knight’s armor and coconuts shells can be galloping horses.

Creating sound effects for audio dramas is a part of Foley art. Making Foley sound effects is the closest students can come to feeling like magicians without pulling a rabbit out of a hat. In education, creating Foley sound effects from unlikely origins offers many important lessons for 21st century learners.

One day I was whistling into a led tube in front of a group of ninth graders telling them that it was the howling wind on a dark and stormy night, and I caught myself emphatically saying “this is not a pipe.” It was then I saw the connection and importance of Magritte’s famous painting.

When are potato chips not potato chips? When they become the footsteps of a pair of explorers walking in jungle.

When is an umbrella not an umbrella? When it becomes a helicopter swooshing to a rescue.

Kids learn firsthand that representations in media are not reality—an important lesson in 21st century literacies.

Students get experience evaluating and capitalizing on the unique attributes of a medium. With Foley, creating audio without visual information becomes liberating, not limiting. Students can develop the habits of mind to appreciate and question manipulative and emotionally effective media techniques. They can also have a lot of fun unleashing their creativity and telling great stories with audio.

For the contest, you have to create a sound effect and a scenario in one or two sentences that puts the sound in its place. Record it and submit it as an mp3 file. Be sure to let us know how you did it.

Here are three examples (Text Transcripts of Example)
• Prison Door Closing
• Galloping Horse
• Plucking a Beard

You can make up scenarios for these sounds below, get ideas from this video, or walk around your home tapping and shaking ordinary items.

• Marching army: boots on hard surface (repeated and looped)
• Shovels: spoons in cups of sand or pebbles (change the pitch or speed)
• Airplane engine: fan starting and running
• Knight’s armor: set of keys rattling
• Horse galloping: coconut shells or heavy cups tapped on a hard surface
• Helicopter: opening and closing an umbrella very fast
• Bones breaking: cracking celery or carrots
• Walking in snow: patting corn starch
• Walking on leaves: crunching potato chips in a bowl with hands
• Dinosaur, monster, or large animal eating: chewing watermelon or apple
• Boiling water: blowing bubbles in water with straw
• Heavy door closing: a metal filing cabinet shutting
• Ripping hair or clothing: tearing a piece of paper

There will be prizes for teachers and students for the following categories:

1. Best animal-related sound
2. Best spooky sound
3. Best use of a kitchen utensil
4. Sound effect most likely to be used in a comedy
5. Participants’ Choice—You vote!

After the contest concludes, all participants will receive a list of sound effects with a description of how they were made—a great resource to take back to the classroom.
Before you get started, please take some time to listen to and vote on the entries to the 6-Sounds in Search of an Author Contest.

Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain….become him for a little while. Good luck and have fun.

To be entered into the Grand Prize drawing, we are asking members to submit stories about their ISTE, NECC, and/or Ed Tech experiences. This year marks the 30th anniversary for the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) and ISTE’s conference, the National Educational Computing Conference (NECC). We’re celebrating this milestone by honoring the past, celebrating the present, and envisioning the future.

To archive the personal experiences of learning, discovery and growth of the last 30 years in Ed Tech, we encourage you to submit an online story of classroom success, integration, and discovery here, or to submit your stories of student impact in video format here. For tips, information, and ideas on digital storytelling at a special wiki set up in ISTE’s digital storytelling Special Interest Group.

If you are aware of other opportunities for educators to win a free trip to NECC this summer please let me know, and I’ll share them here on ISTEconnects!