Inside View

The Day Borja Brought Black Mirror into Class

CLEVER CREATIVES like Borja Lopez Montes teach me things I will always remember. Today, Borja revived my memory of scary bees when he brought Black Mirror into the classroom as part of a presentation about "tracking".

Listen to "Tracking With Borja And Black Mirror" on Spreaker.

Content Management and Youth Media

WE HAVE RESTARTED another audio patching task that involves repairing broken audio links on the Youth Media Team website. This is a problem of my own making and one that Pam O'Brien and I will fix through a process of improved content archiving. I talk about it in a three minute Topgold Audio Clip that you can hear on Spotify.

Field Recording about Dark Souls #clonmeldigital

WHILE STANDING at a motorway truck stop, Liam O'Riordan and I discussed how Dark Souls fit into an emerging trend about technology and culture. It's part of an Emerging Trends podcast on Spotify.

Listen to "Cognified Lost Souls E36" on Spreaker.

Wishing for Changes in School Runs

I WISH parents with primary school children would shut off the engines of their cars when stopping to drop off their kids. And I hope I never see an unattended car, left idling outside of an after-school facility, jump into gear and hit an unsuspecting pedestrian.

I talk about these things and a few other items printed in the Sunday newspapers in Ireland.

My Daily Starts with Listening

I listen to a lot of audio every day. I know I have too many podcasts in my subscription listings, perhaps because I’m pulling down content by using two podcast apps (Pocketcasts and Player.fm).

Here is a look at the top of my podcatcher from a typical Friday morning where two hours of audio content normally appears in the space of one screen one my Samsung Note 9. I will hear these hosts in my earbuds during my morning and evening commutes and their ideas often fill break times throughout the day.

I wonder if you listen to any of these shows.

Memory Mic and Cupcakes #clonmel

WE VISITED SWEET CAROLINE'S in Clonmel and sampled delicious cupcakes chased by warm coffee. And you should too.

Listen to "Memory Mic and Cupcakes E477" on Spreaker.

One Year of Happy Hands-Free Recording h/t @documentally #edchatie

AFTER 12 MONTHS of using the Sennheiser Memory Mic to create hands-free classroom recordings, I'm very happy to report I have never lost an audio segment with the Memory Mic producing high quality audio or high definition video. I'm now helping other educators understand the simple and effective workflow involved to quickly produce and share recorded minutes from academic settings.

Listen to "Sennheiser Memory MIC And Spreaker E469" on Spreaker.

And a big thumbs-up to Christian Payne for introducing me to the sweet little piece of durable technology. The Sennheiser Memory Mic works with iOS and Android. It's much more resistant to water immersions and concrete bounce tests than the handsets I've used to record with it. Recommended.

Resolving to create daily audio h/t @firemanrich

WHILE LISTENING to Rich Roberts bemoan the demise of random early morning audiograms, I picked up my Samsung Note 9 and responded with a resolution to restart my morning coffee notes and will publish them as Topgold Audio Clips.

Listen to "After @firemanrich Couldn't Find My Daily E466" on Spreaker.

Starting a Collaborative Story h/t @johntierney_ #MyClonmel

THE IDEA STARTED years ago with an email from John Tierney, an archaeologist who thought I might share a passion for exploring the past. Back then, in 2008, we compared notes while visiting the graves inside the Rock of Cashel. More than a decade later, I'm taking those graveside thoughts into a community project I'll follow called #MyClonmel and watch young teens along with third level creative students uncover layers of a town's past.

Old Cables Offer Useful Extensions

I HAVE SEVERAL BOXES of cables and connectors stacked inside our garage and inside my work space. And I'm delighted whenever I discover an old item gives new functionality to some of my long-standing pieces of recording gear. Today, I enjoyed a simple recording session with XLR mics providing audio inputs to my Samsung Note 9. I captured the workflow in a Topgold Audio Clip on Spreaker.

Listen to "Sharing Mics With Zoom H6 For @ileane E457" on Spreaker.

You can subscribe to my short form audio clips by asking your phone to play Topgold Audio Clips on Spotify or on any good audio network.