As someone who works on Sound Studies, I am constantly looking for new ways to effectively incorporate sound into my teaching. In the past I have asked my students to listen to podcasts like Radiolab and This American Life and use them as models to create their own. I have asked them to analyze music videos, practice “close listening” with thematically relevant songs, and consider the complex relationship between written and oral modes of communication. In this panel I am interested in discussing how sound is used in the classroom and what kinds of benefits students gain from these multi-sensory projects. One of the problems I have faced with my own students is that they are often unfamiliar with software like Audacity that allows them to manipulate and edit recordings. On an even more basic level, I had students who were unaware that their computers had microphones capable of recording their speech even though they were long time Skype users. Hopefully this panel will allow for a productive exchange of ideas regarding the role of “sound,” broadly speaking, in humanities and the potential for digital technology to enhance that role.

Kinds of Sound
Podcasts
“Soundscapes”
Archival Sounds
Music Videos
Music
Lyrics
Interviews
Found Sounds
Readings
Experimental Sounds
Field Recordings
Live Performance
Sound Effects
Speech
Radio
Soundtracks

Resources
Pennsound
Poets.org
YouTube
Audacity
Smithsonian Global Sound
Judaica Sound Archives