1. Curriculum is the totality of a students’ experience of school.
In response to the above definition of curriculum, your final assignment of the semester is to create a performance ethnography that communicates in audio format your own experience of learning about curriculum this semester.

2. Create an audio performance piece that expresses your processes of learning about curriculum this semester.
so..you explore your processes of learning about curriculum
so..the focus is not what you learned; the focus is you learning
yet..you distance yourself from yourself
so..it’s as if you become an object, a thing, to study

3. Create an audio performance piece that expresses your processes of learning about curriculum this semester.
so.. it’s not a Report, it’s a Performance
so..you can’t merely answer the questions
so..the questions should prompt explorations rather than an answers
so..the scope should be the whole semester (not just the recent past)

4. Suggestions You might need a script.
You will need audio technology. (Creating the recording of the performance aids the distancing process.)
You may work in pairs (you decide). Then your performance might be a little longer.
Aim for 10 minits long (minimum 8 minits if alone; more like 12 minits if in a pair).

5. For audio software use Audacity or Garage Band or Myna
For audio software use Audacity or Garage Band or Myna. There are other softwares out there, but often they’ll let you play around for free, but when you want to save or export, they’ll force you to buy their software or lose what you’ve created.

6. Garageband is already on your mac
Garageband is already on your mac. Simply click on the guitar icon, and then check out the tutorials. Garageband is handy for the ease with which you can import sound effects.

7. Audacity
Simply Google audacity and the link will pop up. From their page you can click on the Download tab. Once you’ve downloaded the software you can use the Help tab to navigate to the Tutorials that are on the Audacity Wiki. Or you can simply follow this link to the tutorials:

8. Myna
The other software that one of your classmates mentioned is Myna. I’ve looked at their site and browsed their Demo, and this looks like a fine audio editing software. They’ve got a super library of music that you can work with. Here’s the link to Myna:

9. When creating your performance ethnography, think about what format or context could communicate process. You’ve already heard samples of radio show and interview; those are formats, contexts, that work well with process.

10. A few weeks ago someone scribbled “paths” on one of the crumpled airplanes that you were passing around as notes in school. Paths. Paths make me think of processes. For example, I think of the Buddhist saying, “We lay down a path by walking.”

11. Two Cautions
Always check your sound levels before you save your final mixdown for submission. Do you remember how some portions of some of the samples were difficult to hear? You don’t want to make it hard for your old instructors to hear the splendid performance that you’ve created. So check the volume regularly as you go along. This becomes especially important when you’re trying to overlap voice with prerecorded music.

12. Two Cautions
Be sure to save your performance ethnography as a .mP3 or a .wav or some other form of audio file. For all of the various softwares this means not saving the “project” but instead saving the final mixdown. One way to know whether you’ve saved it properly is to look at the size of the file. If you’ve ended up with a little file, say 100kb, you’ve not saved it properly. These files should be 10 meg or larger. Another way to know whether you’ve saved properly is to try to play the saved file on someone else’s computer. If it won’t play, that’s because you’ve saved incorrectly (saving the project rather than the final mixdown, which means that the “stuff” that makes it play is all stored in your computer).

13. Sending Your File to Your Instructor
click on the link below, and you'll see how easy it is to get your big file to your instructor. No need to burn a CD or deliver a thumb/flash drive. The link takes you to a page where you login using your UofR account.
Just follow the uploading instructions, and then copy the new link that will pop up on the new screen when you’re done uploading (it’s best to highlight/select and copy).

14. Sending Your File to Your Instructor
Before you close that page, paste the link in an and mail it to yourself, and then test it to see whether you copied it properly. Then send it to your instructor.

15. Assessment Criteria
communicates the processes of their learning about curriculum
students become the object of their own study (don’t be yourself; look at yourself)
demonstrates a variety of understandings of curriculum
invents an entertaining performance
demonstrates skill in audio editing