Higher Education and Critical Thinking

I emphatically advocate education - in all its forms (whether formal or informal). During most of my adult life, I have been active in learning new ideas and skills. Actually, even during the K-12 years (when my formal schooling was marginal, at best), I was always working on some extracurricular projects that involved learning.

An important part of the learning process has to do with challenging old ideas or concepts by applying critical thinking skills. In other words, by exploring and discovering alternative, yet viable and practical methodology to reach your conclusions or procedures. In many instances, there is more than one way to do something... more than one right answer and sometimes it is more effective to "do it your own way" than to adhere to a method that is prescribed and approved by curriculum at hand.

To discourage a method that works, simply because it is unconventional is squelching critical thinking. To penalize students for their alternate views and arguments that may make other students (and professors) feel uncomfortable undermines the educational process and dumbs us down to a simple common denominator. That is not higher education, but rather it is indoctrination that limits progression and the very academic evolutionary process. Your progress is damned when you disincentivize the free exchange of concepts and ideas - no matter how unpopular those views may be. To regulate free speech and punish "offenders" because their views may be construed as "inflammatory" or "objectionable" in respect to the establishment is diametrically in opposition to the meaning of higher education. To tell students that they are wrong, even though they have found methods that work for them is a disservice not only to the students but also to that student's institute of learning and academia in general. If a student discovers an alternate method or a more effective way to do something, wouldn't it be in our best interest to study that student and his/her method(s) for possible inclusion, rather than shooting those ideas down?

Open-mindedness is not one-sided in that it doesn't only apply to learning from the elite and "enlightened" in our society. Everyone is a student. Everyone is also a potential teacher. I truly believe that every person has something valuable to contribute to our society. We ALL just need to be humble enough to listen and observe.

The Art Skill of Recording Sound Effects

It's probably no big secret by now that I am an avid sound effects enthusiast. Looking back, I've been doing this for probably well over 40 years. Part of it started with an interest in recording sound effects for pranks or background for dramatic productions (taped "radio" shows).

I've learned a lot about recording sound effects in the past few years. I bring a sound recorder just about everywhere I go and look for instances where I can record sounds to add to my ever-expansive sound library. I like to call it "sound mining." One thing that helps me identify what sounds to record are watching movies and video clips. Some of the best resources for this are animated films because they are entirely built from the ground up - or in other words, EVERYTHING has to be produced, every visual is created and every sound is drawn from a sound library. Even the most subtle sounds are needed and some of the sounds that are used are not exactly what is depicted on screen.

There is a "Hollywood standard" in the expectations of what onscreen sounds are supposed to be - and the genre of the film determines what these sounds are like. For instance, in a slapstick comedy, the sound of a person getting hit on the head will probably have a hollow "coconut" sound, while in a horror movie, it may be a smack accompanied by a cracking or crunching sound. In essence, ever time I watch a movie, I use this experience to not only enjoy the story, but to pick it apart and try to learn how the movie was put together technically. Sometimes I comment on this, which makes me a horrible movie-watching companion.

As for actually recording sounds... I will often go out of my way to capture an existing sound. Sometimes I need to bring items into the studio to record in order to isolate the sound. Most of us don't even realize just how many layers make up ambient sound and in many cases, recording something outside a studio setting is unsuitable for a sound library because there are vehicles, birds, machinery, birds, aircraft, people talking, wind... oh, and did I mention birds? A studio presents a different challenge though, because it needs to be virtually anechoic, otherwise it sounds like it has been recorded indoors and won't be convincing to sounds that are supposed to be outdoors. If you watch older movies and television shows, you can tell which ones were recorded on a soundstage for this very reason.

There is a lot to learn about recording sounds, but suffice it to say that it is an art form and skill in and of itself, and I constantly learn new things.