The International Society for Technology in Education invites you to create a one-minute audio story that includes 6 sound effects.

For this contest you need to create a one-minute audio story that includes 6 sound effects – a striking match, an engine roar, a beating heart, cricket chirps, a ringing phone, and a splash. It’s a challenge and opportunity to get creative within specific boundaries and rules (your story, our sounds, one minute).

Versions of this activity have been used for professional development for teachers as well as technology, ESL, language arts, foreign language, drama, and creative writing courses.

The idea is based on trends in remix and mashups as well as best practices in professional development and the teaching of writing. This simple activity embeds many 21st century skills—appropriation, remix, creativity. It’s also fun to do and fun to listen to what other people did.

If you are a newbie to audio editing, this contest comes with a customized tutorial for the free audio editing software Audacity. It covers everything from downloading to mixing to exporting as an mp3.

It’s rewarding and entertaining to do this activity as a part of community and see how different people tell different stories with the same material and rules. It’s also an excellent activity for students who benefit from having some initial framework to scaffold their creativity.