Good Evening to All:
With the last two weeks being extremely busy with exams, awards assemblies and all of the activities that signal the end of another school year, I have just had the opportunity to play around with the audio tools that one can use for educational purposes.
The first and in my opinion, the easiest audio tool was by far Vocaroo. I could not believe how simple and easy it was to use. All one has to do is give permission for the program to access your microphone and camera. I was not sure why the program needed access to my camera if all I was going to do was record, but in the end it all worked out fine. It is a product that lives up to its name of being very easy to use. I tried out my recording twice before settling on my third attempt. Click here to here my audio message. My message is nothing to write home about but it is a great tool to use with students.
Another of the audio tools I played around with was Audiopal and Voki. I did like Audiopal as well because you can use the phone to record your messages. For those of us who are older, this may be more comfortable for us to use given that we survived the message machine era. I made a mistake in using Audiopal in that I did not wait for the time to expire so therefore I was not able to save my message and needed to try again. Of the three audio tools I played around with, Voki was my least favorite. One reason was that one can change the avatar and for me this was a little creepy. Also I did not find it to be as easy to use as Vocaroo and Audiopal. I am sure my students would have more fun with it than I did because they like altering the avatars to fit their mood. They are more adventurous than I.
As I was thinking about how I would use these audio tools in my classroom - they would be great for introductions at the beginning of the year as students are just beginning to learn their new classmates. Also students could produce brief summaries of chapter readings - a good way to assess their understanding of the material in their own words.
There were two podcasts I took a particular liking to - the China Podcast and the History Chicks Podcast. The China Podcast is a definite must have for my World History classes and both podcasts would be great resources for any high school library. As I teach World History I and II the podcasts would be great reviews of the dynasties and culture of China. The China Podcast site has everything a teacher would need to teach about Chinese culture history, politics and language. Warning I would only use these podcasts for review purposes because students need to have the background knowledge first to truly benefit from the podcasts. The History Chicks - I just loved. In WHII students are exposed to a plethora of monarchs that they must know. I like this podcast because they focus solely on women which many of the textbooks do a less than complimentary job and the hosts of the podcast are upbeat and funny. The History Chicks Podcast site covers the female characters in history and provides factual information about their lives.
I would use podcasts as a review of material taught. I also would use podcasts as a way to help students stay on track especially during the winter months when school closures are a growing reality for most school districts.
Sources accessed for this blog posting:
I took some time out to listen to History Chicks as well! I love how it was all about the ladies on that podcast. There are several important women in history that I teach in 6th grade. I saw many familiar names on their list as well as many others. I can't wait to use that in my class.
ReplyDeleteYou motivated me to check out both of your suggested podcasts. Interesting-- I did not realize that much history had been recorded about several of the women that are featured on History Chicks.
ReplyDeleteI plan on recommending the China podcast to my colleagues that teach about China.