Audioboo

Audioboo is not a new service or a new app, but it is a good app.  It is a great tool to use on your iOS devices and also as a web based service to capture student voice.  And for that reason it is a winner, it can be used everywhere and when you do you are in good company.  Stephen Fry uses Audioboo as does the BBC.

It is not necessary to set up an account with Audioboo to record your students’ voices.  However if you do all of your “boos,” as they are known, will be collated into one place and on the Audioboo site you can create your own channel.  If you use the same account on your iOS devices the students can simply record and upload in a matter of two or three clicks, the technology and the app become transparent, which is what makes for excellent blended elearning in a class.  I was using Audioboo in a class last week and the students were working on a range of devices with ease.

With Audioboo you can use it in the classroom in so many ways that they are almost too numerous to mention.  However I have used it as a running reading record for students and also as a resource for students to listen to their own reading and to set their own goals.  With only three minutes of recording time on the free account available to you, the students have to learn not to waffle or to pause their recordings.  It is a great tool to use to capture student thoughts, ideas and concepts and use these recordings to scaffold later work.

In short this app is what good elearning tools should be, greater than the sum of its parts, simple to use, transparent.  Oh and its free!

Audioboo

Audioboo App

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I am working in two different schools tomorrow.  In the morning I am working with teachers on an induction programme I have developed to get new staff up to speed with the systems and technologies specific to that school.  The aim of the programme is to ensure that the individual teachers get up to speed as fast as they can, to ensure that students do not experience a time and service delivery lag as one teacher swaps out of a class and a new one walks in.

In the afternoon I start working with a new client.  We will be working on their e-learning initiatives for the rest of the year and specifically focusing on 2011.  We will be starting the ball rolling by getting the e-learning policies and proceedures in place.  Getting the foundation right is critical for e-learning success and again I have developed a range of tools to guide senior management through this process.

However, our afternoon is likely to be hugely overshadowed by the new iPad that the school has just purchased via the US.  The school and I are very keen to see how we can exploit this tool for the education market and we believe that we are the first school in NZ to implement this tool.  I have already been approached by an iPhone developer who is keen to also develop apps that can be distributed via the app store education specific software tailored for the iPad.  Tomorrow should be fun.