Tweetvox

This new app is designed to be the next big thing. It’s aim is to make it bigger than Twitter. Despite the hype that surrounds it, the app actually has some great potential for the classroom. Its name is Tweetvox and as it name implies, it enables a user to send audio clips via social networks.

Obviously a school will have to enable access to Twitter, Four Square or Facebook for the app to fly.  This will mean that schools will have to think through all of the potential issues associated with Twitter accounts in classrooms, but for those that have already thought this through, this app has potential, especially when combined with the new timeline feature in Facebook.  I can see lots of Drama potential in using a tool like Tweetvox in conjunction with Facebook for example.  I can also see how debates and other oral language skills can be recorded, disected and examined as a series of tweets and Facebook updates.

Perhaps best of all, for those using Twitter to communicate with other classes, for collaboration around the world.  Tweetvox offers the potential to escape the 140 character limit and open up a recordable, archiveable collaborative dialogue for students and school administration alike.

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.