I enjoyed that Vocaroo, Audiopal and Online Voice Recorder did not require accounts for use, this makes them inherently more accessible for students and classroom use. I felt like Online Voice recorder's interface looked the sleekest, and I appreciated that I could easily cut the recording and edit that way with just a simple click and pull which was not available on Vocaroo. However, with younger classes that might be an advantage of Vocaroo, as there are less options to be confused with or eliminate where a student might accidentally cut content they actually need/want. Audiopal had a lot more noise with distracting pop-up ads. However, it also had the option to have text converted to audio without recording. This is a great feature for students who are more shy or perhaps have a broken microphone. I will say that using the Audiopal text-to-talk feature sounded robotic without natural speech intonations, so I would use this feature sparingly.
I could see these tools being used in a classroom library to do book tastings, where students record a snippet about a book to recommend to their peers. I also can imagine using these tools as a teacher to record introductions to new materials, books, or lessons. Another possibility as a teacher is to have recorded instructions for assignments that way students could review as needed, even at home. For instance, a lesson with instructions on how to properly cite a website could be helpful for students doing research assignments in other classes or as homework.
I was frustrated trying to embed the audio file I completed onto this page (Wix Blog), it seemed to want a video file which perhaps Voki would have been the better fit for. However, I really enjoyed using Online Voice Recorder and wanted to highlight the recording I did there. Consequently, I found a sort of work around via the button and google drive displayed at the top of this post, but it's by no means streamlined in this way. Particularly on mobile devices, the sound clip has to also be downloaded before playing once clicking into the google drive, which is highly suboptimal in my opinion.
This week I chose to listen to a podcast from the Book Riot Librarian Podcast list, specifically the School Librarians United podcast episode 172: Audiobooks (Gooding-Call, 2020). Although I've enjoyed other episodes I have listened to of this podcast in the past, this one felt a little slow to start for me. Beyond that, with a busy schedule, I think I prefer 30 minute podcasts to longer episodes generally. There was so much conversation about awards, award committees, and conferences which was not the content I was expecting or really wanting out of this episode. I don't feel like that aligned with the episode blurb, "Stephanie Charlefour shares resources and strategies for listening to free audiobooks, building a collection and programs to utilize audiobooks in lessons and fostering a love of reading" (Hermon, 2022). It wasn't until 41 minutes in they started really talking about audiobooks in earnest. Hermon placed an emphasis on utilizing library resources to listen for free. Beyond that Charlefour mentioned paying out-of-area fees to a neighboring library or paying for subscription services, like Libro.Fm as an alternative to library services but still supports indie bookstores. Audiobook SYNC really caught my attention as a free resource and that pairs a classic title with a newer YA title that can be downloaded to own in the spring/summer. Although, it does look like this is only available through the Sora app. I loved Charlefour's idea of adding a QR code on the inside cover of the book to allow students easy access and merge the print and digital collection. She expanded this further by putting up QR codes for super popular titles that are always checked out. It was interesting to me that you can add audiobook to foreign language classes to increase fluency and for students to hear accurate accents, and that seems like a great way to collaborate with other teachers/classes. Another genius idea was to convert funds to overdrive/digital credits at the end of the year. This way you can financially close out the paperwork side of things, but still have the digital money/credits just waiting for award winners to be announced. That way audiobooks can be purchased as soon as they are announced and then they are available digitally to students over the summer (Hermon, 2022).
References:
Distingúe (2020, July 14). Audiobook listening [Photograph]. Unsplash. Retrieved on October 17, 2022 from https://unsplash.com/photos/2ALQUTD5MKc CC Zero.
Gooding-Call, A. (2020, January 6). 13 Must-hear librarian podcasts. Book Riot. https://bookriot.com/librarian-podcasts/
Heid, M. (2018, September 6). Are audiobooks as good for you as reading? Here’s what experts say. Time. https://time.com/5388681/audiobooks-reading-books/
Hermon, A. (2022, April 23). 172 Audiobooks. School Librarians United. https://schoollibrariansunited.libsyn.com/172-audiobooks
I too used the Vocaroo and Online recorder. I found both easy to use. By accident I figured out how to upload the recording. I like the idea of book tastings. Thats a good idea to have students read books while recording themselves for other students wanting to decide on whether to read a certain book.
Kiley,
I too struggled with adding the audio. I am sad to say that I don't have the perseverance you do. I gave up easier. Maybe at a time when I am less loaded with work and other responsibilities, I can take another crack at it. I like the idea of the book tasting. Letting students share with peers would be something they would really enjoy. It could also be used for us as teachers to record a chapter for the book tasting. It would be a way to let them sample books from the classroom library and the school library without having to actually have the books on hand. I have always thought that book tasting can be tough…
I love the button you've used for your audio clip. It's very sleek and works well in the context of your blog. The only downside for me is that it opens the clip up in a new window, which can sometimes make it difficult for people to navigate back to the post when the listener is done. I never would have thought about some devices requiring you to download the file to listen, so that is something I will be sure to remember if I ever go this route!
Book tastings! What a great idea. I had a similar idea of a book review, however, I had forgotten about tastings. A little snippet to interest their friends. That could easily be tied into a persuasive writing unit as well.
I also struggled to embed an audio file. I did a Google search and watched a YouTube video to learn how to embed mine. I wonder if we do not have as many options because our WIX sites are free and we don't have the premium version? Seems like adding an audio file shouldn't be that difficult.