Audio Podcasting: Vocaroo it!

Podcasting in pedagogical realm is nothing but a new discovery. It is until recently that educators from all parts of the world are beginning to realize how convenient sharing audio and video files is in teaching and learning. Unfortunately, the discussion on how it could be integrated into teaching is less than clear and rather limited for teachers. It is my hope that this entry on audio podcasting will help to give readers, particularly teachers more insights into what, why and how it could be exploited for classroom purposes.

Podcasting Defined: 

Imagine getting new radio-style talk and music shows to listen to on your iPod or other MP3 player every day. You wake up and automatically have new shows ready to listen to while you exercise or commute to work. This is the podcast listening experience. In the 'geek-speak' jargon, a podcast is defined as a web feed of multimedia digital file (audio, video etc) that is placed on the Internet for users to download. 

There are thousands of audio podcasts being published for global audiences covering a multitude of topics for English language but the one that gets to steal the limelight for this entry is Vocaroo, the simplest audio recording software in the entire universe. 

So What is Vocaroo?

Vocaroo is one of the audio recording softwares available online and widely used for podcasting purposes. Others include Audacity, Evoca, PodBean and so forth. It works akin to voice recorders in your mobiles. 

How to Vocaroo?

1. Click to record.
2. Click to save your recording.
3. Click to send or share your recording.

Yes, it takes only 3 easy steps for a 5 minute Vocaroo audio clip. Super effortless! If this sounded like a real joke to you then you really have to see this tutorial for yourself and you'll be amazed with this mini audio podcast tool: Russell Stannard's Vocaroo Tutorial.

Figure 1: Where the fun begins. 

Alternatively, you can have your audio uploaded with a limit of 50MB per file. It may be worth making it explicit here that Vocaroo is a basic audio recording tool so if you're expecting a cutting edge voice recorder with editing, cutting or mixing audio functions, I'm sorry but I have to disappoint you for that. 

Figure 2: Review & try again buttons.

Albeit Vocaroo lacks in edit functions which may rate down the usefulness aspect of the tool as a whole, it still offers you with 'Listen' and 'Retry' buttons where you can always review your recording first before deciding to save it or re-record a new one. So fret not if your students get baffled or stumped in the middle of the recording process because with Vocaroo, there will be always second chances for a new one. 

Figure 3: Sharing options.

One lesson I learned from this web tool is that don't judge a tool by its size. Vocaroo really blew me away and I was so impressed with its sharing capabilities: it offers more than 300 sharing mediums. It's totally a tiny, simple, ordinary tool yet has so much sharing power to let the world hear your students' ideas! Besides sharing you can have the audio downloaded as MP3s, Oggs, FLACs or WAVs to keep them with you in your playlist.

Vocaroo in Teaching: The Whys

Reading and listening is NOT enough: 

Getting the students to use the correct grammar versus getting them to have fun with the language to be a fluent language user; it's the same debate over and over again. For me, fluency comes first. It's about preparing your students to apply the language outside the learning context, in real life situation. Reading, listening and speaking may be the most important aspects of any language, but it is only speaking that is requisite for them to become a fluent reader. ESL learners may have limited time for practising English at school but with Vocaroo, they can record anything, anytime, anywhere and have it saved or shared with their friends and teachers. It's the digital journal for personal or pedagogical purposes.

Pronunciation Checker:

For teachers, Vocaroo could be the best medium to assess students' progress on pronunciation. Have students to read aloud a reading text, listen back to their recorded audio and compare their recordings with the authentic one. Students will be surprised to see how much similar or different their audio podcasts will be and this is where teachers could inductively pin point some stress or intonation for standard English pronunciation.

Digital storytelling with confidence:

Students recording a Vocaroo podcast do not have to identify themselves by real names at all. In fact there is no need for images or fancy photos as voice is the only aspect that matters for audio podcasts. Shy and bashful students may find it intimidating to speak or be vocal in front of the whole class, hence, with Vocaroo, learning opportunities are made more accessible for this group of learners, giving teacher more insights into their learning ability. 

A window into the classroom:

Why not use Vocaroo beyond just assessing fluency and practising speaking? Teachers don't have to wait for the annual PTA meeting just to be able to talk to parents about students' achievement in school. Exploit Vocaroo to collect or give feedback to parents addressing the issues students are studying or the new things they are learning. Alternatively, teachers can also use this tool to gain feedback from the students or give them feedback on how they are doing in class personally. 

The Other Goods:

• Free: The most inexpensive way to create digital content for your classroom.
• Invites global audiences: 325 sharing options to choose from!
• User-friendly: Only needs 3 steps of record, publish & publicise, and you are good to go.
• Highly engaging: it gets students to talk without having them feeling 'forced' to. 

Caution: The Bads!

• Limited sharing size: Only accounts for 5 mins recording / 50MB file or less.
• No microphone, no talk. 
• No edit functions.

Need more ideas for audio podcast teaching content? Here are some useful links:

1. Education Podcasts
2. iTunes
3. Podcasts: Read, Write, Think.
4. BBC Learning English

Click on the Vocaroo link for the conclusion:

Record music with Vocaroo >>

Rating on Vocaroo's Usefulness

4/5

ANNOUNCEMENT!

A short announcement for all. Click below to listen:

Record and upload voice >>

Wordle, Wordsift and Tagxedo: So similar yet so different!

Hello again! 

It's been awhile after my last post on Brainshark so today I gonna make up for the long hiatus and share with you 3 useful web tools which come from the same root of the Word Cloud ancestry: the Wordle, the Wordsift and the Tagxedo.

But before we get to know each of these word cloud brothers up close and personal, let me just quickly list the general attributes of the Word Cloud ancestry that they do share in common. 

Word Cloud Ancestry: What are they?

• A visual representation of text data which usually used to depict tags or keywords on websites. In simpler words, word clouds eat up chunks or lenghty texts and digest them into graphical text clouds. 
• Come with various editing functions such as font, layout and colour schemes. 
• Auto sizing capability: The more frequent the word appears in the text, the larger it shows up in the word cloud. 
• They intent to make life easier for humans: reading, summarizing, predicting and so forth. 
• Free: no sign up required. 

Wordle, Wordsift & Tagxedo brothers: The Eldest, The Introvert and The Extrovert

How Do These Siblings Look Like? 


Wordle:

Figure 1: The homepage.

1. Users can click on the 'create' link to start working with the Wordle cloud tag. 
2. Gallery gives you access to view some samples of Wordles designed by other users.
3. Credits is where you'll discover the faces behind the Wordle. 
4. News, Forums and FAQ are where you should visit if you have questions about troubleshooting problems, how to use Wordle and so forth. 'Forums' also includes some comments and discussions from other users, parents and so forth.

Figure 2: The Great Gatsby synopsis (source: Wiki) with 'Rounder Edges' and 'Any Which Way' layout.

1. Language: Users can sift and remove any unwanted languages or numbers from the text. 
2. Layout: Arrange or sequence your cloud texts alphabetically, vertically, horizontally or with rounder / straighter edges. Users can also limit the numbers of words per cloud. 
3. Print: Quick and easy printing feature.
4. Randomize: The faster way of customizing your cloud. Your Wordle is just a click away!
5. Save to public gallery: By clicking this, your Wordle will be made viewable by the entire internet and there is no way to delete it. Think twice if there's any personal information in your Wordle. 

CAUTION: Without Java script, all these talks about Wordle are useless: you need to have it installed first before wordling.

Rating on Wordle's Usefulness: 3/5

Wordsift:

Figure 3: The homepage.

Wordsift's instructions are rather straight forward. To get started, just copy your text into the box and click 'Sift'. This will bring you to the next page (see below).

Figure 4: The Great Gatsby synopsis marked with 'Social Studies' category.

1. Sort: Filter your text in cloud from rare to common or common to rare or alphabetically.
2. Create Workspace: Forget scrolling down your page and just squish the text cloud away. It'll give you more space to work with the thesaurus and the Google pictures. A tool that can't be any friendlier! :)
3. Mark: Need to find words related to specific subject areas? Wordsift's up to challenge! Choose from  various categories and related words are highlighted in orange coloured font instead of green. Eg: In Figure 2, American, constitution and state are words that are linked to Social Studies. 
4. Google Image: Helps users to visualize words in cloud tag. You can make the pictures draggable by just clicking on the link right at the top of the search engine.
5. Visual Thesaurus Dictionary: Wordsift will show you the synonyms or nearest words related to the word you choose in the cloud box.

EDITOR'S COMMENT: The only drawback that this introvert has is that it does allow direct text cloud printing, unlike Wordle or Tagxedo. Wordsift may lack of certain features and may not give you fancy text clouds with colours, layouts and all but hey, it has everything so what's there not to love? 

Rating on Wordsift's Usefulness: 4/5

Tagxedo:

Figure 5: The homepage.

1. Create or Start Now: Lets start Tagxedoing! 
2. Gallery: Why don't have a quick look at other Tagxedos before creating your own? :)
3. Shop: Couldn't get enough of Tagxedo cloud tags? Prolly shopping will help! 

Figure 6: Tagxedo's working board. 

1. Load: Paste your selected text or URL here.
2. Respins: Customizing functions like any other word cloud generators. 
3. Options: The special feature unlike any others. 'Shape' allows you to have creative cloud texts with loads of fascinating shapes to choose from. Want to personalize your Tagxedo even more? Sure. Click 'Add Image' to upload your own pictures or your loved ones! 'History' will collect all of your work so no need for you to save 2 or 3 Tagxedos for the same text! 

Figure 7: The Great Gatsby synopsis in Lincoln shape.

EDITOR'S COMMENT: Tagxedo really gives me a special feeling of personal attachment to my work. I feel like I own it. Sometimes I just love experimenting with my own photos to see how my text cloud would turn out. Unlike Wordle and Wordsift, it too offers me with a wider sharing medium as it allows for sharing my word clouds in Twitter & Facebook by just posting the links. 

Rating on Tagxedo's Usefulness: 4/5

Learning Point of View: Why Word Clouds?

Impacts of colours in learning: 

There is no doubt that colours enhance readability and clarity in the texts as well as graphic elements. Because word cloud generators come with colour schemes and wide range of fancy fonts to choose from, it is argued that they play a key role in promoting students' attentiveness to reading text and thus, facilitates the reading comprehension process. Colours too increase learners' motivation and have the magical power to get bored students engaged actively with reading activity. 

Chunking and repackaging information:

For most of us, be it for learners or teachers, information is better absorbed when it is packaged into digestible bits or chunks. The difference between typical lengthy boring reading texts with the word clouds is that information processed via these tools has 'doable' impression on students as some of the keywords of the texts can be easily spotted, which would ultimately enhance their recalling process and reading comprehension as a whole. 

Get Creative in Teaching: Some Suggested Classroom Activities

Pre-reading tasks:

Word clouds and warmer activities are two inseparable components. Have a word cloud with the words from the reading text displayed to the class before starting with a reading passage and ask students to make prediction about the content or gist of the text. 

Word Cloud Summary:

Aims at enhancing comprehension of any reading texts including literatures. Have a reading passage or a chapter of a novel and wordle it. Distribute a copy of a Wordle version of the text (or show it to the class via projector) and discuss about the summary of the text. Alternatively, you can give students a Wordle summary of a non-fiction reading and ask them to generate a headline or title before they deal with the real article.

Word Cloud Poll:

Have students to reflect on their lesson or reading article based on a prompt, for example: What do you like about the article? What you learned from the text? Which part of the lesson today you enjoyed most/least? Collect their reflections into a Wordle. The largest word that appears in the text cloud indicates the highest and most voted response from learners. Teachers could also use Word Cloud Poll for ice-breaking activities or poll the class about their interests or likings.

Word Cloud Art:

Use Tagxedo to create posters for 'Environmental Appreciation Day'. Students could work in pairs or in groups depending on the difficulty of the theme and time allocated for completing the task. Encourage them to be creative by using imported photos from Google images, Flickr or Tumblr. They can add extra handwritten details too to make the poster more presentable. Use peer feedback and success criteria of a good poster when assessing students' work. 

Speed Sentence Writing:

Display a word cloud with some English vocabulary (could be of any topics) and tell students that have 5 or 7 minutes to write as many sentences as they can using the words displayed. This could be done in pairs or in groups.