I Hear Voices
Three very interesting web sites came my way in the last few days, all dealing with the spoken word. Each is a fascinating resource with lots of potential for teaching and research.
The goal of Historical Voices is “to create a significant, fully searchable online database of spoken word collections spanning the 20th century – the first large-scale repository of its kind. Historical Voices will both provide storage for these digital holdings and display public galleries that cover a variety of interests and topics.” The current galleries point to a wide variety of rich content, and the site features excellent Research and Education areas that include lesson plans, tips for creating aural resources, and example lessons. Historical Voices uses a Flash-based player for audio files stored on its own site, but you may find that you’ll need a variety of audio players (e.g., Real Player) for some of the off-site links.
Talking History takes a somewhat different approach to preserving and presenting aural history. Their mission–“to provide teachers, students, researchers and the general public with as broad and outstanding a collection of audio documentaries, speeches, debates, oral histories, conference sessions, commentaries, archival audio sources, and other aural history resources as is available anywhere”–is similar to that of Historical Voices (above). To implement their mission, Talking History produces a series of eponymous weekly radio/Internet broadcasts which are archived on the web site and are fully searchable. Other educational and production resources are available as well. Aural files are accessible through Real Player or may be listed to as mp3 files with QuickTime Player, iTunes, or virtually any media player.
Finally, there is the Speech Accent Archive. This site “uniformly presents a large set of speech samples from a variety of language backgrounds. Native and non-native speakers of English read the same paragraph and are carefully transcribed.” It provides a fascinating way to explore different accents. Speakers are categorized by biographical data (age, gender, birthplace, native language, age of English acquisition, etc.) and their speech is carefully transliterated into a native phonetic inventory which is thoroughly documented on the site. You can browse for speakers by language or region, and there is an excellent bibliography of language resources and links to related web sites. The audio files are in QuickTime (.mov) format.
TextCasting the Easy Way
EDIT: I decided to drop this blog’s connection with Odiogo a few months ago. While I was initially excited about the idea of having blogs spoken, there were some elements of the service that did not suit my purposes very well. First, the availability of the audio portion of the blog expires after a few months, so you can’t listen to archived posts online (although you could still listen to the mp3 file if you happened to have download it before it expired). Second, the preponderance of technical terms and brand names in my blog entries created pronunciation problems that I found distracting. Odiogo is a fine service that should work well for many purposes, but in my case it wasn’t what I expected.
Regular readers of this blog (both of you) may notice something different with this entry–the small “Listen Now” button at the beginning of each entry. It seems trivial, but it has opened up a huge landscape of possibilities for podcasting, student self-review, and serving visually-impaired or learning disabled readers.
A few weeks ago I became interested in text-to-audio possibilities through a colleague of mine who suggested that I take a look at BlueGrind, a web site that allows you to upload text and have it converted into a downloadable mp3 audio file. I signed up for an account, uploaded some text, and, after some rather non-intuitive clicking was able to download the mp3 file. The text, while clearly synthesized, was completely understandable and well-inflected. Although the site advertises easy conversion to podcasts, it was not immediately apparent how to do this so I went in search of other possibilities.
I found this article from profy.com that reviewed BlueGrind as well as Talkr and Odiogo, additional services that promised to turn my text-based blog into audio that could be accessed directly in the blog by clicking a button or by subscribing to the feed as a podcast. I played around with Talkr for a bit and then tried Odiogo. I ended up liking the ease of use of Odiogo as well as its multilingual possibilities. As a result, I submitted two of my blogs (this one, using WordPress) and Skip’s Tips, a Blogger site, for testing. A day or so later, the Odiogo folks had processed my blog and sent me directions for activating audio services. In the case of Blogger blogs, it’s quite easy–just click on a link, agree to allow Blogger to install the Odiogo widget, and you’re off and running. In the case of WordPress blogs it’s a bit more complicated, but the directions from Odiogo are clear and easy to follow. Once set up, readers can click the “Listen Now” button to hear the text spoken aloud (try it!), download the mp3 file, and even subscribe to the blog as a podcast.
The first thing that crossed my mind was that visually-impaired or learning disabled readers would have an easy way to access my blog. As I experimented more, some other equally intriguing possibilities occurred to me. One was the simplicity of listening to a blog while doing some other task that didn’t require complete concentration–reading e-mail, catching up on news, installing software, etc. Odiogo’s player has a convenient pause button if you need to focus on the task at hand and pick up your blog later.
The possibilities for teachers are endless. Students can listen to your blog entries for study or review or download and listen to them in iTunes or on their iPod (or any other mp3 player). Then there is the possibility for self-review. For this purpose, BlugGrind seems to work best. You can copy a block of text, paste it into a text window on the BlueGrind website and download it as an mp3 audio file. This strikes me as a great tool for rote memorization of text passages or plays, vocabulary review, etc. And again, visually impaired or learning disabled readers can upload a text file and have it returned as an mp3 file.
There is, of course, one major difference in audio files created this way as opposed to those recorded directly from speech–the speech in these files is synthesized from text. They will not have the richness of pronunciation or inflection that a native speaker might bring to a language study task or that an inspired orator might lend to a speech or lecture. But, I think you’ll agree that all of these sites produce clear, intelligible speech that has a myriad of uses for educators.
If you don’t, please let me know.
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Getting Your Message Out
Many universities use Elluminate Live! for distance classes. ELive is a fine tool lets users share application screens and whiteboards, participate in audio chat sessions, and move into breakout rooms for small group discussions. Sessions can be saved and viewed later. I use it in my own classes for many tasks.
But what if you don’t have access to ELive, or need to use only certain features? What if you don’t need synchronous communication with your audience?
There are some free alternatives to ELive that are worth your consideration.
Google Presently
The latest addition to Google Docs is Presently, a presentation program that resembles and works with PowerPoint. Existing PowerPoint presentations can be uploaded and viewed at any time, or the author (or designated collaborators) can take control of the presentation and walk viewers through it. There is a text chat window so that viewers can communicate with each other or with presenters but no audio chat feature. Uploaded PowerPoint presentations will not show any animation at all (bullet points, slide transitions, etc.) and action buttons will not work. While it sounds limited, when employed for simple instruction it can be a very useful tool. This presentation was uploaded from an existing PowerPoint presentation and shows the utility of having web access to an instructional document.
To use Presently, all you need is a Google account. If you have a GMail account, use Google Reader, or keep a Blogger bog, you already have one.
SketchCast
First there was podcasting. Then came vcasting and screencasting. As of a few weeks ago, we now have sketchcasting.
Imagine that you are a high school math teacher standing at a whiteboard walking your class through a geometric proof. You draw a few figures on the board, make a few comments as you go, and arrive at the final proof. That is the concept behind SketchCast. SketchCast gives you a whiteboard with different colored markers onto which you sketch your ideas while you (optionally) narrate your sketch. This process is recorded and produces a video that can be embedded into a web page or blog or can be saved online for viewing by anyone. It really helps to have a graphics tablet with a pen to make your sketch, but it will work with a mouse or trackpad. If your mousing skills aren’t great, you can enter text from the keyboard by selecting the text tool, but you only get one font in one size. You can’t paste images from another source–you’re limited to what you draw or type on the whiteboard.
Still, there are some instances when a SketchCast could come in very handy. Math comes to mind immediately–solving an equation, working through a proof, simplifying a fraction, etc. Many art activities are possible–cartooning, specific pencil or color techniques, for example. How about sounding out words using the audio feature?
WizIQ
WizIQ shares many features of Elluminate: two-way audio, text chat, shared whiteboard, and PowerPoint and PDF Document sharing capabilities. It’s designed as a way to deliver tutorial information either in real time or as a saved archive. Members (membership is free) can schedule real time sessions and invite participants, participate in others’ sessions, browse from a wide variety of saved sessions, and search for other members with similar interests. Real time sessions include audio, chat, and shared documents. Saved archives function much like PowerPoint presentations, including some animation and embedded sounds. Some PowerPoint features–action buttons, for example–do not work, but there are on-screen controls for stepping through the slides. Saved sessions may also be embedded into web pages or blogs. Like Presently, you can upload existing PowerPoint documents.
WizIQ makes sense as a way to deliver online tutorial content to an audience. It’s not better than Elluminate in this regard, but it’s free.
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Teachers’ Domain: High Quality Video Content
As I mentioned in some of my earlier posts (see Free Online Videos and Free Online Videos, Part Two), research tells us that having “just-in-time” video resources available for students has a positive effect on achievement, time on task, and overall engagement. Commercial services such as United Streaming Media provide these media, but licenses can be expensive and are usually handled at a district level.
That’s why I am on a constant search for free, high quality video resources for teachers. One of the best such resources came to my attention recently. Teachers’ Domain offers an exceptional collection of very high quality Open Educational Resources video content across a variety of topics as well as excellent professional development opportunities in the form of online classes using resources from NOVA and other PBS programming.
The online content offered by Teachers’ Domain is compelling. You’ll find a variety of QuickTime movies, interactive Flash applications, images, PDF files, web links, and lesson plans categorized by topic and grade level. Most of these resources can be viewed online, which is good in itself, but an exciting feature is the ability to (legally!) download and even remix resources for your own purposes.
Social networking capabilities have not been overlooked. You can create online folders to store links to content that you will reuse at a later date, and you can create groups of other Teachers’ Domain users to share resources, lesson plans, and ideas.
Teachers’ Domain should be on every teacher’s favorites list.
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Random Tools
Today’s post is a collection of tools and resources that have come my way over the past few days.
My Friend Flickr
This excellent article from Edutopia outlines a variety of student-safe uses of Flickr, the online photo sharing site. Amy Standen (author) does an excellent job of pointing out the potential pitfalls of turning students loose in a social networking site and demonstrates that such a resource may be used safely and productively in a school setting. Be sure to check out the links at the end of the article.
Free Flash Cards
Sometimes the old fashioned tools are the best. This is a nice repository of free flash cards on a wide variety of topics including math and science, business, arts, languages, etc. You can create your own flashcards and embed flashcards in your own blog or web page.
SchoolTube
SchoolTube is “a network of students, educators, and industry working together to foster video production and internet publishing in a safe online learning environment.” Modeled after YouTube (and many similar sites), this site publishes teacher-moderated and approved videos submitted by schools. These are not “educational” videos in the typical sense–rather, they are student or teacher produced videos from a variety of genres, including comedies, music videos, school events, careers, ceremonies, and even student council meetings. Great fun and a good option for uploading student productions.
Blogs in Education
A narrated PowerPoint presentation on basic blogging, from how to find a place to blog to why you should consider blogging. It includes a good discussion of the potential “dark side” of placing students in a social networking environment. Highly recommended as an introduction to blogging for those who are new to the concept.
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iMovie ’08
It sounds like the best feature of iMovie 8 (the version that comes with the recently released iLife ’08 suite) is the fact that it does not delete an already installed version of iMovie from your hard drive.
David Pogue, NY Times technology columnist, echoes the hue and cry from the blogsphere and the discussion boards regarding the removal of many useful features from versions of iMovie prior to v8:
“I can’t remember any software company pulling a stunt like this before: throwing away a fully developed, mature, popular program and substituting a bare-bones, differently focused program under the same name.”
Among the changed or missing features:
- no timeline with displayed timecode
- no ability to change the audio volume during a scene
- no way to extract audio from a clip
- no more support for multiple audio tracks
- no plug in support for third party effects
- no ability to insert chapter markers for iDVD (this seems inexcusable…)
- no ability to export part of a movie
- no visual effects (that’s right–no slow motion, reverse, black-and white, sepia tone…)
- inability to fully import old iMovie projects (imports clips only–no transitions, credits, music, effects…)
Regular users of iMovie will recognize this list as comprising a significant portion of the feature list of previous versions of iMovie. All gone…
Fortunately, installing iLife ’08 over previous versions of iLife does not result in the deletion of your old version of iMovie. Look for a folder title “iMovie (previous version)” in your Applications folder. If you inadvertently delete it, Apple will allow owners of iLife 08 download a free copy of iMovie 6, the version immediately prior to v8. It’s a 155 MB download, and it will install only if it detects an installed copy of iLife 08.
Educators should also be aware that iMovie 8 requires significant computing power to run at all. Apple’s site states: “iMovie requires a Mac with an Intel processor, a Power Mac G5 (dual 2.0GHz or faster), or an iMac G5 (1.9GHz or faster).” It will no longer run on G4 processors. iBook users are out of luck.
While I can recommend the improvements to other iLife components (iPhoto 8 in particular), it’s going to be important for most schools and educators to stick with iMovie 6 until Apple updates and improves the current release.
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Searching for Tutorials
I’m a committed Google search user. I like Google’s easy interface, it’s intuitive shortcuts, and it’s uncannily accurate search results. Other general search engines just don’t seem to measure up.
However, Google and it’s lesser counterparts search the entire web–or at least as much of the web as can be indexed on a regular basis. That’s a lot of information to sift through. Sometimes it’s more effective to search a subset of the web with a tool that is targeted toward the specific results you want. Google Scholar is a good example–it searches only journals, peer-reviewed papers, theses, abstracts, and related academic topics. Another example, cited elsewhere on this blog, is Everyzing, a search engine that uses advanced algorithms to search for online videos by content and not just titles or text descriptions.
That’s why I was (initially) very excited to find TuToogle, a search engine that claims to index over 100,000 online tutorials on a variety of subjects. The site’s goal is an admirable one–a one-stop portal for finding out how to do things. A quick check of the site’s search capabilities was promising–it quickly found tutorials for PowerPoint, Excel, AutoCad, and a few others that I tried.
Disappointment began to set in when I searched for tutorials for Inspiration, an outlining, brainstorming, and concept-mapping tool that I use in my classes. TuToogle found nothing at all other than a couple of unrelated PhotoShop tutorials. Searching Google with “inspiration tutorial” immediately returned dozens of relevant sites. Further, TuToogle’s on-screen display of returned hits is dismal. TuToogle provides meager descriptions of the site along with the site’s title, and the hits are randomly mixed in with ads from Google. There does not seem to be any kind of prioritization of hits, either–another area in which Google excels. And–unforgivable for a new search tool–some of the hits were dead links.
TuToogle is–at least at present–a very disappointing iteration of a potentially very useful tool. For now, use Google.
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