November 2012 Updates: Delicious bookmarks and online audio recording

Since September 2012, the AATF has a Delicious bookmark site with 100 + useful links for World Language educators and students. Delicious is an excellent option for sharing your favorite sites with your colleagues or students. The links are categorized and searchable. Sites are added weekly and suggestions are always appreciated. 

Please send your favorite links to aatfrench@gmail.com or catherineku72@gmail.com

Tech tip of the week: 

Audio recording on mobile devices and computers

Few World Language teachers have access to a dedicated language lab, yet need to record student work. There are many free options to record audio that allow users to share through social media, embedding, or e-mail. Several of the sites also have mobile device apps for iOS (Apple) and Android users.

AudioBoo - Record online from a computer, upload previously recorded files, or record from a mobile device for free. AudioBoo encourages social sharing of audio files. Users can subscribe to each other and listen to their updates. It is a highly interactive and engaging environment. 

Vocaroo - One of the easiest and most useful sites for students and teachers. Using a desktop microphone or an internal laptop microphone, users are able to record audio, and share it with others. The recordings can be embedded in a blog or saved locally (on a computer) as an Mp3 file.

 

Chirbit This is a free, user-friendly site on which users may record directly. It is also possible to send voice memos from smartphones to the user account. Files may be shared, downloaded and edited.   

SoundCloud - Quite similar to AudioBoo in that the site encourages social sharing of audio recordings. The site is free, users may record from a computer or a mobile device, and files are able to be downloaded. 

iPadio - iPadio is a highly involved site designed for the power-user of audio for specific purposes. To learn more about the features, visit their tutorial site and explore their videos. 

Google Voice - When you sign up for a Google Voice number, students can call and leave a voice message that will appear in both your Voice Inbox and in your Gmail inbox. These files may be downloaded to a local computer. You will need a Google/Gmail account. It is suggested that you create a separate school account. 

Audio Apps for iOS 

Voice Memo (Dictaphone) comes pre-installed on iPod and iPhone  4th generation iPod Touch and iPhone. iPad users will need to download either a free (usually Ad-supported) app such as AudioMemos or a paid (non-Ad) app such as iTalk ($1.99) that allows files to be sent to Dropbox or SoundCloud. Visit this site for more app suggestions.