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audio

Finding Free Audiobooks for Educators

by Andrew Roush July 23, 2019

written by Andrew Roush

Earlier this spring, a report commissioned by the Audio Publishers Association found that, for the first time, half of all Americans have listened to audiobooks. Like many technologies, audiobooks, and their cousin, the podcast, are making their way into the classroom.

Recent research on the use of audiobooks on education is limited. A 2016 study found that those who received a lesson through audio did not lag behind those who heard and read the audio. Some researchers also point to the notion that the human brain is designed to interpret aural information first and foremost. A 2012 study published in the journal School Library Research noted a positive impact through the use of audiobooks for struggling readers. As the study summarized:

The findings indicated that struggling readers’ use of audiobooks had a positive impact on reading skills and attitudes toward reading. These findings are significant given the dearth of research directly related to the impact of audiobooks, despite the prevalent usage of audiobooks.

Audiobooks carry the possibility of helping struggling readers, though they possess other potential limitations. It’s difficult to grasp where you “are” in a text you’re listening to. You lack the ability to highlight, re-read, or otherwise “go back” over a passage, at least not without scrubbing through the audio. Still, having multiple ways for students to interact with language learning is important to many educators, and audiobooks are one such tool. The technology is even catching on as a teaching tool at the higher ed level.

Ready to try using audiobooks yourself? Here are four great sources for free audiobooks for educators.

Free Audiobook Resources

LibriVox includes free, public domain works read by volunteers. Its collection also contains a number of plays, poetry, and a vast array of nonfiction, in addition to its numerous fiction titles.
free audiobooks

OverDrive allows readers to digitally “check out” ebooks and audiobooks through their local public or school libraries. OverDrive’s Sora app is specifically designed to allow schools to set up accounts that students can use to download ebooks and audiobooks.
free audiobooks

Loyal Books, formerly known as Books Should Be Free, offers many classics in ebook and audiobook format.
free audiobooks

Storynory is all about children’s audiobooks, from fables to educational titles and beyond.
free audiobooks
Photo: Alireza Attari

July 23, 2019 1 comment

Google Slides and Gmail Get Updates

by Miguel Guhlin April 17, 2019

written by Miguel Guhlin

Amazing updates recently announced will transform how you work with two popular G Suites apps, Slides and Gmail. Let’s take a look at my favorite tool Slides to see some popular ways to record audio. One of the challenges is how to record audio and save it to Google Drive. In this blog entry, we’ll explore those approaches, as well as take a quick peek at Gmail’s upgraded features.

Inserting Audio into Slides

One of my most desired features for Google Slides has been the ability to embed audio. Google’s blog announced it:

We have listened to your requests and are adding audio files as additional media types in Slides. We know that adding audio clips can bring your presentations to the next level.

If you look now (early April 2019), you may not see the option to Insert->Audio into a Slide. That’s because the rollout will not become visible until later this month (before April 18).

According to what was written, you will soon be able to insert WAV or MP3 audio files into a slide. Follow these instructions taken from the Google Help page:

On your computer, open a presentation in Google Slides.
Select the slide that you want to add the audio file to.
Click Insert Audio.
Choose an audio file and click select.

Recording Audio on Your Phone to Drive

Since you can insert audio files (MP3 or WAV) into Slides from Google Drive, how could you record and save to Drive? Here are two approaches using free apps for iOS and Android devices. In fact, I’ve used the Android app on Android-capable Chromebooks like the one I’m writing on to record.

iOS App Audio Recorder

On iOS, get the Voice Record Plus app. It’s a free app that allows you to save audio recordings in WAV or MP3 straight to Drive. As their website reports:

Voice Record Pro is a professional voice recorder. It allows you to record voice memos and on-site sounds. Recordings are at unlimited length with configurable quality. Voice Record Pro can record in…MP3 (MPEG) and WAV formats (source).

Here’s a video tutorial from YouTube on how to record audio on Voice Record app and then save to Google Drive.

Android App Audio Recorder

On Android, there are many apps titled Audio Recorder, so you will want to get this free Audio Recorder app from Axet. This app makes it easy to record to various audio formats, such as OGG, WAV, M4A, and MP3.

Of the many formats available, MP3 and WAV are the two compatible with Google Slides. After recording, you can save the audio file in MP3 or WAV format to your favorite Google Drive folder. An added benefit of the Android app linked above is that it will work on Chromebooks that can run Android apps as shown below.

You are able to save audio recordings to your Files on your Chromebook and then place them on Google Drive.

Recent Gmail Upgrades

Need “quick access to a range of help and support content?” Then Gmail, along with other apps, will soon enjoy a new support button next to the search bar at the top of Gmail. You may have missed Smart Compose and one more update.

Smart Compose uses “machine learning to interactively offer sentence completion suggestions as you type, allowing you to draft emails faster. Building upon technology developed for Smart Reply, Smart Compose offers a new way to help you compose messages — whether you are responding to an incoming email or drafting a new one from scratch (source).”

An additional update you may find useful (I do!) is the “Write now, Send Later” option. This makes it easy for you to compose an email at 1:00 am in the morning, and, rather than send out the email at that early hour, schedule your email for an 8:00 am delivery.

Google often updates its apps. Keeping up with those updates may seem a Sisyphean task, but these updates can enhance your productivity and provide additional ways for your students to showcase their learning. Take advantage of them!

April 17, 2019 0 comments

Good Teaching

Walk and Talk Podcasts

by Miguel Guhlin October 26, 2018

written by Miguel Guhlin

Podcasts are a powerful tool for capturing learning on the go. Let’s see how as we adapt a few strategies from Edutopia’s article Smart Strategies for Student Success.

Smart Strategies

The authors, Donna Wilson and Marcus Conyers, assert that working smarter is possible. How? Use specific success strategies that can’t help but have a profound influence. They outline several strategies, including these two:

Explain it to your brain.
Take brain breaks while learning

Let’s explore these strategies in the context of classroom podcasting. First, let’s reflect on why podcasting is so valuable.

Podcast Strategy #1 – Meta-Cognitive Learning

In this strategy, students use self-explanation to tell themselves what they are thinking. I like this approach since students speak aloud to solve a problem. This reflective, meta-cognitive dialogue can be audio-recorded and planned out. Using simple tools like Voxer, students can record themselves as a “Note to Self.” As a teacher, I would set up a class account for Voxer. Students would use a device with microphone logged into the class Voxer account. The device could be a cheap Chromebook, an old iPad, or computer.

These audio perambulations are one-take recordings. Students walk and talk themselves through a problem. As Donna and Marcus point out, there are benefits to this effort. Those benefits include blending new information into students’ existing mental schema. Students may generate inferences where information gaps exist. This promotes self correction and the change of inaccurate information.

Podcast Strategy #2 – Move and Share

The take brain breaks while learning strategy suggests movement. We already know that moving is learning. Edweek alludes to this in their article Learning in Motion. Studies show, Edweek points out, that children who are more active gain these benefits:

Exhibit better focus
Enjoy faster cognitive processing, and
Have more successful memory retention

This happens because the body is kept active. Doing that promotes mental clarity due to increased blood flow. This makes activity, Edweek says, “vital” to learning, physical, and neurological health.

In the Move and Share strategy, students get up. They find a partner and take turns sharing one thing they learned moments before.

One great tool to record vidcasts is Flipgrid.com. Available free to educators thanks to Microsoft‘s largesse, it makes safe sharing easy. Students can record themselves then other students can view and respond. To complete the process, teachers can save the video exchange as MP4 video files. Then, using a free tool like Sway or Seesaw‘s built-in blog, for example, the teacher can publish them. This can be a phenomenal approach for students. Students can use their own BYOT devices, such as smartphones or tablets.

Walk and Talk Podcasts for Learning

These are only two smart strategies. Blend others with podcasting technologies to speed up student learning. Be sure to read about other ideas in Donna’s and Marcus’ article that you can adapt. Want to learn about other podcasting tools? Investigate Anchor.fm as another free source for podcast hosting. Blogging plus podcasting yields engaged learning.

October 26, 2018 0 comments

Android Chromebooks

Androidify Learning

by Miguel Guhlin January 2, 2018

written by Miguel Guhlin

“Ninety-two percent of students say that it is easier to use their mobile device to improve their access to information,” says Daniel Adeboye, citing university research. “Not every classroom can get a laptop every day, so [devices like smartphones], even if you have to pair up, become something useful for teachers,” says Ken Halla, a classroom teacher. In this blog entry, let’s explore a few, effective ways to “androidify” learning in your classroom.

Research Insights

Do BYOD devices enhance learning or distract learners? Let’s take a look at one meta-analysis of 110 studies, The effects of integrating mobile devices with teaching and learning on students’ learning performance: A meta-analysis and research synthesis.

Use the Android app PicsArt Photo Studio to create infographics like this one

Mobile devices…

Support various teaching styles, including lecture-style teaching, convenient information gathering, information sharing, cooperative learning, exploratory learning outside the classroom, and game-based learning.
Facilitate the development of communication, problem-solving, creativity, and other high-level skills among students.
Feature individualized interfaces, real-time access to information, context sensitivity, instant communication, and feedback.

In-Classroom Strategies

While the debate rages on the effectiveness of smartphones in the classroom, many educators and students have already taken the plunge. Consider the slide show, Thirty-three ways to use mobile phones in the classroom (PDF) as a starting point.

Effective Mobile Device Use

Daniel Adeboye makes the point that use of technology in classrooms often enhances efficiency, rather than improves learning effectiveness. He suggests several approaches, among them these three:

Audio recording
Live polling tools
Video creation

Some would also add tools that facilitate staying in touch with students, such as Remind.com for “real-time messaging for your school, group, or just a single person.” However, while educators like Ken Halla have compiled excellent lists of educational apps for BYOD, in this blog entry I’d like to make some of my own recommendations.

1- Audio Recording

As a veteran audiophile, my go-to set of recording tools includes the following:

Voxer.com: While many educators use Voxer to participate in audio-only communities and audio chats, only a few take advantage of it as a recording tool. You can record interviews with others using “My Notes.” Add an iRig Mic to enhance audio quality. You can save the audio as an MP3 file to the cloud. If you prefer to tweet the audio as a link, that option is available. Maximum record time is fifteen minutes.
HiQ MP3 Recorder: A drop-dead simple audio recorder, HiQ MP3 Recorder (free version) can save to MP3 audio format. You can get the audio off the device quickly, saving to Dropbox, Google Drive, or taking advantage of an app’s built-in WiFi Drive. WiFi Drive allows you to connect via a web browser on a computer (or another mobile device). Once connected, you save a copy of the audio file. This is a real time saver. Unlike Voxer, an account is not required to use HiQ MP3 Recorder. Maximum record time is 10 minutes in the free version.

Audio recordings can be used to monitor and/or assess students’ grasp of a subject or target language.

2- Live Polling Tools

Mobile devices facilitate “instant-feedback functions.” These functions “solve the difficulty of efficiently executing…formative assessment in a class with many students,” say the authors of the meta-analysis cited earlier. Many choices are available.

Poll Everywhere: Available for several years, this is often the go-to choice for conducting polls.
VoxVote: This app provides five events for free and allows for unlimited audience voting.

Some other tools include iClicker, Sli.do, and Quick Tap Survey. Add interactivity with tools like Kahoot! and Quizizz.

3- Video Creation

“By 2017, video is predicted to be two-thirds of the world’s mobile data traffic,” point out the authors of this article. Anyone can create a video with a smartphone. However, editing the video to good effect can be challenging on the small device. Just as iOS users enjoy a few tools like iMovie (free), Videocraft ($2.99), Pinnacle Studio ($12.99), or Filmic Pro ($14.99), so do Android users.

Note: Remember that you need to be logged in with a personal Google account, not a G Suite EDU, to access links to apps in the Google Play store. Otherwise you will get an error.

Before jumping into a list of Android video creation and editing tools, it wouldn’t hurt to review the article, Six tips for successful mobile video assignments. Video creation and editing expectations need to be lower than desktop editing. Most “free” tools include watermarks that can only be removed with a monthly or annual subscription. If you need to record your Android screen, use XRecorder. The tools below focus on video editing.

YouCut – Video Editor & Video Maker, No Watermark: An easy to use video editor that will have you combining pictures, videos, and music (free titles available).
Filmora Video Editor: From their website, app creators describe it as “A pretty powerful video editor application, which will not stamp a watermark or place a time limit on your clip.” With FilmoraGo, you can make video with music and effects and then share to social media.
VideoShow Video Editor: This editor with in-app purchases offers simple editing, subtitles, and over a thousand music clips. A companion app, GIFGuru, makes animated GIFs possible. VideoShow allows conversion of the video to MP3 audio. Creating a video for class assignments shouldn’t be too difficult.
Action Director Video Editor: Action Director offers a variety of options, including editing video, adding music, and more.

Android Authority has a few more choices listed. Try these three first. Kinemaster, ALIVE MovieMaker, and PowerDirector were objectionable for various reasons. Provided video editing is not a class assignment, students can use the Seesaw app to capture student video summaries. The real challenge for video on Android is video rendering time. Not all Android devices are created equal.

Green Screen Tip

On iOS, the DoINK Green Screen app reigns supreme. Green screen can also be done on Android. For video editing, try the paid version of Media Studio. For a one-time charge ($14.95), additional features can be purchased. These features include the green screen effect and audio recording/editing tools. For photos, use PhotoLayers (features in-app ads).

Androidify Learning in Your Classroom

As you work to “androidify” your classroom, remember to have fun. One complaint I often hear about BYOD involves teachers’ lack of familiarity with the right apps. They often do not know how to match apps to an instructional purpose. Consider these apps as a starting point.

Update: This blog entry was updated on 04/01/2020 with new information.

January 2, 2018 0 comments

CTO/CIO Educational Trends Google Tips and Tricks iOS Tips and Tricks Professional Learning

TCEA Responds: Recording Speakers

by Miguel Guhlin June 8, 2017

written by Miguel Guhlin

Welcome to TCEA Responds #3. Submit your own question(s) online. Today’s topic is recording speakers in conference settings and note-taking.

Dear TCEA Responds:

Are there apps that you could recommend that work best in TCEA convention environments? I have looked at some of these. Ideally, I would like to be able to record the speakers’ voices, have their voices converted into texts, type notes, and be able to paste pictures I take of graphic presentations into the apps. Anything you could recommend will be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Jerry

Dear Jerry:

Recording speakers at conferences and workshops has never been easier. Before we explore various solutions that address your question, let’s get one thing out of the way.

Get Permission

If you are going to record someone to share with others via a blog, ask for permission prior to the session, or as soon as possible thereafter. I often carry a business card with some information about myself and that I work for a nonprofit. I share that with the speaker so they will know what I am up to.

Recording a Speaker’s Voice

Recording a speaker’s voice can be done easily. You may want to read this blog entry that goes into iOS (and Android) microphone solutions, as well software to use. My go-to solution these days is the iRig Mic Cast for iOS/Android ($35) and iRig Recorder software. You can then save the audio recording to your favorite cloud storage or note-taking app (e.g. OneNote).

Need an audio editor? Use the free, open source Audacity sound editor (e.g. Mac/Windows/Linux) or Beautiful Audio Editor Chrome add-on. For hosting your audio to share with others, use Google Drive, The Internet Archive’s Open Source Audio, or SoundCloud.

Voice to Text

If you have an iOS device, you can use Apple’s Notes app to convert speech to text as it happens. The transcription will not be perfect, but it gives you an awesome starting point. Another approach on Windows 10 computers or tablets can include using Cortana (“Hey Cortana” to activate) to do voice to text. If you do this in a conference presentation, Cortana will transcribe your speaker’s speech to text (find out more). You can do the same with Google Docs’ Voice Typing feature. Aren’t these cool solutions that work with your Windows tablet, iOS/Android device? For more text to speech and speech to text solutions, read this blog entry, Transform Learning with Text to Speech. Some great apps to investigate include OneNote, Evernote, and Google Keep.

Paste Pictures

If you don’t know about the free Microsoft Office Lens app (available for Android, iOS, and Windows), then you are missing out. Not only can you take pictures at an angle (which Office Lens then flattens out to make it readable as if you were standing in front of it), you can also scan documents and then have Office Lens read them to you. You can drop pictures into your Camera Roll (iOS) or Gallery (Android). And, if you have a slide full of text, you can grab text from that slide and save it to your notes.

Final Tip: Avoid Media Capture Frenzy

Image Source: Peggy Reimers Sketchnoting Session

“I like the slowness of writing by hand,” says Susan Sontag (as cited here). Avoid media capture frenzy. You may find yourself at the end of a stimulating presentation, only to find yourself uninspired. Allow yourself the opportunity to experience the speaker’s enthusiasm with handwritten note-taking or sketchnoting.

June 8, 2017 0 comments

Google Tips and Tricks iOS Tips and Tricks Microsoft

Podcasting with Microsoft Sway

by Miguel Guhlin March 28, 2017

written by Miguel Guhlin

Even if you’ve never created a podcast before, you can do so easily with Microsoft Sway.

: View Podcasting with Sway

You may not be aware of it, but Microsoft added some new features to the web version of MS Sway that make it ideal for audio-narrated images, also known as enhanced podcasts. Of course, Sway enables you to add tons of great content (e.g. Twitter streams, video, embedded content) aside from images and audio. However, this blog entry focuses specifically on audio and images.

Getting Started

Ready to get started recording with Sway? Follow the steps at the bottom of this blog post. For now, here are some of the features:

Audio recording directly into Sway
Pre-record audio using Audacity, Voice Record Pro (iOS), or HiQ MP3 Recorder (Android) then import it into your Sway. The main benefit of this approach is that you can incorporate audio from free sources (e.g. TableTopAudio.com). Then you can edit your audio until you get it just the way you want it.
You can adjust the Group and Design features of Sway to place your image and audio recordings near each other on the screen.

When creating a Sway that is going to include media, I like to map it out ahead of time. But you can also do this on the fly:

Title/Header card with image or video and text
Group #1
- Image #1
- Audio #1
Group #2
- Image #2
- Audio #2
Group #3
- Image #3
- Audio #3

As you can see from the outline above, it’s simple to combine images and audio to get the desired effect. You can vary your media content to suit your needs or those of your students.

Did You Know? Learn more about Microsoft Sway soon! Take advantage of the TCEA Lunch-n-Learn: Microsoft Sway taking place on March 29, 2017 from 11:45am to 12:15 PM. This is a “free for TCEA members” webinar (Why aren’t you a member yet?).

Here’s an example of combining images, video and audio in a Microsoft Sway. This particular Sway announces the upcoming, April 4th TweetMeet for Microsoft OneNote.

Tips for Audio Recording in Microsoft Sway

Option #1 – Record Audio Directly into Sway

(Steps from Microsoft Sway Support Site)

To record audio, sign into www.sway.com with your Microsoft account (Hotmail, Live, Outlook.com) or your Office 365 business, education, or consumer account. Then, follow these steps:

On the top menu bar, click Cards and add the Audio card to your Sway.
Click Record on the audio card.
After a three-second countdown, the flashing button will indicate that you’re recording.
Click the flashing button when you’re done recording.
Click the play button to preview your recording. If you’re satisfied, select Add to Sway; if not, click Re-record. You can also delete your recording by clicking on the Trash Can icon.

Option #2 – Create an MP3 Audio File and Then Add the Audio to Sway

podcasting Follow these steps to create your own audio recording. Note that there are various tools available, including Audacity (featured below), Chrome’s Beautiful Audio Editor or Twisted Wave: An Audio Editor, iOS apps Hokusai or iRig Recorder, Vocaroo.com for web-based recording, and many more.

Open Audacity on your Windows or Mac computer.
Record your audio into Audacity, adding additional tracks for background music, etc. Most audio editors (e.g. Beautiful Audio Editor, Twisted Wave, Hokusai) have a similar look.
Export the audio to MP3 audio file format
Insert an Audio card into your Sway.
Click on the Add an Audio file, then select the MP3 audio file on your computer.
Use the Group feature to place images and audio cards together.
When you view your Sway, you can choose a design that will enable it to look like this on the screen:

Tip: Persistent Audio

Here is another point to consider with embedded audio in a Sway. You could record a longer audio file at the front of your Sway. When the viewer clicks the audio, that audio will play as the viewer works their way through the content of the presentation. This persistent audio playing makes it easy to incorporate a monologue. The audio stops playing once the viewer clicks on a different media though.

Final Step

Now that you’ve added and grouped images and audio together and customized the design of the Sway, you have the option to share a link with others or embed it in a web page, such as a blog. Of course, since Sways include responsive web design , this means you can put it just about anywhere!

To make it into a podcast, you will want to embed the Sway into a blog or something with an RSS feed. Unlike a true audio/video only podcast, the Sway will have to be clicked to be played or viewable. That aside, Sway makes a convenient wrapper or container for your audio that works on all devices!

March 28, 2017 1 comment

iOS Tips and Tricks

iOS Recording Tools

by Miguel Guhlin March 18, 2017

written by Miguel Guhlin

“I love using my iPhone for on-the-go audio and video recording, but the built-in mic just isn’t doing the job. What can I use to better record audio for those critical interviews?”

Every TCEA event, I find myself reaching for my iPhone to record audio and video and snap photos of people I’m having conversations with. And I try to take a fresh look at the tools I’m using. This past TCEA conference, I decided to try several tools for recording audio/video on my iOS device.

Come along with me as I share my journey finding iPhone microphones and apps that work well at a distance. And, please, if you have your own solution that works, share it in the comments below.

Audio Recording Tools

What is a problem that stumps amateurs like me? The answer is recording at a distance. When you’re standing next to someone, it’s not a big deal to get great audio. When you’re five to six feet away, however, then things start to get a bit tougher. Here are two great mics that can help you capture better audio.

Mikey Digital ($99) – Unbelievable that such awesomeness comes in a small package. This lightning-connected microphone attaches to your iOS device. This microphone captures audio quite well, in my experience, and is perfect for that six-foot space, both inside and out. My son has used this microphone with his iPhone when recording audio outside and loves the sound quality.
iRig Mic Cast for iOS/Android ($35) – Less expensive that the Mikey Digital, this offers solid audio recording. This is what I carry around with me for interviews. It also comes with iRig Recorder software. I like the fact that it plugs into your microphone jack on your device and includes another headphone jack for earbuds. You can also get a handheld microphone that plugs into your iPhone or iPad. As the website says, it features “unidirectional pickup pattern that minimizes background noise, making it ideal for single-source audio recording.” (The featured image for this blog post shows the iRig Recorder 3…I can dream, can’t I?)

Favorite Recording Apps

As you might imagine, while you can use your built-in iOS Camera app for recording audio or video, you may not get the best results. As a result, here are some of my go-to apps:

iRig Recorder: This free app offers many features and is definitely worth mentioning for those of us who sometimes need custom recording options. It works for both audio and video recording.
ProMovie (Free but with $2.99 in-app purchase): What I love about this app is that it allows me to choose the microphone that I want to use. With other apps, I’m never quite sure if I’m using the Mikey Digital or iRig Mic, but ProMovie allows me to specify in the settings. What’s more, there are tons of settings for video recording. The in-app purchase ($2.99) removes the watermark.
Voice Recorder ($1.99 to remove ads): This easy-to-use voice recorder goes for a nostalgic look (cassette recorder appearance that makes using it easy and familiar) and it does a nice job in close quarters. It allows for WiFi sync, as well as cloud uploads to Microsoft OneDrive and Google Drive. It also allows for pausing a recording and can export the audio as M4a format. You can take advantage of the “Open In” option to drop the audio file into Hokusai Audio Editor, also on my must-have list, which gives mobile users features similar to Audacity, a desktop audio editing program.
Voice Recorder Pro (Free): Although boasting a host of features, including converting to MP3, this app suffers from a poor user interface. But it does offer audio editing, which makes it a must-have tool if you need that feature. Audio engine calibration at the start of a recording can also delay start, which is a problem if you’re recording a keynote or speaker who has begun to speak. Still, it is the best audio recorder available on iOS at no cost.

Conclusion

There are many other tools that could be included in this list, but my goal was to share a few that I’m using now. Armed with an iOS device, there’s no reason why you can’t record audio/video and publish online in the moment, on the go!

March 18, 2017 0 comments

Good Teaching Online Tools and Apps

Become a Storymaker: Creating Engaging Digital Tales

by Miguel Guhlin June 28, 2016

written by Miguel Guhlin

When I first participated in Joe Lambert’s digital storytelling workshop, my father had just passed away. Creating a digital story, Garbed in Silver, a combination of narrative and images, helped me cope with the grief of his death. It also helped me reconnect with some of my best memories, allowing me to create a remembrance for my young son that endures today on YouTube and Teachercast video hosting sites. Digital storytelling can be a powerful way to connect with others. In this blog entry, we explore digital storytelling resources and tips.

Join the ongoing TCEA Microsoft Innovative Educator (MIE) SkypeChat via your mobile device or online. Explore and share concepts at the intersection of teaching, learning, leading, and technology!

1) Finding Digital Storytelling Resources

Looking for digital storytelling resources? There are quite a few available online. Here are my top three favorites:

StoryCenter.org and StoryCenter’s Digital Storytelling Cookbook
We Are StoryMakers
University of Houston’s Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling

Each of these contains digital stories that connect at a visceral level. And some, like We Are StoryMakers, invites the work of writers, actors, and media enthusiasts to create with a simple directive: you have five minutes to create a narrative and then record it.

2) Storytelling Keys

“In oral culture,” shares Joe Lambert, “we humans learned to retain stories as epigrams, or little tales that had a meaningful proverb at the end. In our current culture, many of us have not developed an epigrammatic learning equivalent to these processes.” Yet it’s not just about creating stories that are entertaining; it is about creating stories that transform us. As Vyasa says, “If you listen carefully, at the end, you’ll be someone else.” To accomplish that, I like to think that stories engage both our experience and beliefs, as Gretchen Bernabei demonstrates in this image, and helps us reflect and transform our perception of what has happened in our lives.

digital storytelling There are various approaches to storytelling. The oral storytelling approach focuses on a beginning event, a middle with multiple events, each summarized by an image that captures our attention, until it reaches a turning point, moves to falling action, and ends. This story structure can be used for a lot more than just oral storytelling, of course. To prepare for this type of approach, Joe Lambert suggests creating a “memory box.”

Of course, it is easier to collect images, videos, and sound in one virtual space (e.g. Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox) than ever before. A few tools I recommend for creating a digital memory box include the following:

OneNote + Office Lens: These two free apps, which work on a multitude of mobile devices, allow you to store text, audio, images, and embed videos, and could easily be used to collect information. The Office Lens app lets you digitize content, snap a picture of paper items or photos, and save them to OneNote, a digital notebook. With OneNote’s built-in digital ink, students can easily fill in the chart and storyboard their digital story. The teacher can take those student creations, combine them with the final products, and publish them on Docs.com as a OneNote Notebook (which is free for everyone and works great on iPads, Chromebooks, Windows/Mac computers, and Android).
Google Photos + Google Drive: With these two apps, you can save photos or videos taken with your device to Google Photos, saving content online. Google Drive offers unlimited hosting for GoogleApps for Education (GAFE) users, so you can easily drop videos and images there.
Collecting images can be straightforward with mobile apps like Camera Awesome (iOS and Android), Camera MX (Android), and Google Camera. Image annotation becomes easy with Annotate (iOS), Photo Editor by Aviary (Android and iOS), SnapSeed (iOS and Android), as well as EyeEm Camera and Photo Filter (iOS and Android). Don’t be afraid to take advantage of green screen apps (DoInk for iOS and Green Screen Pro for Android) to further enhance photos, making your own greenscreen with a $1.00 Dollar Tree store green plastic tablecover.

3) Find Photos That Make You Care

“Is that your son?” asked a friend when I showed him the digital story I had made of my Dad. The picture showed my son, perched like a king, in my Dad’s lap. Both were grinning, the picture such an attention grabber that even now I find it hard to look away. If you are looking for examples of photos that hold your gaze, check out the IPPAwards.com site. You can also find a wealth of images in free, public domain, or available for re-use online.

Note: Want to learn more about becoming a story maker? Be sure to join Miguel Guhlin at TCEA’s Tots and Technology Conference taking place this summer in both Galveston and Frisco, Tx!

4) Combine Images and Audio into a Digital Story

“Little strokes” said Benmin Franklin “fell great oaks.” Epigrams like this one powerfully send the message that you have achieved something, overcome adversity if it comes at the end of your digital story. If you can’t make one up, find the right epigram to borrow, properly cited, of course. Practice telling your story aloud, using the pictures as your guideposts; keep your wisdom brief.

Apps like Shadow Puppet EDU, Adobe Voice, and Storymaker 2, as well as MS Office Mix (Windows/Mac) enable you to combine content in powerful ways. The process is straightforward, but the key lies in creating epigrams that will stick in people’s minds. Include music only if it enhances your story; otherwise let your voice, or silence, and images make the message clear.

Conclusion

All of us are carrying countless stories in our mobile devices, in the moments that we felt compelled to capture with a camera. And those moments call to our spirit, seeking to liberate words that lay afraid in our minds. Digital stories can set you free.

June 28, 2016 0 comments

Online Tools and Apps

Ready? Set? Vox!

by Miguel Guhlin April 6, 2016

written by Miguel Guhlin

“May I audio record you reading your story?” I asked a sixth grader at a San Antonio middle school. “We will post the audio recording with your story on the web.” Earlier that month, I had spent some time working with students on their writing. The title of his story is How the Skunk Got His Bad Smell. In the past, I would have reached for an audio recorder (there are many available for iOS and Android devices). But this time, I decided to try a versatile app: Voxer.

Some quick info about Voxer:

The app styles itself as a walkie-talkie app with push-to-talk features that makes it possible to have just-in-time, asynchronous conversations. Connect with others using it on a device or online. Push a button on the screen, speak, and your audio/text/video is added to a “chat” where others can listen/view and then offer their own thoughts. It is drop-dead simple to get started with and use. Get it here for both Android and iOS devices. You can also listen to this audio recording explaining what Voxer is and how educators use it.

While you can customize your user name and organize chats with people with the free version, you will definitely want to get the Pro version, which is just $3.99 per month. The Pro version allows you to recall audio/video/text messages that you have sent, as well as manage group chats better. And you can save chat contributions indefinitely. Here is a chart outlining the differences between the Free and Pro versions.

Consider these approaches to using Voxer.

Approach #1 – Enhancing Student Publishing

“The minute kids think their work will be published, they take greater pride in the result,” says editor Susan Meyer (read source). Apps like Voxer allow a teacher to quickly collect photos and audio collections of student(s) reading their pieces. By going to the web version, you can save pictures, video, and/or audio to Dropbox or to your computer.

Approach #2 – Tapping into Students’ Collaborative Potential

“Greater access to technology and computer-assisted learning can be effective in engaging English Language Learners’ (ELL) motivation, developing writing and editing skills,” said Dr. Roland Rios of Fort Sam Houston ISD at the TCEA 2016 Convention and Exposition, “and tapping into the collaborative potential [technology].” At our presentation, Dr. Roland Rios and I had the opportunity to introduce a roomful of TCEA members to Voxer. Participants learned the app, then recorded ideas for how to use it in teaching and learning.

Approach #3 – Participate in Peer Learning Chats

“When we view ‘sharing’ as something that both supports and pushes us to be better,” writes George Couros in Innovators’ Mindset, “the big winner will always be our students.” The quote came from a picture capture on a mobile device and was then shared via the Innovators Mindset Voxer Chat.

Ready to give Voxer a try? Join the TCEA Voxer Sandbox!

April 6, 2016 0 comments

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