Hi,
I'm trying to create a voice discussion board for an ESL class within my Moodle site. I've run into a couple of deal breakers but just wanted to describe what I've been doing so far and see if anyone has any tips.
The first thing I used was Evoca, which allows me to paste the image of the voice recorder onto a web page. Students can record their comments online, and then I can go into my account, copy the html from their comments, and then paste it onto the original webpage. The result is that I can create something of an audio blog or discussion board, but students aren't able to upload their comments directly, and I Evoca doesn't allow me to save the audio files as an mp3.
I'm also familiar with the Audio Recorder plug in that's available to Moodle. I wish it worked as a Forum activity instead of an assignment activity, but that's okay. The only really annoying thing is that it only works with Internet Explorer - not Firefox. A lot of the activities I make with Hot Potatoes don't work with IE because IE prompts them to allow Active X for each audio file on a page - sometimes quite a few. So, not being able to use Firefox with Audio Recorder really kills that one.
Finally, the coolest thing that I've seen is Gong. It's exactly what I'm looking for, but I don't have a computer to act as a dedicated server. Does anyone know if my only option is to get a dedicated server? Is there any way around that?
Thanks - sorry for this long winded blow by blow!
Jack
Thank you!
At first glance, that looks perfect!
Jack
At first glance, that looks perfect!
Jack
Hi Jack,
If you haven't already, you might take a look at some discussions in Moodle for Language Teaching to see developments there. In particular...
Cheers,
Don
If you haven't already, you might take a look at some discussions in Moodle for Language Teaching to see developments there. In particular...
- Media Blog with voice recording (requires Flash Media server)
- COVCELL voice applications
- Audacity mp3 recordings
Cheers,
Don
Thanks very much for the links and the info. I've used Audacity extensively for other purposes, but one problem I have with students using it is that the final product sometimes gets to be a little inauthentic. They spend about 45 minutes recording a two minute assignment, continually editing and starting over again. Still though, having them use audacity and then uploading it into a forum is a very good idea and pretty much accomplishes the task. I guess one thing that I was looking for was to put zero tech responsibilities on the students, which is why I liked Gong and Vaestro.
Anyway, I'll look into COVCELL some more - I just perused their moodle "playground" briefly.
Thanks again,
Jack
Anyway, I'll look into COVCELL some more - I just perused their moodle "playground" briefly.
Thanks again,
Jack
I tested out Vaestro today with an advanced level class of 15 students. I had made some instructions, but they turned out to be irrelevant as Vaestro went totally haywire on us.
First of all, some of the students clicked the link to Register and that took them to a log in page. That threw them off. That was resolved by using Firefox instead of IE. Then, after students gave Vaestro their e-mail, they were sent all of these ill-formed links to continue the registration process. It was a long string of letters, two sections of which were hypertext linked. To solve this, students had to find where the http://www. started, somewhere in the middle of this string of letters, copy that and paste it into the address bar. Even that didn't work for two students, so they had to re-enter their e-mail address.
Once students actually got registered, there were still a lot of problems with the performance of the "channel." Students were often confused as to why something wasn't working, so I had to tell them to refresh the page and that seemed to usually solve it.
So, overall it was a pretty hectic experience. I guess that's what you get for jumping into something that you don't know too much about.
First of all, some of the students clicked the link to Register and that took them to a log in page. That threw them off. That was resolved by using Firefox instead of IE. Then, after students gave Vaestro their e-mail, they were sent all of these ill-formed links to continue the registration process. It was a long string of letters, two sections of which were hypertext linked. To solve this, students had to find where the http://www. started, somewhere in the middle of this string of letters, copy that and paste it into the address bar. Even that didn't work for two students, so they had to re-enter their e-mail address.
Once students actually got registered, there were still a lot of problems with the performance of the "channel." Students were often confused as to why something wasn't working, so I had to tell them to refresh the page and that seemed to usually solve it.
So, overall it was a pretty hectic experience. I guess that's what you get for jumping into something that you don't know too much about.
>>They spend about 45 minutes recording a two minute assignment, continually editing and starting over again.
I see. I don't have them do any editing in Audacity. I suppose they could, but I agree, the less time spent playing with the tool, the better. So I don't teach editing, and they spend less than 10 minutes for a two minute recording.
I wish someone could integrate Audacity into Moodle (without editing functions)--to cut out the attachment process. Is that feasible? The quality is so much better than anything else I have tried.
I see. I don't have them do any editing in Audacity. I suppose they could, but I agree, the less time spent playing with the tool, the better. So I don't teach editing, and they spend less than 10 minutes for a two minute recording.
I wish someone could integrate Audacity into Moodle (without editing functions)--to cut out the attachment process. Is that feasible? The quality is so much better than anything else I have tried.