Publishing audio at will

Thursday, April 2nd 2009 by Wes FryercloseAuthor: Wes Fryer Name: Wes Fryer
Email: wes@isteconnects.org
Site: http://www.speedofcreativity.org
About: Wesley is an international learning consultant, author, digital storyteller, educator and catalyst for educational reform focused on blended learning, differentiated instruction, and creative engagement. His bio is available on www.wesfryer.com/bio and complete vitae on www.wesfryer.com/vitae.See Authors Posts (74)

The capability to publish ideas instantaneously for a global audience can inspire both excitement as well as fear.

(Flickr CC Image)

Blogs are naturally “publish at will” platforms. While blogs certainly CAN be configured to have new posts “moderated” by someone serving in the role of a gatekeeper, by default most blogs allow users to publish INSTANTLY. If you’re interested in setting up a blog for moderated posting by students, I’d recommend using Class Blogmeister for this purpose. Wordpress blogs can be configured for contributor posts to be moderated as well, but this requires a bit of configuration. (This is the setup we’re using here on ISTEconnects, btw.) On the Wordpress dashboard, under SETTINGS – GENERAL SETTINGS, we’ve checked the MEMBERSHIP box ANYONE CAN REGISTER and set the “New User Default Role” to be CONTRIBUTOR. With these configuration settings, new posts must be reviewed by a user designated as an “editor” or “administrator” before they become “live” on the site. For more on this, see the Wordpress.org CODEX article “Roles and Capabilities.” To setup a free classroom or personal Wordpress blog you don’t have to host yourself, I recommend using EduBlogs or Wordpress.com. Blogs setup with Blogger can similarly be setup as “team” blogs with moderated contributions from members which can include students and/or teachers. See the Blogger help article “How do I create a team blog?” for more details. My post from July 2008, “How can our school set up a team blog for teachers?” also gives more information about this for Wordpress users.

While publishing text “at will” is an increasingly common experience in our information landscape, publishing audio has been less common. A couple of years ago, elementary educator and podcaster-extrordinaire Bob Sprankle (via Cheryl Oakes) taught me about the free webservice Springdoo. Sadly, like more than a few web 2.0 sites and technologies, Springdoo closed up shop and is no longer functioning. Springdoo allowed users to, without logging in or creating a user account, immediately record audio which was published on the web for others to hear it. It was billed as a “voice to email” service. I loved it.

Ever since I used Springdoo and it closed up shop, I’ve been looking for similar websites that support “publishing audio at will.” In the past week, I’ve been delighted to discover two free services which have this functionality.

Vocaroo is an audio web tool I learned about thanks to Missouri educator Elizabeth Helfant and thanks to Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan educator Kathy Cassidy. (Kathy has a classroom blog on ClassBlogmeister too.) Similar to Springdoo, Vocaroo permits users to record audio IMMEDIATELY to the web using a computer with a microphone. Vocaroo accounts are optional. They are beneficial, since they permit you to see all your past Vocaroo recordings together in a single place, but they are not required. This can be a plus particularly when working with students in a computer lab setting. This is an example Vocaroo recording, which I created using the built-in microphone on my MacBook laptop:

If you have trouble recording with Vocaroo, take a look at the site’s FAQ list. I also found Adobe’s Flash Player help instructions beneficial for troubleshooting microphone issues. Users can right click / control click the Flash player area in a webpage and choose SETTINGS to change the microphone Flash settings which were previously selected.

AudioBoo is another “publish audio at will” option available for iPhone owners. This is an example of an AudioBoo recording I created, comparing the features of AudioBoo to Qik.com. Like Qik, Audioboo lets users share their location on planet earth with others. Locations can also be hidden / kept private.

The Audioboo page for a recording shows (if users choose) the location where the Audioboo was made. Vocaroo does not support geo-location, but it can be used on any Internet-connected computer with a microphone. Audioboo requires an iPhone.

Some websites are now supporting interactive, asychronous audio chat conversations. Yackpack and Voxopop are two examples I know about. I’ve used Yackpack a bit with my kids and in professional development workshops with teachers, but not Voxopop.

What do you think of “publish audio at will” websites and technologies like Vocaroo and Audioboo?

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