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Vocaroo is a cool online voice recording service that is super easy to use (and it doesn’t require a login or password). After you’ve recorded your voice, you can email the audio file to someone, embed it into your blog, wiki, or webpage, or save it to your hard drive.

Vocaroo
http://vocaroo.com

Recording Your Voice:

1. Go to http://vocaroo.com.
2. Make sure you have a microphone (either a built-in microphone or a plug-in microphone should work.)
3. Click the “Click to Record” button.
4. Click to “Allow” Vocaroo to access your microphone.
5. The recording will start immediately. Note - sometimes it doesn’t record the first time I try. I have the best luck if I stop the recording and then click the “Record Again” button.
6. Click the Listen button to hear the recording.

Sharing/Saving the Recording:

Once the sound is recorded, you will have three options:

1. Send to a friend - just enter your email and your friend’s email and click the “Send” button.
2. Post on the Internet - just copy the provided code or link and paste it into your blog, wiki, or website.
3. Download - right-click the “Download this Message” link and save the file to your hard drive as a .wav file.

Classroom Applications:

Here are a few ideas to get you started. Please use the comments area below this post to add your own ideas.

• Record an audio welcome message and put it on your blog (or wiki or web page).
• Elementary students can practice their oral reading skills. You could even post them on your blog for parents and grandparents to hear.
• Each day have one student record “what we did in school today” and post it on your blog.
• Students in a foreign language class could record words or phrases and then email them to their teacher.
• Left your students with a substitute? Record a message to encourage your students to be on their best behavior!

Tiny Chat

I ran across this free chat room website while reading another blog. The website is called “tinychat” and is extremely easy to use -- and it doesn’t require any registration or logins!
The URL is www.tinychat.com.

How/Why would you use a chat room in your classroom?

• The class can participate in a quiet “discussion” while watching a movie or video.
• The teacher and students can post questions and answers during a lecture or presentation.
• Students could “Google” for additional information and post their findings ASAP during a lecture or presentation.
• Students can enter their thoughts and opinions on a given topic. Note - a chat room levels the playing field so that ALL students have an equal voice.
• The teacher can monitor as students can practice acceptable online behavior.
• The class can collaborate with students from a different school, state, or even a different country!
• Students can share collaborative resources.
• Use a chat room to communicate with students while watching a televised event in the evening.
• The class can communicate with a home-bound student.
• Please add your own ideas by adding a comment below!

How to Use TinyChat ...

The teacher will:
1. Go to: www.tinychat.com
2. Click the “Click to Create your Chatroom” button.
3. Share the provided URL. (Note - you will also be able to see / share the URL after you enter the chat room.)
4. Click the “Enter Chat Room” link.
5. Enter your name; click “go.”

The students will:
1. Go to the provided URL.
2. Enter their name; click “go.”

To Chat:
1. Enter your message in the box at the bottom of the screen.
2. Click the “Send” button or press the enter key on your keyboard.

Saving the Chat (Optional):
If you want to archive the chat:
1. Click the floppy disk icon in the lower-left corner.
2. Save the file. (It will save as a RTF file and will open with any word processor.)Note - I had some trouble saving the chat, but I was able to easily copy the text from the chat and paste it into a word processor.

I came across this site while reading a Technology blog that I frequent. JeopardyLabs allows you to create a customized jeopardy game without using PowerPoint. The games you create may then be played online from anywhere in the world. They have a simple editor to assist you in building your own jeopardy template, too. If you are not interested in building your own, you can check out the templates created by others. Best of all it's Free, and no registration is needed! Check it out!

SmileBox

SmileBox is another Web 2.0 tool that allows you to create precious slideshows and scrapbook type pages for FREE. Of course, there is a paid version, but ... free is good for me. Here is a SmileBox that I just created with pictures that I had with me. Check it out.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

This one allows you to view all of the pictures small from the onset. Click the yellow star to play it. It will enlarge each picture and then reduce it and enlarge the next one. It even allows you to select a piece of music from their site or to upload your own music. Give it a try!

Google Resources

Google offers a multitude of terrific tools that can be used to enhance both teaching and learning. The tools are powerful, user-friendly, and FREE! In future posts, I will be highlighting some of these tools and will share ideas of how they can be used in the classroom.

In order to take advantage of Google’s resources, you will need to have an account. To create one, you just need a valid email address. You could use your school email or a personal email account, if you prefer.

To set up your teacher account:
1. Go to http://www.google.com/
2. Click the “Sign in” link in the upper-right corner:
3. Click the “Create an account now” link at the lower-right:
4. Follow the on-screen prompts to create an account.
Note - the hardest part will most likely be the word verification where you will have to decipher the word and type it.
5. Check your email for a message from Google. It will include a link that will verify and enable your account.

TikaTok

TikaTok is an online site that helps students imagine a story and create a book. The site includes a wonderful tutorial which explains the process of writing, illustrating, and publishing their book. Students can share their books with their classmates online, or they can choose to purchase a hard or softcover book.

Visit http://tikatok.com/ to get started! Click on the "take a quick video tour" link on the right-side of the site for complete details. Also, take a look at the Tikatok Blog: Uncommon Brainstorming Ideas, Part I - http://nightly.tikatok.net/2008/writables-uncommon-brainstorming-activities-part-1/. Here, you and your students will find uncommon brainstorming ideas to spark creativity and get the story ideas flowing.