We have decided to start using this online service as part of the online toolkit for our French courses. While some of its functions may be found in CMS systems and others in more narrowly focused website (i.e., VoiceThread), Schoolshape does so, so much more. In particular it duplicates or even surpasses the capabilities of traditional language lab software. The big differences are 1) its price (more than 1/10 the cost in our case), 2) greater flexibility in terms of use and format support and 3) user friendliness.
From the corporate website:
Schoolshape does everything offered by other language labs, and more besides: CD quality audio recording High quality video recording Audio broadcast Video broadcast One-to-one audio calls One-to-one video calls Audio bookmarking Audio group discussion Teacher-controlled pairing Random pairing Group text discussion (forum) Private messaging Pronunciation exercises Dialogue exercises Audio and video upload and download Supports mp3, flv, wav, wmv, mp4, ogg formats Supports pictures in jpg, gif, png formats Supports flash animations and games Supports YouTube video Download audio for use with mp3 players Supports Windows XP, Vista, 7, MacOS 10.4+, Linux, ChromeOS, iPad 2, Android 2.2+.
I am Associate Professor of French and Director of the Summer Study in France program at Minnesota State University, Mankato. A medievalist by training, I am also currently doing research in the area of classroom technology for second language acquisition.