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Google voice is a resource that can potentially be used in listening and speaking classes. Essentially, it allows the user to associate a phone number with one's Google account. From there, the user can record messages that the caller will hear when he/she dials the phone number. In a Listening and Speaking context, access to recorders for classroom use may be limited at times. However, many learners have cell phones. To complete a listening and speaking task, during class or for homework, learners can call the phone number, listen to the task, and record their responses. Many concerns with Google Voice arise, however. Most notably, the quality of the recording may be muddy. That is, learners may have a difficult time comprehending the recorded message they hear when initially calling. Additionally, the messages recorded by the learners can be difficult for the instructor to understand. Also, whereas recorders allow learners to confirm that their speech has been recorded, on Google Voice, the learners simply hang up and receive no such confirmation--unless the task is done in a classroom setting whereupon the instructor has the list of messages available. Moreover, the learners are not able to listen to their messages or the messages of other students in the class if they are not logged into the instructor's account. As far as the positive attributes, Google Voice attempts to transcribe messages, and while the transcriptions are not always accurate, even when transcribing messages from native speakers of English, the transcriptions are interesting to read nonetheless. Possibly giving learners an incentive such as extra credit for a perfect transcription due to their pronunciation is an option. Additionally, Google Voice does allow the instructor to download the messages if desired, so saving the files is possible. As far as identifying the callers, each voice message is accompanied by the phone number, so collecting students' phone numbers is probably

Voxopop is a social network based on talk groups. Talk groups can be set up by a teacher, and the teacher can invite students to join. Within a talk group, the teacher can set up strands based on an assignment. For instance, a prompt (an initial recording post) might ask the students to record five sentences using the present progressive tense. Students would then record themselves providing these sentences. Some of the major advantages of Voxopop include the ability for students to listen to the audio posts by other students in the class. Also, whereas using phones with Google Voice require students to respond to a listening prompt immediately (in real time), Voxopop allows students to listen to a prompt, prepare their answers, and then record. In this way, the site may be beneficial for students in lower levels. One of the major disadvantages of Voxopop is that it can be a taxing process to get every student in a class signed up. Additionally, students must have access to computers with microphones to complete tasks outside of class. Moreover, rumor has is that Voxopop has a history of being "down" and therefore is unreliable.

My blurb: This looks like an easy way to make a screencast. You can then upload the screencasts to twitter, facebook, youtube or your own site. Their blurb: Screenr | Instant screencasts: Just click record. Screenr's web-based screen recorder makes it a breeze to create and share your screencasts around the web. Just click the record button, capture your screen & voice, and share the link. Some people even call it fun!

A very simple Screencasting tool. You can upload your screencasts to Youtube w/ Screencast-O-Matic Online screen recorder for one-click recording for free.

A quick overview of using three (iOS) mobile apps for recording podcasts on your phone: Cinch, ipadio, and Audioboo

Soundcloud is a website where students and teachers can upload their audio files for others to listen to online. The best part is that people can leave comments at specific points in the recording that pop up as the recording is played. This way students are able to get precise feedback and encouragement at the exact moment something happens.

Well, this is the description that was automatically populated: "Easy online video recording, video email, and video sharing. Embed a webcam recorder on your site for video testimonials. Run a video contest on your site with customized form and video upload tool. A Video API is available to developers who want to add video messaging to their app."

This site can be used to record and download short videos. Effects can also be added. Files are saved in .flv format.

My English Lab by Pearson is a supplemental site to the North Star Listening and Speaking and Reading and Writing textbooks. With an access code provided in textbooks, students can access a class website. Similar to BlackBoard Learn, My English Lab provides students with a calendar for assignments and enables teachers to upload content. More than that, My English Lab has many related and supplemental resources pertaining to each unit in the corresponding textbooks. For example, when covering unit one in NorthStar 3 about Advertising on the Air, My English Lab gives students access to all of the recordings from the unit that a teacher might use in class. It also gives students flash card decks with the vocabulary for the unit and sometimes has extra exercises for the students to complete. Depending on the exercises, My English Lab will score these exercises to give students grades. The disadvantages of the site primarily relate to logistics. When students by used copies of their textbooks, the books might be missing the access code. Also, students must have access to computers to make use of the site outside of class time.

Live Mocha is an online multi-language community that can be used in a number of ways: Members can write and/or video chat to speakers of their target language, complete practice exercises in all skill areas, and record themselves speaking so other members can review submissions and offer suggestions (if they do not want to do a live video chat). As a teacher, I believe this website is a great resource, especially to supplement in-class materials. Students can sign up (membership is free) and communicate regularly with native speakers of their target language. For a reading and writing class, this website would be a fairly easy one to use in order to set up pen pals. For a listening and speaking class, the role plays and video dialogues could be useful.

Livemocha is a site I personally use to improve my L2. You can learn for free through an exchange program of helping others and in return they help you. On the other hand you can sign up for a personal tutor for a fee.

This website allows you to create a free audio dropbox on any webpage where students can record and save audio files for their teacher to retrieve. Could be very useful for speaking homework assignments, rather than relying on a third party website such as voxopop.

A very cool free app! It's basically an interactive whiteboard and you can record as you draw/write. Designed to let you create video lessons. You can then either embed the lessons in your own web page or create a course where your students can view all your lessons. Students can also register and create their own lessons.

Here's my blurb: This website, hosted by the University of Houston, explores the educational uses of digital storytelling. The site contains practical information regarding different digital storytelling programs, and provides "how to" activities for writing scripts, designing storyboards, and recording audio. There is also lesson planning information, copyright information, and a discussion of rubrics for assessment and evaluation. Here's there blurb: About this Site The Goals of this Website The primary goal of the Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling website is to serve as a useful resource for educators and students who are interested in how digital storytelling can be integrated into a variety of educational activities.

If you do a digital storytelling project with your students, the Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling site linked to a contest for K-12 students to submit their stories and win cool awards such as iPods and has contests for the best stories, and your students could potentially win awards, such as iPod Minis and iPod Nanos, and scholarships up to $8000. Pretty cool motivator, don't you think? Here's the link: http://www.distco.org/

This site is a good resource for listening practice. The site offers a proficiency test so that students can figure out what level of listenings they should start with. Then they have a page full of different recordings from English speakers all over the world so that students can get more familiar with different accents. Finally the students can take a test that will tell them whether or not they understood the passage.

I don't think this resource has been posted yet. It's a website with simple news stories for English language learners. Each news story has a recorded version that learners can listen to and a transcript for them to read. The transcripts have glosses for difficult words as well. Overall, it looks like a good resource for in or out of class reading or listening activities.

I like stories that come with transcripts. Because it will help students listen and read at the same time. I think that having students with different learning styles, this would be extremely beneficial. Thanks Alan

Sorry, this resource isn't free, but if your ESL program decides they can spare just $5-6/week, then both students and teachers can use the same password to access news stories as well as features such as audio recordings of stories, exercises, crossword puzzles, and definitions of key vocabulary. I taught a weekly current events ESL class for adults, and students loved News For You. Each week there are 7 new stories, and several students would read/listen to all the stories before coming to class. I would pick one or two stories to focus on during the 90-minute class. I made my own activities, but students who wanted to could do the online exercises at a library or community center computer. However, because the stories are written for adults who are learning to read (either ABE or ESL students), the content is not as authentic as a regular newspaper. But the fact that it is motivating and accessible to students and encourages lively discussions in class makes it a nice resource.

Teaching spelling and vocabulary is easy with VocabularySpellingCity! Students can study and learn their word lists using vocabulary and spelling learning activities and games. Students can take final or practice spelling and vocabulary tests right on this engaging site. Premium games and automated student record keeping are available to Premium Members.