This week we are exploring the world of audio.  I have discovered several new tools that would make a wonderful addition to the classroom.  The one I tried below is Blabberize.  I am sure my students have used tools such as this one before, but I have never played around with it before now.  I took great delight with this new tool!  I made a silly one that would work with Julius Caesar.  I might need some further practice with drawing the mouth.  I can see many uses in the classroom from a quick quotation from a character to a longer analysis of a character's intentions.  I am not sure how long the recording can be, but I could use this in so many ways.  Students could make these for a debate about who is the tragic hero.  After writing down their thoughts and examples, they could then turn to this tool to record them.  It would be an interesting twist on a discussion.  It doesn't allow for as much cross interaction because there is no chance for a rebuttal, but it would be a nice addition to a project. I mentioned before that we do campaign speeches for Julius Caesar.  Each student must have a slogan.  It would be great for students to create one of these with their chosen character from the play and record their campaign slogan.  I really enjoyed the article from Stephanie Laird on how she incorporates Blabberize in her classroom for persuasive writing.  This would be a good technique to use.  Students could be assigned a certain side in a debate, and then record their reasons along with a relevant image.

Narrable is another wonderful audio tool where students can narrate and tell the story through words and images.  I could see doing short research projects utilizing this tool.  In the beginning of the year, we always do projects on summer reading.  For one of their book choices, it might be cool to try using Narrable choosing relevant images to the book and explaining the symbolism behind each picture.  It would require some computer time, but I think the outcome would be much better than students haphazardly creating generic book projects.  They might have to actually read the book to complete this type of project!

AudioPal and Vocaroo are both good tools for adding a sound bite to a presentation.  They can't be connected with images, but using these tools within a presentation would enhance it.  I could see students adding a quotation from an author's work or a description of a character to improve the overall presentation.