Ever used AUDIOBOO?

Audioboo is an excellent online tool that promotes meaningful language by recording responses to visual prompts such as books, experiences, video clips, self-drawn pictures, and more. This article hopes to encourage educators to give audioboo a go, especially those of you who teach New Entrants. There is absolutely nothing intimidating about Audioboo — for teachers or students! Uploading content is as easy as recording. Adding text, visual content is a matter of editing a post in the blog it has been embedded into.  Audioboo’s simple interface makes it an accessible tool regardless of your experience with digital tools. It is particularly applicable for using with very young children although the age level of the students doesn't really matter. Audioboo will engage your students and stimulate language, speech and oral acquisition, as well as enhance listening skills.

I have been using audioboo (link) since August 2012 however I am really excited about some fantastic improvements to their platform along with the inclusion of ipad and android apps that make Audioboo an amazing classroom tool - particularly for New Entrant teachers!

What is Audioboo?

It's an audio tool for recording speech, sounds and many other things: baseline speech for all, but particularly ELL children, school or classroom sounds, responses to questions or learning experiences, recording children; reading, singing, talking, telling stories or narrating a picture. Audioboo works on iOS and Android devices or via the web.

"Audioboo allows smartphone users to record and playback digital recordings of up to three minutes in length which can then be posted on the Audioboo website where users have their own pages or channels akin to Twitter or YouTube. These recordings are referred to as 'boos' and photos can be added to the boo from the iPhone library or an Android phone along with a title, geotagging and category tagging. Uploading an Audioboo can be done with a mobile device, directly through the website, via a special phone number, or via boomail, a service that lets you upload a boo via email. The app is popular for uploading both short messages and full-length podcasts from both private users and broadcasters. It has been extensively adopted as an educational tool"  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AudioBoo

Schools and universities around the world are embracing Audioboo as the easiest, most effective way to give teachers and students a voice. Audio enriches the curriculum, engages the learner, and creates conversations 
that build community. "https://audioboo.fm/about/education"

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What outcomes do we achieve using AUDIOBOO?

As 5 year olds, my learners are fully verbal learners who participate in a variety of new experiences and respond to these experiences through talk. The language skills of five-year-olds can generally be well developed. Most pronounce words clearly, speak in complex and compound sentences, use correct grammar for the most part and have good-sized vocabularies that continue to grow rapidly and audioboo will certainly support strong modelling for less capable speakers. Children this age enjoy initiating conversations, can wait their turn to speak during group conversations and are typically able to include appropriate details when sharing personal experiences. All of this can be captured by audioboo as strong evidence of their on-going language acquisition.

Because most five-year-olds are not yet writing responses down, audioboo enables me as their teacher to include their authentic voice onto their blog. They are so proud when they hear their own and other children’s voices on it. Each and every time we post something new, they want to listen to it- again and again!

The oldest of my class have only had 2 weeks at school and already they are starting to ask… “can we do a boo?”

The children are learning how to record their thoughts, opinions and answers in an open and honest way for sharing on our class blog.

The most significant aspect is that our voices can be re-listened to, and eventually, I hope that an element of reflection will be incorporated as well.  I hope this grows an authentic audience for our class blog.  

How to use Audioboo:

Firstly, visit the link above and sign up for a free Audioboo account.  Wait to receive an email to authenticate your login. You can boo anonymously from the mobile app but it's way better with an account - all you need is an email address. You can enter your real name, a short bio and a web link but you don’t have to. You can also upload a photo or use a gravatar.

You can choose to link to twitter, facebook tumblr or blogger. This will make sure your boos appear where you want them published, while they will still always remain available on audioboo. Just go to your Profile section… top right of purple tab. choose “settings’. Set this up how you’d like it to operate.  I have  selected “posting to other sites” then selected Blogger (see the bottom of this picture).

Click the + button and add your class blog address here.

My class blog (Room 3’s blog) is linked to my Audioboo account, which means an automatic upload once I have saved and uploaded a “Boo”!

Now, download the App on your smart phone, tablet or i-pad and log in. I will automatically remember you. You can also add a title, description, a photo and a location. There's a 3 minute limit for the free plan, but you can upgrade for more if you need it.

You can record a Boo without access to internet, and later, to upload the Boo you recorded, you have to open the APP, and it automatically begins and completes the upload. Saves hours of time.

Once the upload is complete all you have to do is go to blogger, go into the design of the blog, select “edit” the post and change the title, or add some text into the body of the post as you choose to. So simple!