FTT - SoundCloud

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Sound Advice:

Using SoundCloud With Your Students

@joe_edtech

I had the opportunity to go to the Tech & Learning Live mini conference last week, and got to learn from the "God Father" of the Flipped Classroom teaching model, John Bergmann. One of the things that he wanted to make perfectly clear was that the "Flipped" model has never just been about videos. It is about providing students with interactive resources and rich content. And while video immediately seems to increase the level of engagement in our kids, there are other resources that can help us accomplish some of the same goals - and maybe even reach different types of learners. 

One of those underutilized resources is Audio. Yet we know it is powerful. I know, for instance, that when my daughter listens to an auidobook as she reads the text, her engagement and comprehension is significantly better.

SoundCloud is a social networking site designed around audio recordings. Specifically, it is about creating your own audio, uploading it, and sharing it. And yes, the recordings can be shared privately so that only your students can listen, or only you can listen to your students.

SoundCloud is pretty simple to use. First, you'll need to go to soundcloud.com and create a free account for yourself. Then, you can either upload recordings you've already made, or create a recording directly on the website. Here's a very short video that shows you how to create and share a SoundCloud recording:

SoundCloud is a great tool to use if you want to provide your students with an audio recording of their reading homework, or if you have WL students working on verbal skills, or music theory students working on sight singing. If you are interested in creating podcasts for your students, SoundCloud makes that easy too (click here for directions on making and publishing podcasts using SoundCloud).

There are some limitations to SoundCloud, but not many. Initially, you have 3 hours of recording and storage space on SoundCloud. If you run out of space, you can delete old recordings to make more room. If this is a tool you intend to use frequently, there is a premium package you can subscribe to for $6 or $15 a month, depending on how much space you need.

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How do you use audio in your class? Do you have another free tool we should try?