The possibilities and benefits of using free audio books or audio recording technology in the classroom is astounding. Students love technology and are motivated to complete technology based assignments. At present, these are some of the ideas I am brainstorming for my classroom as well as other teachers:
- listening to reading assignments while following along in the book. Great way to accomodate students with dyslexia or other disabilities that cause learning difficulties with the written word or processing information.
- reading practice for students who struggle. The immediate feedback and privacy-no one else will hear their recordings-will help students self-correct and recognize where and what they need to improve.
- recording children’s stories in child development classes and sharing them with preschool students.
- recording lectures or instructions for students to listen too. Great for students who are absent and those who need instructions several times. Saves the teacher time too.
- use with a digital voice recorder and lavalier microphone to record lectures and post on a blog for students to access any time.
- download text of public domain books, such as Poe, Shakespeare, Wells, and other authors studied in high school english and literature classes.
- create readers theater performances for a class assignment.
- use audio recording technology for alternative way to complete some assignments, oral vocabulary recitation
- the teacher can read assignment instructions and possibly textbook for IEP accomodations (check copyright policy prior to recording the textbook). You may need to erase or destroy the disk when the unit is completed. Be legal with this one.
- record narration for presentations such as power point or open source presentations.
If you have other ideas for using free audio recordings in the classroom, please post them in the comments. You will be credited for your contribution.
If you record audio books, one way of identifying reading mistakes is to make a pop or snap noise. This leaves a distinctive pattern in the sound wave that allows the editor to cut the misspoken parts out. One hazard of this technique is evident when leaving voice messages. I recited my phone number incorrectly. When I realized my mistake, I did the little tongue snap on the roof of my mouth and repeated the number. When I hung the phone up, I realized my LibriVox reflex response, oh, the helpless feeling. The problem with voice mail is the inability to remove misspeaks. How do I explain my odd little habits to the recipients of my messages? Ah, the life and times of this LibriVox audio recorder.
I started a second blog for my fairy tale collection. Please visit and enjoy. It will be added to on a regular basis. Many fairy tales will become audio recordings at time goes on, so visit often to see what is new! ONCE UPON A FAIRY TALE
You may listen to the preface to The Lilac Fairy Book by Andrew Lang. Is is an interesting look into the mind of Lang. This was the last of the 12 Colour Fairy Books, one wonders if Lang was tired of the project and being thought only as the man who writes fairy books. In truth, Lang gathered the stories from many sources such as older published fairy tale collections and oral traditions. His wife and several other friends and aquaintances translated and put into type the stories Lang collected.
I am coordinating my first book project at LibriVox, The Lilac Fairy Book (link to my wiki page) by Andrew Lang. It is the last of his 12 colour fairy books, published in 1910. There are 33 stories form several different countries. A great read and the source of many fond childhood memories. Watch the audio recordings progress at LibriVox.
Need a last minute gift? Broke? Shop LibriVox for the classic gift, a book. Only this is an audio book, recorded for your listening pleasure. Download one, download them all. For the price of a few CDR’s you look generous, thoughtful, and downright loveable.
What the WWW needs is a Wiki directory/catalog of websites offering public domain audio books to the public. This idea is being discussed on LibriVox and most likely many other sites. If you know of a site that offers public domain audio books, read- free and no longer under copyright, please post a comment here with the link! Your help is appreciated!
Thanks to Reader’s Digest! LibriVox.org was listed in the Best of the Web
I discovered some interesting audio books that are for sale. These are not your common, online bookstore audio books. I will hand-pick these sources for their humanitarian, social, educational value, or any other reason I feel they should be listed. After all, this is my blog and according to the Bill of Rights, I have free speech. Gotta love it! So if I chose your site, be happy. If I don’t, I don’t. That is my choice. The obscure, the niche, the hard-to-find, the unusual. Bonus points will go to not-for-profit sites is the proceeds go to charitable causes.
First listing on the for sale page!
TO ALL PERFORMING ARTISTS OF ALL GENRES:
The public domain initiative-MY IDEA OF THE DAY-All audio, music, performing artists are challenged to offer one song, one book, one performance without charge to the public! You get royalites on all the other work-why not be generous and let the world have a sample of your creativity, talent, and generousity. Send me a link to your public domain work and I will put it on this site!
Announcing a net community-a gathering of all readers recording books in the public domain. Look at the menu at the top of this page. Do you see the AUDIO BOOK WEBSITES page? If you have or know of a website that offers public domain audiobooks, drop me a comment and I will add the link to the page! The only thing I ask is that you put a link to this site on your webpage.
Public Domain: A work is said to be in the public domain if it is not protected by copyright, or if the copyright for it has expired.
I will check your blog before adding your site link. This page is only for recordings that are OUT OF COPYRIGHT AND AVAILABLE AT ABSOLUTELY NO COST TO THE LISTENER! In other words, the material is no longer under copyright protection and the recording is free to anyone to download and use as they desire!
AUDIO LIBERATION – FREE AND IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN
this site is for those who provide all their recordings free to the public
Thank you, FREE and happy listening!
How might a teacher use LibriVox, Gutenberg Project, Audacity, WavePad, a teacher blog, and the internet as an integral, not an add on, element of the curriculum? How might each field of study be enhanced, enlivened, and enjoyed. In Ten Best Teaching Practices, Donna Tileston stresses the emotional component of learning. When students learn in a positive, supportive learning environment long-term memory and recall are improved. The end result is knowledge for a lifetime, not for a test or project. Technology is second nature to many students, watch them in the computer lab. What would happen if we harnessed this technological hunger and delight? How might your students and mine approach learning. After all, if you are reading this blog, you are a technophile. If students love what they are learning, or at least love the way they are learning, might we see engaged, interested, and willing learners?
Please navigate the links to your right and visit the websites mentioned in this blog.
Hog Butcher for the World,
Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,
Player with Railroads and the Nation’s Freight Handler;
Stormy, husky, brawling,
City of the Big Shoulders:
They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I have seen your painted women under the gas lamps luring the farm boys.
And they tell me you are crooked and I answer: Yes, it is true I have seen the gunman kill and go free to kill again.
And they tell me you are brutal and my reply is: On the faces of women and children I have seen the marks of wanton hunger.
And having answered so I turn once more to those who sneer at this my city, and I give them back the sneer and say to them:
Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning.
Flinging magnetic curses amid the toil of piling job on job, here is a tall bold slugger set vivid against the little soft cities;
Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action, cunning as a savage pitted against the wilderness,
Building, breaking, rebuilding,
Under the smoke, dust all over his mouth, laughing with white teeth,
Under the terrible burden of destiny laughing as a young man laughs,
Laughing even as an ignorant fighter laughs who has never lost a battle,
Bragging and laughing that under his wrist is the pulse. and under his ribs the heart of the people,
Laughing the stormy, husky, brawling laughter of youth, half-naked, sweating,
Proud to be Hog Butcher, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and Freight Handler to the Nation.
– Carl Sandburg, 1916