SoundCloud: need to share a recording?

3 Mayo 2013 — Cristina Cabal

Are you running out of time to test your students’ speaking ability? Are you  a student and looking for an easy-to-use tool to send your teacher your speech? I’ve found the perfect tool for you! It is called SoundCloud and has been around for some time now ,so one can only assume that it is entirely reliable.
Sound Cloud is an amazing site which has a lot of potential for teaching and learning English. What can you do with SoundCloud? You can upload your own audio and you can record yourself. You are then given a unique url and the possibility to embed the audio in your own website or blog.
Why am I so enthusiastic about my students using SoundCloud? Because my students willl be able to send me their recordings and I will be able to correct them by inserting comments about their pronunciation, grammar…. directly into the recording and exactly at the exact second at which the mistake is made.

You need to register but it is completely free up to two hours ; then, you’ll need to upgrade to a paid plan or delete some of your recordings.

Below I’ve embedded a SoundCloud Recording to tempt you to try this useful tool!

Snow Patrol - You Could Be Happy [HD] by Cristina Cabal
 

 Here’s a tutorial I found on the Internet which clearly explains how to upload and share your recording.

 

and now, for teachers, here’s a chopped tutorial from Princippia Innovación Educativa, about how to insert comments on a Souncloud Recording.

Posted in Audio, Create your own stuff, Resources, Speaking, Tutorial, freeware. 2 Comments »

QR Codes in Education Part 1

13 Diciembre 2012 — Cristina Cabal

My intention when I started writing this article was to show how I was planning to integrate QR Codes in my classes but then I realized that there was much explaining to do before this article served its purpose. I am familiar with QR codes but I wondered if my readers were. For this reason, I have decided to split this post into two.Here you’ll find the theory , and in QRCodes Part 2 (coming shortly) you’ll see some of my ideas to introduce them in the classroom, or rather as homework ,as students in Spain aren’t allowed to bring their mobile devices to the school.

It was not that long ago when I saw for the first time a QR Code . I remember I was in Ikea and thought … what the heck is this? And then I thought … Do I really want to know? And then some time later…. But are they really here to stay?Now, it’s crystal clear to me that QR codes are here to stay and I am only beginning to test their potencial in education.

 But what is a QR code ? QR is short for Quick Response (they can be read quickly by a mobile phone)They are white and black barcode squares that can be easily generated and that allow you to encode text , urls, images and audio files among other things - lately they have become more sophisticated as you will see below. Now you can only begin to imagine the possibilities for education.

But how do we generate a QR code?

 GENERATING A SIMPLE QR CODE

Nothing could be easier. If you google “QR code generator” you’ll find lots . The ones below are just some of them:
Kaywa QR Code ( it allows you to encode URLs, text (160 characters), phone numbers,sms.   

GO QR.Me  (same as above but it allows you to encode 300 characters)

 

CUSTOMISING YOUR QR CODE

Now, we all know about QR codes: they are black and white squares, containing encoded data. Boring, isn’t it? Why don’t we decorate and make our QR code more stylish ?

 QRstuff is definitely my favourite  

VisualLead lets you integrate a QR Code into an image , blending QR Codes with a design or image of your choice

Now , we have created our QR code. What’s next?

GETTING A QR Code Reader

Lots of modern phones can read QR codes but first you need to download a QR reader/scanner. For example , in my mobile I have installed AT&T Code Scanner but there are lots of them you can download for free. For iPhone, Scan is a good one, and for Android there’s QR Droid.

 HOW TO SCAN A QR CODE

To scan the codes, all you need is a mobile device with a camera, and a QR code reader or scanner app to interpret the data in the code. Open your QR reader on your phone or ipod and center the QR code within the frame provided and let the magic begin!

Holding your breath for Part 2?

Posted in Create your own stuff, Resources, Tutorial, freeware. No Comments »

2 Tools you need to make a tutorial

14 Marzo 2012 — Cristina Cabal

I don’t really know whether anyone out there is interested in this post, so let’s say that I publish this , more for my sake , than for anybody else’s. Let’s call a spade a spade! I’m getting old and my memory is beginning to let me down from time to time. And who knows, you might find it useful if you want to create a tutorial such as the one I did for MyBrainshark(click) and then  share it in  Youtube.

♥ First , you need to download Jing, which is a free software that captures everything you see on your screen , image or video( up to five minutes). You can  also record your own voice.For more information and to download it for free, click here  .

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Right , so now I have recorded my tutorial with Jing, but there is a small problem. What you get from recording with Jing is a SWF (ShockWave Flash)file format ,which is not supported by YouTube. So you need to convert your SWF file into , for example , FLV. Don’t hassle! Nothing could be easier!

♥ Download iWsoft Flash/SWF to video converter and just follow the instructions. Upload your swf file , open Settings, choose the file format (FLV/youTube) and off you go!

♥ Now, create a YouTube account and just upload your tutorial. A piece of cake!

Posted in Create your own stuff, Tutorial, freeware. No Comments »

MyBrainShark Tutorial in Spanish

19 Enero 2012 — Cristina Cabal

This is the first tutorial I’ve made and the truth is that is has been a lot of fun. It’s in Spanish because it is meant for my students and while some of them are quite confident using new technologies not all of them are and I don’t want to add to them the extra burden of having to understand the tutorial in English.

I’ve posted about MyBrainshark here and here

I’ll show you some of their presentations using MyBrainshark some other time. For the time being , watch this brief tutorial if you are interested in using this useful tool to learn English.

This video was embedded using the YouTuber plugin by Roy Tanck. Adobe Flash Player is required to view the video.

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Posted in Tutorial. No Comments »