A significant component of our Manaiakalani projects is to increase our students' oracy, but we all struggle with the issue of getting enough quiet spaces in a busy school to record the quantity of work the students are producing. So anything that simplifies the technical process has got to be of huge benefit. I've seen the Easi-Speak mic at a few trade stands over the past year, and seen teachers saying it is great on Twitter, so I finally got around to ordering two and they arrived today. I went down the corridor and asked for a volunteer student to come and play with it and 'show' me how to use it. There is no learning curve with recording, and the USB connection to the computer is easy as well. We experimented with a few applications to drag and drop it into (Garage Band, iMovie, Hyperstudio, Keynote and Quicktime Pro) and it worked like a charm. Go and have a listen to Jarna's recording of one of her blog posts, or listen to me ramble on below... (I took the footage with the Flip Video, so a bit one-handed and wobbly...). The first mic walked out of my office at 3pm with Jarna's teacher - I don't think I'll be seeing that again in a hurry!
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Easi-speak; as easy as it sounds
A significant component of our Manaiakalani projects is to increase our students' oracy, but we all struggle with the issue of getting enough quiet spaces in a busy school to record the quantity of work the students are producing. So anything that simplifies the technical process has got to be of huge benefit. I've seen the Easi-Speak mic at a few trade stands over the past year, and seen teachers saying it is great on Twitter, so I finally got around to ordering two and they arrived today. I went down the corridor and asked for a volunteer student to come and play with it and 'show' me how to use it. There is no learning curve with recording, and the USB connection to the computer is easy as well. We experimented with a few applications to drag and drop it into (Garage Band, iMovie, Hyperstudio, Keynote and Quicktime Pro) and it worked like a charm. Go and have a listen to Jarna's recording of one of her blog posts, or listen to me ramble on below... (I took the footage with the Flip Video, so a bit one-handed and wobbly...). The first mic walked out of my office at 3pm with Jarna's teacher - I don't think I'll be seeing that again in a hurry!
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We have an easi-speak mike as well.
ReplyDeleteOne of the best things I like about it is that it doesn't look scary. People don't feel shy when they're speaking into it as it looks a bit like a toy. They feel free to chat comfortably.
Allanah K
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ReplyDeleteThey look really useful, especially for the less technical-minded teachers at my school - so I'm sold. Tried to order through TTS but it kept telling me it didn't ship overseas. Tried a few others and finally went on the taglearning.com site in the uk. Worked well when I chose the 'personal use' option. Can't wait for them to be delivered.
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