Sunday, April 11, 2010

Blabberize It!

I've been trying to put this post together for a couple of hours, but I was having trouble using Blabberize with Firefox. More about that later. There are so many different tools out there, it's tough to know which ones are going to be the most helpful in the classroom. Blabberize is a different type of tool as I see it. It's not going to change your life and the way you teach, but it can add a little spice to your website or lesson plan that might be missing. It will be fun to explore and consider the different ways to use it in class. Here are some of my thoughts after using it.

Blabberize is a very fun site that could be used in a single class period in the computer lab. It's an online computer tool that allows you to add your voice to a picture of your choosing. The cool part of this is that you can select the area over the images mouth and the mouth will open and close while it plays the recorded message.

The message can be recorded via microphone, audio file or your cell phone. The cell phone option is really neat if you do not have a microphone on your computer at home. It gives you a number to call and a 4 digit pass code and the site will record your voice and save it to the picture you have selected.

You could use this as a fun option for students to find characters from a novel and record their favorite line or lines from the story that best suit them. At the end of the class period, you could play a selection for the class. If you are a History, you could use the site to have kids record parts of speeches for historical figures.

This site might not revolutionize education as we know it, but it is a nice tool to have in your drawer if you decide to do something a little different with your students. If you are not sure how to use it in class, just show the students and I'm sure they can come up with some fun ideas for class projects.

I was having some trouble using this on Firefox, but it worked wonderfully on Safari when I switched over. This is the only problem I encountered with Blabberize.

Here is my goofy example. It only took me 5 minutest to put together.




Try having some fun with Blabberize and see the silly thing you can do with it. You might just want to create a few fun pictures and place them in a Power Point or on your class website.

Thanks to @DoremiGirl for helping me troubleshoot the Firefox problem. You rock!

- @TheNerdyTeacher

5 comments:

  1. Neat tool - I like your ideas! Might try to fit that in with my current novel groups or tie it into historical figures we are learning about! Thanks for sharing!

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  2. Good fun! Could also be good for students to create an avatar and add the voice for projects where they'd like to add comments.

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  3. I was just telling some teachers about Blabberize. I will have to send them a link to your blog! Thanks!

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  4. Blabberize is great for introducing something new or for transitions (which are always a challenge in the ES classroom). I also love bringing historical figures to life by Blabberizing them :)

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  5. I cannot get this tool to work. I would love a tutorial.

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