Digital Storytelling with Earfl

I stumbled across a new site called Earfl. It allows people to tell stories via cell phone (in 3 minute increments) that are posted online. They can be posted publicly or privately. In addition, you can add photos in the Earfl online account. One of my favorite aspects of this site (unlike audio-recording sites such as Voicethread, Gabcast, Gcast...etc) is that you do not need an account to get started! Just dial the Earfl number and tell your story (this is great for outside of class activities when you want students to document but do not have Internet access to set up an account).


I think this is a great resource for students/teachers who would like to do easy digital storybooks but do not have easy access to microphones and/or would like their students to get the audio portion of the assignment completed outside of class. Additionally students on field trips could call in their stories and then add photos later on (they could also use their mobile cameras to send pictures into their Flickr accounts). For example students who go to a historical village, could describe their experiences in the Noah Webster house, then go online and get images (via Flickr--which works with Earfl or other Creative Commons resources) and insert those images into their Earfl story. The stories can embed to websites, YouTube, and blogs too! Another great use for this site would be for students to use it as an oral diary or i-search project that spans over time. For example students could document their learning in a class by calling in once a week a story about their learning, then adding pictures associated with their learning. By the end of the school year, students have documentation of their learning and how far they have come over time.

There is also a nice group feature on Earfl, where you can join a group (and call in your story to add to a collection of stories, such as the Iowa Caucus story example below) or create your own group where people can join in and talk about their stories (again similar to Voicethread, and you do not have to have an account!). The stories play individually (which makes it easy to click and play the ones you are most interested in hearing). Also each individual story (while on the group page), has it's own embed code.





The last feature that I think is useful for classroom learning is the map feature. Here is one example of a map of stories about "tributes". When you set up a group, you automatically get a link to a Google map. Every time someone calls in to Earfl to add to a story to your group, the story (along with any images) will automatically be placed on the Google map. Therefore you can see exactly where in the world the stories are coming from! This might be a great feature for classes studying foreign languages or different concepts around culture and sociology.

Mobile Voice with Snapvine

I have been playing with a free resource called Snapvine. It has a strong emphasis on the power of voice. It allows anyone to use their mobile phone (or landline) to audioblog or record voice. Snapvine allows you to post directly to a public blog on their site, or to a private "voice comments" page. Besides posting audio to a blog, you can also call a number (from any phone) to send voice comments to anyone with an email address. Additionally, you are also give a "permanent" number where people can call and leave you a voice comment on Snapvine.

TRY IT!
Feel free to try out my Snapvine Voice Comment box, by leaving a comment, that will automatically appear in my private box. Then I will be able to "approve" it for publication. Don't forget to press 1 when you finish to save your comment in my private box. Here is the number:
1-206-777-0137
Code: *6266654

The Pros
1) Snapvine allows you to post audioblogs from any phone as long as you register the phone number in your account. I think this gives you some control over who posts to your Snapvine account.
2) No advertisements on the blog pages.
3) You can use a landline phone.
4) For students who do not have cell phones or easy access to landlines, can record via a computer microphone on the Snapvine website.
5) You can make your Snapvine blog private, so just your students could do mobile audioblogs and no one else can listen to them.
6) The teacher can create the account and "approve" voice comments before they are posted.
7) You get an automatic RSS feed with your Snapvine blog.
8) You could use voice comments as a free voicemail system, where nobody actually knows your phone number, but can leave messages.
9) You can embed all of your voice comments at one time. For example if your students each called in their own math jingle, you can immediately embed all 30 of them at one time. This is a great time-savor

The Cons
1) The phone numbers for Snapvine are not toll-free.
2) You need to call a different number to hear voice comments than you call for voice posting...this can be a bit confusing (although it would not keep me from using the resource).
3) Only audio mobile blogging at the moment, no photo, text, or video from mobile phones...yet!


Classroom Integration:
Moderated Podcasting
There are a variety of ways this resource could be used, but one of my favorites is for "moderated" podcasting. While I love Gabcast, one of the problems with Gabcast is that there are no ways to keep students from immediately publishing their work. Teachers do not have the ability to moderate podcasts through Gabcast. However, Snapvine gives teachers the ability to moderate with the voice comment system. The teacher can decide when to publish comments. The teacher can also listen to the comments through their cell phones, so they can moderate comments via their cell phone (in case they are away from the Internet and would like to decide on publication of the student podcasts). Furthermore, since the Snapvine public blog does not have advertisements it really is an ideal place for students to learn how to podcast and to share their podcast experience.

Oral Quizzes
Teachers could use Snapvine's voice comment system as a way to administer and collect oral quizzes from students. Snapvine allows you to create a "greeting" that will be heard by anyone who calls in to send you a comment. Therefore the teacher could create a greeting with the assignment for the students, so that when the students call in to Snapvine, they hear the "assignment" and then take their oral quiz (by creating a new comment). Snapvine can be set up so that the quiz automatically post into the teacher's private account. Snapvine also allows the teacher to send a voice a comment back to the student. One additional feature that I like is that the teacher can check the oral quizzes at anytime, since the teacher can call in to Snapvine to hear them (thus not needing to have Internet access to evaluate the quizzes). I see this application helpful for any subject but especially for English/LA, ESL, Foreign Language, Science, and Social Studies.

Utterz...All-In-One mobile blogging! Free! Finally!

While there are some fantastic mobile blogging resources on the web, such as Gabcast, Gcast, Eyespot, Radar, evoca, Flickr, Jott, and Go@blogger.com, none of them allow you to post video, audio, text, and photos directly to a blog from their account. For example, Gabcast only posts audio, and Eyespot posts video, while Flickr only will post images. Now, of course you can set up accounts in all 3 of the aforementioned resources to post to the same blog, but the data will be housed in 3 separate places online. A little inconvenient for teachers and students. It is a also a reason why many teachers would be afraid to ask their students to mobile blog different types of media, because they do not want to deal with too many different web accounts. Now, I am come accross a resource called Utterz. It is the first resource I have found on the web that lets you mobile blog all 4 types of media to one place, from one account! Even better, it is international! So people from 25 different countries (and more), can use this free resource.

Let's look at the positives:
1) It is international, so people from around the globe can participate.
2) It is free to use.
3) You can use a landline (nice for students and/or teachers who do not have cell phones)
4) You can text, photo, video, or audio blogs from one account!
5) It has private options for posting!
6) You can post audio,text,images, and video on the same post from one phone.
7) You can "reply" to other "utterzs" and "listen" to them on your mobile phone.
8) You can receive alerts when someone comments or replys to your "utter"
9) The utters show up within a few seconds in your utter webspace.
10) You can "utter" back and forth with others via cell phone (no need to have computer or Internet access)

The downside:
1) Unlike some of the other resources I mentioned earlier, it is not a toll-free number (it is probably hard to do this since it is international), so if you use a landline, it will cost money (unless you have unlimited long-distance or use long-distance at an "unlimited talk" time)
2) there is some advertising (although it is off to the side and reasonable).
3) Utterz did show up on my blog posts within 10 minutes, but it showed up in my "drafts" box in blogger. This is not necessarily a negative because teachers who want to moderate posts, can then hit the published button after they have viewed/listened to the post. But if you want it to immediately post to a blog---it seems to have some trouble doing this, it might be because I have comment moderation on? I'm not sure.

Other than not having a toll-free number (maybe that will change?!), Utterz is a great resource for mobile blogging because it is all-in-one media blogging. This would be a great resource for students who are on field trips or a break from school. On their field trip, they could "blog" photos, videos, text, or audio to their Utterz account (or an external blog). Over Spring break students could do the same (maybe for extra credit...), for example if they are studying ecosystems in science class, they could post images of creatures and/or plants they find at the beach. Utterz could also be used as an up-to-date local newspaper. Students could post local event information, video, reports, and images as they are happening in their community.

Blog Talk Radio...EASY cell phone Podcasting

Thanks to a twitter forward from Adam Sutcliffe, I have been playing with a new cell phone podcasting tool called (CINCH) Blog Talk Radio. This is probably the easiest podcasting tool that I have ever used. You do not even have to create an account before doing a podcast from your cell phone! You simply call the international number of 1-646-200-0000 (so easy to remember), and you just say your podcast after the tone. When finished, you can hang up, and the podcast will immediately post the feed and downloadable MP3 to the Internet at:
http://cinch.blogtalkradio.com/yourcellphonenumber



Let's discuss the pros and cons....
The positive

1. It is so easy to use.
2. No accounts.
3. No login and passwords.
4. No embedding files.
5. International callers might have a better chance at using this than Gabcast or Gcast.
6. No Website maintenance.
7. Can focus on the content and not the technology.

The Negative

1. It is not a toll free call, so students could use a landline if they do not have a cell phone, but they would have to pay for it (students with cell phones should not have a problem).
2. The subscription code includes your (or your students) real cell phone numbers...this could be a privacy issue if students want to give out their subscription feed to others. Of course students could just use this as a data recording device for interviews, note-taking, and narrative recordings where they can download the MP3 and use it to edit with in iMovie or another application.
3. Only one cell phone or landline per channel (so it would be hard to have a "class podcast" because everyone would have to podcast from the same phone).

Learning Applications
There are some obvious learning connections with this resource. First since teenagers never leaver home without their cell phone, they can document interviews, field trip notes, brainstorming, or even original poetry or story ideas on the go! They do not have to have an account to post their feed. They can be mobile citizen journalists and report on local events as they happen.

iReporters...21st Century Journalism!

Election season is upon us and many promanent news organizations are asking everyday citizens to become journalist with their cell phones. CNN is asking for iReporters from every state as voting occurs in the primaries. The ways it works is simple, just shoot a video or take a picture of some citizens in action at the polls, then send it along with a short message to ireport@cnn.com. Seniors in high school could create their own iReports as they vote for the first time, while younger students could create iReports of "exit" or "entrance" polls...or simply report on their observations at a voting location (such as a low voter turnout or a lot of excitement for a certain candidate). While I have previously written posts on the new mobile journalism phenomenon, news organizations such as CNN or ABC asking citizens to become journalist and publish their work globally is an exciting "entrance" into the authentic world of news journalism for many students. I have stated before (and am sure that I will again) there are many great resources on the web which allow students to create their own iReport or mobile journalist websites where they can post directly from their cell phones as news occurs.

One example would be creating a blog with blogger, and then using go@blogger.com to post pictures directly to the blog. They can use Eyespot to post videos directly to their blog (they can sign up for an account and in their settings designate that each video sent from their cell phones should instantly show up on their blog). Students can use Gabcast to post audio podcasts directly to their blog (again once they sign up for an account, they can create a new channel that will post podcasts instantly from their cell phone to their blogger blog). They never actually need to go on the Internet to create a multi-media iReport blog. Students can create iReport blogs around specific content themes such as "insects" for science, "2008 election" for social studies, or "local authors" for English.

Create Speech to Text blogs/Calendars from your cell with Jott!

Jott is fast becoming one of my favorite organizational tools for cell phones!
I think there are strong connections for student and teacher organization as well. Jott has created this new feature called "Jott Links" where you can send a speech to text message to a lot of popular 3rd party applications such as Twitter, or Livejournal. Thus if I want to add an event to my Google calendar I can simply use my cell phone, go to my Jott contact number
and call in the event. It will then put a text of the audio file on my google calendar.
It will do the same for a new blog post in Blogger or Livejournal! Where Gabcast creates
an MP3 podcast on my blog, Jott creates a new text post!

I created a sample message in the post above (it was very simple and only
took a few minutes to set up). The only negative that I have to say is that you can only do
"shorter" messages, but the transcription is really well done. This is how it works...
1) Create a free account in Jott
2) Click on Jott Links











3) Select the 3rd party application you want to Jott to (for this tutorial I will select Blogger)
4) It will ask for your Blog ID. You can get this by going to your blogger acount and clicking on settings.
















5) Copy the ID in the URL of your blog (highligheted above in blue), paste it into the Blog ID in Jott (below). Give a Jott name that you will remember when you call in to Jott (such as "blogger")









6) Grant access to your blog











7) Back in Jott you should now have a link on the right-hand side that states your "Jott links" as Blogger (below).





8) Now you are ready to create a Jott speech to text blog post. Call in to Jott 1-866-jott-123 (put it in your cell phone contact list so you have it when you need it). When they ask you "who do you want to Jott?" say "blogger" (or the Jott Name that you used). Speak your message and when you are done hit the pound sign. Within an hour, your Jott should be posted on your blog!

Scavenger Hunt with Cell Phones!

So I have been thinking about Classroom Performance Systems (often called the "blue clickers" by my student teachers), and wondering if a cell phone can do a similar function. Since the CPS systems often cost a good deal of money, many school districts cannot take advantage of them. In addition, I think that using cell phones would help "connect" students with their everyday lives outside of school and the tool they are using for class activities. As a result I have come up with an idea for "Cell Phone" scavenger hunt. This is how it works...

Image Scavenger Hunt
1) Teacher sets up a Fickr account and gets a mobile Flickr email address (which they give to the students)
2) Students are given a list of items they must find or learn for homework (this would also be a nice Spring or Winter break activity). For example the list may have to do with insects, and they are given a list of insects they need to locate and identify.
3) For homework (in the real world) when they locate an item on the list, they capture it with an image and send it to the class Flickr account (with a short text message to identify the item).

Audio Scavenger Hunt
1) Teacher sets up a Gabcast account (tutorial) and gets a Channel number/password (which they give to the students)
2) Students are given a list of items they must learn for homework (this would also be a nice Spring or Winter break activity). For example the list may have to do with American Government, and they are given a list of government concepts they need to learn.
3) For homework (in the real world) when they find someone who knows the concept, they capture it by recording in Gabcast on their cell phone and it will automatically post to the class Gabcast account (This can be put directly on a blog or just saved in the Gabcast account).
4) Back in class, students could upload the audio concepts to their cell phones by using csharpcomputing to use as a digital review or they could download them into iMovie and add images to represent the concepts.

Video Scavenger Hunt
This could also be done with video using Eyespot. Students in a math class could video tape experiences where they had to use their math skills in the real world (at the store, at the bank...etc) and send them to the private eyespot account set up by their teacher.

K12 Conference Connections...

Wes Fryer who runs the Moving at the Speed of Creativity Blog, coupled Gabcast with VoiceThread and Garageband in order to develop some really cool digital storybook projects with students. What is so fantastic about these projects is that he just learned Gabcast from watching the K12 presentation, and was immediately able to apply it! This is exactly the reason why cell phones may have a place in learning, the easy and immediate application of the tools.

I must say I was pleasantly surprised at how many educators were interested in viewing my presentation and found the potential in cell phones in learning from it. A few even mentioned their skepticism before viewing the presentation. It made me realize how little educators have stopped to consider cell phones as a learning tool, a few mentioned that since their schools had policies against cell phones on campus (or something to that effect) that they just never thought of it in a positive light! I'm glad my presentation could showcase a different perspective. While I don't expect everyone to agree, I appreciate that so many skeptics were willing to watch it with an open-mind. Additionally, I have already received comments and emails about other potential web2.0 applications that might couple well with cell phones. I intend to take a look at those over the next few weeks.

I have really enjoyed the K12 conference thus far. Two of my favorites so far are learning about trailfire from April Chamberlain. And I also learned about spresent (a great way to build PowerPoint online, much better than Zoho in my opinion) and Splashcast (to create an online broadcast) from Kurt Paccio and James Gates! I can't wait to see if I can find mobile connections with these two resources.

Author Reading Podcasts created with Cells

I introduced Gabcast to one of the teachers I work with, and she used it Gabcast to record original authors read their work. She often goes to author readings and wanted her students to be able to experience the authors reciting their original work, so she decided to ask the authors if they minded her putting her cell phone down next to them as they read and having it immediately posted to the web through Gabcast. Here is a her blog with a couple readings! If you can't bring the authors into the classroom than this is a very good alternative. An additional assignment that comes to my mind with secondary students is having them attend author readings, poetry slams, and other presentations outside of school and recording them with their cell phones. Beyond being able to bring the presentation back to their peers it may also help them remember what was said and how it was said for reflection writing. Of course they should always make sure they ask permission first!!!

Poetry Slamming with Cells...

A great idea that one of my inservice teachers came up with for cell phones was a Poetry Slam. While many schools and coffee houses host events for students to read their original poems, why not create a Poetry Slam Blog or Podcast where they could broadcast their original work to the world! Published! Using Gabcast, Evoca, or Gcast students could call in their poems, read them (with all the gusto and sound effects necessary), then post them immediately to their Blog or the Gabcast/Evoca/Gcast Podcasting site. If they post to their blog, they could "dress up" the poem with images and text. The benefit of using cell phones is that students could record their poems when they are "inspired" rather than having to be in front of a computer to record it. In addition, they could record "drafts" of their poems, save them in the private Gabcast or Evoca unpublished space, and then publish the draft they think is best. By publishing their poems on Gabcast or on their Blog, they can receive feedback with the comment buttons. Here is a sample Poetry Slam from my inservice teacher.

Podcasting with Cell Phones in schools...

Probably one of the easiest ways to use cell phones in learning is through podcasting. While podcasting is often done with iPods or audio editing devices such as Audacity, podcasts can be created more easily through cell phones (coupled with a few of my favorite FREE web2.0 resources). For example, instead of recording a podcast on an iPod and then loading it to itunes and uploading it to your webspace, you can simply dial a number on your cell phone, narrate your podcast, and then hit the # sign to publish immediately online. This can all be done with the assistance of websites like Gabcast(free), Gcast(free), Evoca(free & paid options) and Hipcast(paid). All of these sites allow you to create an account that will store your cell phone audio recordings! Fantastic! You simply dial a toll-free number and then record your podcast. All three sites also give you an RSS feed so people can subscribe to your podcast. Each site also allows you to post or embed the podcast into your blog, MySpace, Wiki, or other website. The best part is that your students do not have to have an iPod or special computer software...in fact they do not even have to have a computer. Simply a phone (since all the sites have a toll-free number, students who do not have their own cell phones can simply use a landline!). So, how can cell phone podcasts be useful for classroom learning?....here are a few ideas:
1) Conducting Interviews
2) Radio Broadcasts
3) Radio Theater (listen to a great example from St. Joseph's K-8 here).
4) Poetry Slam
5) Oral presentations
6) Recording Field Trip experiences (such as sounds at a zoo, or observations)