I’ve never previously used audio tools to record something for my website or to share with my students, so this, like everything else in this class, was revelatory! I fell in love with Voki and can think of myriad ways to use it in my library.  Attaching a voice to an avatar is brilliant and would certainly benefit those students who learn visually.  I really appreciated how inclusive the avatars are: everything from historical figures to a plethora of ethnicities are available, not to mention the cartoon options and everything in between.  Having a historical figure avatar read his or her own biography would be so cool!  This library program has really been instrumental in further opening my eyes to the importance of inclusivity in what we do, and Voki is an excellent example of the sort of options I want to be able to offer my students.  

The ease of getting started with Vocaroo was surprising.  I loved how simple it is and that it took no time at all to start recording and then no time to get the embed code needed to share the recording I made.  Sometimes, simple is best, especially if I want students to be able to use a tool, and we only have a 45 block of time for demonstration and hands-on time.  I can see my students really enjoying recording their own brief booktalks to share with their classmates.  I used this tool to create an audio message for my school library website: Mrs. Raniella’s June Message.

Audiopal is yet another tool that I enjoyed exploring. I especially appreciated its selection of 25 languages and over 100 voices from which to choose.  I think that will allow for a great deal of fun and individuality in what my students could produce were they to use this particular tool.  I have several ELL (English language learner) students and I think the ability to record in their native languages as well as in English is a wonderfully inclusive feature. 

Combing through the podcasts lists, I found a plethora of excellent options, but I was most drawn to the Buttons and Figs Podcast hosted by Pamela Rogers. It is a wonderfully fun, silly podcast about playing with words that can be found on a blog of the same name.  In one episode, “Neologism Play,” inspired by B.J. Novak’s The Book with No Pictures, children are encouraged to make up nonsense words and share them.  Novak’s book is a huge hit in my library, so this is something I’m excited to share with my students, as I know they’ll absolutely love it.  I think we need to take advantage of every possible opportunity to encourage critical thinking, creativity, and collaboration and this is a great springboard from which to do so.  Other episodes offer such fun as “Nursery Rhyme Jeopardy” which would pair quite well with some Mother Goose and “Mighty Great Adjectives” which seems to me to be a wonderfully fun way to focus on that particular part of speech.  The recording challenges issued to the listener in most episodes are an excellent way to boost audience engagement.  I was delighted with every episode I listened to and would highly recommend this podcast!