Hi all,
OLLie here and I wanted to quickly share an online resource that I’ve recently discovered—TalkShoe.
One of the best things about working here at the OLL is that, very often, I stumble upon resources that I get the “too cool” goosebumps about.
TalkShoe is one of those resources. Basically TalkShoe allows you to record your podcast with a “live” audience online. Listeners can connect through the TalkShoe website and ask questions, give suggestions, etc. Then, TalkShoe records and posts the podcast on their website—no need to have rss coding knowledge, online storage space or bandwidth of your own, they handle it. If you do have your own website, TalkShoe offers several widget options to embed the podcast into your site. The best part? Yup, you got it, its free!
As if all of that wasn’t enough, TalkShoe also has a tutorial podcast series that takes you from beginner level all the way through to advanced, and everything in between.
So why would an educator what to use TalkShoe? Simple. Its one more of those tools that you can use to help gain your students’ attention (the first element of Keller’s ARCS motivation model). Also, I can certainly see how something like TalkShoe could be used in place of a written report. Bear with me. In this scenario, you divide your class into groups and each group is given a different topic to research. They could put together a podcast presentation via TalkShoe with their fellow classmates as audience, asking questions. All of it would then be recorded and the professor would then have the web address of the podcast so he/she could listen again later. Using the widgets TalkShoe offers, the students could also embed the podcasts into their personal sites/blogs/wikis to build an online portfolio or academic resume. Just a couple of suggestions…
From your friendly neighborhood OLLie blogger,
Stasia W. signing off