One of the most significant resources you have in your classroom is your voice. On average, we ask between 300 and 400 questions per day in our classrooms. The balance of questions and direction, guidance and support a teachers voice provides has a profound range of influence on your students.
Your voice isn’t just powerful because it provides direction however, it’s much more than that. Your voice communicates belief and values and it’s one of your key tools in managing behaviour and expectation.
We know that in online learning environments, the teachers voice is just as crucial for a host of reasons. Principle amongst them is that learning online can be a very isolating experience. Each opportunity you have to reassure and encourage, to guide and instruct your students is valuable. In particular, every chance you have to insert your voice into materials that they are reading independently is indispensable.
The opportunity we have in online learning that is perhaps less often available in a traditional classroom is that as we tailor our online learning experiences for our students, we can insert our voice into the most contextually relevant place. We might not be able to ask the same 300 - 400 questions using our voice, but we can insert 5 or 10 questions or comments, reflections or pieces of advice with precision. We can place our voice in just the right spot, at just the point where it’s needed to support our students in their learning journey online.
You can use audio to guide and support, to reassure as students work through complex instruction, or to reiterate a key point. Using audio as well as text also encourages opportunities for the student to accommodate ideas on a deeper level and increases retention.
Audio files are particularly helpful in employing a ‘check for understanding’ following a students entry in a quiz, or at the end of a list of questions they’ve responded to. Audio files are great for students to employ as well. The files are small and so their easily and quickly uploaded into an online classroom, emailed to a teacher etc.
You’ll also find that students responding in asynchronous spaces with audio files have a profound effect on their preference to use those spaces. Students might drop a comment in a forum if asked, and may read a few other student contributions if requested, but you can guarantee they will listen to their peers with a great deal more attention! Audio files can bring asynchronous spaces to life, and engage and comfort students that may be feeling isolated at home.
What to use? There are so many audio recorders, it’s hard to know where to start. Then there are a myriad of editing tools you might consider. Any laptop, desktop, mobile or tablet is likely to have a rang of options open to you, and while the audiophiles amongst you are likely to find this frustrating, I’m going to recommend the simplest of tools, RecordMP3Online. Another decent option for browser based tools is 123apps Online Voice Recorder.
Why? Both tools are dead simple to use, letting you focus immediately on the content. both are to use with students because there’s no training required, no account needed and no software to download. Both tools work right away and you’ll have your first recording done in minutes. There are so many mores sophisticated tools out there you might elect to use instead, and if you’re looking for something more significant, I’d encourage you to seek them out.
How long should you record? Keep em short, with a few minutes at most your goal is my best advice. In tracking audio I’ve used in online programs in the past, I’ve seen longer files often left unheard … with students preferring to move on quickly through the content. Short files that provide the ‘sweet spot’, a summary or key re-framing of an idea however? Those they listen to every … single … time!
Finally, something to think about as you reflect on how you might employ audio in your online teaching. Don’t strive for perfection.
Good luck in your online teaching, and keep audio in mind. It’s a powerful tool that’s often forgotten, but that can be hugely influential in the way you support your students, and guide their learning online.