I. Overview of Wimba Voice Tools
A. A set of six web-based tools that allow teachers and students to listen to embedded audio clips on their website and to record audio via a web interface.B. The tools allow teachers to combine audio, images, and text in a variety of ways, and students can be asked to give open-ended audio and text responses or they can take quizzes with a variety of question types.
C. Student audio responses are stored on a server which teachers can access via the web. Teachers can give feedback in text or by recording their responses.
D. The Wimba Voice Tools can be used to design web-based speaking and listening activities that would be accessible both in the World Language Center or online from other places.
E. The Voice Tools were not designed specifically to run in a language lab, so there is not an interface that replaces the old Tandberg console, allowing teachers to listen in on specific computers or to group students from a central computer. However, there are other programs that can do that function if teachers would like to have that option in the lab.
F. Craig Rice has looked at documentation and demonstrations of the web tools and thinks that IIT could support them. We are still waiting to hear whether the tools can be integrated with Moodle.
II. Demonstrations of the Voice Tools
A. Voice Recorder: (Demo, UCLA): Web-based tool that can embed an audio player or audio recorder on your own website.B. Voice Board: (Overview, UCLA / Demo, UM): Web-based threaded discussion board for audio and text
C. Voice Presentation: (Overview, UCLA / Demo, UM / Details, UCLA): Web-based tool to give students an audio introduction to any webpage and allow them to post audio comments about the webpage.
D. Voice E-mail: (Demo, UM): E-mail that contains both audio and text
E. Voice Direct (Overview, UCLA / Demo, UM): Live voice and text chat
F. Oral Assessment Builder: (Overview, UCLA / Details, UCLA): Web-based tool to create, manage, assign, and grade audio assessments. The questions can include any combination of text, image, and audio, and the main question types are: 1) open-ended recorded answer, 2) text multiple choice, 3) audio multiple choice, 4) fill-in-the-blank, and 5) matching
III. Questions about the Voice Tools
A. Can the Voice Tools be used with Moodle? Can we still use them if they don't?B. Can we export audio from the Voice Tools to mp3 so it can be burned to CD?
C. How much do the Voice Tools cost?
D. Is the Oral Assessment Builder part of Voice Tools, or does it cost extra?
E. Can the assignments or oral assessments be timed?
F. Would the Voice Tools be appropriate for use in the WLC and for homework?
IV. Online resources and detailed documentation
A. HorizonWimba websiteB. Voice Tools User Guide (UM)
C. Voice and Online Pedagogy: An Introduction to Wimba Voice Tools (UM)