Recording Skype Calls

I haven't had a chance to try this yet as there isn't a MAC version available at present, but it does look like a very useful addition for anyone who uses Skype on a PC and wants to record calls. If you're wondering why anyone might want to do this I did write a posting for teachers on why this might be handy (See: Skype Part 1 Recording Audio) for creating your own audio materials etc.

Anyway, the Skype Call Recorder is free and at least according to their website blurb seems pretty good. It can record more than one stream at a time into separate files, which might be handy and then saves them as mp3.

There are some good installation instructions on the site too. You can download the whole thing as a zip file and at only 1.4 Mb, it seems like it may well be worth checking out.

Let's hope there's soon something like this for MAC users too.

Related links:

• Skype Part 1 Recording Audio
• Skype Part 2 Online Workspace
• Teaching Speaking in Second Life
• Video conferencing for EFL
• Send Free Video Messages
• Free Sounds for your Multimedia Teaching Materials

Best

Nik Peachey Read More..

Shared Work Space With VOIP

I've just been trying out Twiddla and I have to say that I am very impressed. Twiddla is more than a shared online whiteboard / work space, it also enables groups of people to surf websites together, comment and notate them with all the standard IWB tools.

Best of all though it also supports synchronous audio through VOIP and even allows you to embed videos and other kinds of code into the page. Oh, it's also free!


Twiddla is a great tool for anyone involved in online learning and would also be pretty handy to use with a data projector to save paying out for an expensive interactive whiteboard. It all runs in the browser and there's no need for any downloads or even any registration if you don't want to.

If you want to give it a try then just click the icon below and it will load automatically in your browser. Feel free to play with it , doodle, erase etc.

If you click at the bottom of the interface where it says 'Widgets and Code', you can even try embedding a video into the screen.
What do you think?

At present it looks like it is free, which is great. I haven't tried this with more than one other person, so I'm not sure how efficient or what kind of lag there would be if you got 7 or 8 all working together with audio too. If anyone tries it please do let me know and post a comment.

Hope you enjoy this and find a good use for it.

Related links:

• Skype Part 1 Recording Audio
• Skype Part 2 Online Workspace
• Video conferencing for EFL
• Who needs an interactive whiteboard?
• YouTube for IWBs with PicLens
• Free IWB Software

Best

Nik Peachey Read More..

New Social Network Creation Tool

I've been having a look at a new social network creation tool called SocialGo and I have to say it has a couple of very tempting features, especially for creating language learning networks.

I've been using Ning for a number of projects, (See my posting on Create your own social network 7 steps ) but thought I'd have a quick look at SocialGo and see what it has to offer. I registered with the site and managed to create a new social network platform in just a few minutes.

My first impressions were that it was very similar to Ning. It seems to provide the same kind of basic structure and ability to add in similar gadgets etc.

For me though, one of the killer features in its favour is the ability it offers to support user interaction through synchronous text and video chat. I haven't tried this out yet, as at present I'm the only member on my network, but if it works I would give serious consideration to building a social network for students to support my Daily English Activities blog, as it would provide a great place for students to upload and share their work and give some peer feedback and encouragement to each other.

My only reservation so far, is that some of the premium features (which will cost) are at present being offered on the free beta platforms that people create, so I don't want to end up with either a big bill or having to disable popular features later.

Anyway, I think SocialGo is well worth checking out. Hope to be able to post a follow up to this in a few weeks / months. Would appreciate comments from anyone else who tries it out too.

Related links:

• 12 Second Video Clips for EFL ESL
• Social Networks and the Web 2.0 Revolution: Part 2
• Karaoke with a Social Network
• Microblogging for EFL with Plurk
• Create your own social network 7 steps
• Social networking for language learning

Best

Nik Peachey Read More..

Online Interactive Whiteboard with VOIP

Well the online whiteboard market seems to be heating up with another impressive offering. I wrote about Dabbleboard last week, and now only a week later I've just spotted Scriblink which takes things a step further and includes VOIP, text chat and provides users with link to their online board.

I just created this quick labeling activity using an image from Flickr creative commons



The site has now generated me a link to this page to share my whiteboard online.

Click here to check it out live (Takes a little while to load)

All this seems like interesting stuff for anyone involved in online synchronous tutoring.

Looks like it's free too!
There's a more detailed description of the features here.

Hope you find this useful.

Best

Nik Peachey Read More..