From the Web:: Google Voice for Teachers

Lisa Nielsen over at The Innovative Educator has an excellent tutorial on getting started with Google Voice. In addition to explaining how Google Voice works, she also give several concrete ways to use it in the classroom.

Using Google Voice in the Classroom, Part II

Back in January (seems so long ago) I wrote about finding this post from the Innovative Educator on using Google Voice in the classroom. Lisa describes an excellent lesson for English Language Learners using Voice. I really wanted to use Voice in the classroom, but was not sure how to integrate it.

Last week, as students were finishing their projects in geography (small groups were jigsawing the region we were studying), they started adding audio to their presentations. Some were more successful than others, but all of the students who used Google Voice seemed very comfortable with the idea that they could call and leave a message rather than having to record on the computer or use a video camera.

One group created an audio tour of the Wix site they created. Basically, the audio contains narration of the content as well as instructions on where to go next.

I hope to use Google Voice more in the classroom. I could see using it as a check for learning each day. Students could record brief messages at the end of class or afters school to show what they have learned. One thing that I DO need to do is make sure that the Google Voice assignments are more closely related to our state standards for Speaking. This brief use was more of an experiment, than a focused lesson, but with the success we had this time I would use it again.