--- Forwarded Message from 15.5 ---

From: "David Pankratz" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Wed, 05 Jan 2011 14:36:37 -0600
Subject: Re: #9545.2 anyone have data related to using Wimba Voice?
To: "Language Learning and Technology International Information Forum" <[log in to unmask]>

Yes, I'd like to see the report you refer to on use of voice tools. But first,  
let me share our very positive experiences with the Wimba Voice Tools at Loyola  
University Chicago.

When they became available as an "add-on" to Blackboard several years ago, I was  
able to convince our IT people that it would be a good investment. It was a point  
at which our old cassette-based recording technologies were dying, and no obvious  
solution was in sight. I saw the Wimba voice tools as a way to retain some of  
the features that would be associated with a language center, such as guided voice  
recording.

I will try to keep this short, so a few developments will be skipped. However,  
the big picture is that we have been very happy with the voice tools, and over  
several years have come to believe that the one tool called "Voice Boards" is  
the most valuable to us. It allows instructors to create a "Voice Board" at which  
students can post audio recordings on a particular topic. The instructor can decide  
whether to allow all students to hear each others' recordings (most common) or  
to make the conversation "private" between student and instructor. Either way,  
the voice board becomes a sort of audio recording repository where the instructor  
has access to all the recordings made by the students in one class. And the instructor  
can respond to the recordings individually, providing feedback via his/her own  
voice recordings.

The best analogy from the past is when instructors used to give students an assignment  
to make a recording on tape or CD and then turn it in, generally for assessment  
purposes. (Some of us remember how awkward and time-consuming it was to collect  
bunches of cassette tapes from students, listen to the recordings, and in some  
cases make our own recordings onto their tapes with our feedback, pass them back  
to students...wow.)

At any rate, language instructors at Loyola, including myself, have found the  
Voice Board feature very valuable in this regard, even essential. It promotes  
meaningful speaking outside of the classroom. The most popular topics used have  
been self-introductions, brief commentaries on chosen topics, and dialogs recorded  
by two students. I use the latter every semester in beginning German classes.  
I group the students in pairs, then they compose and record a dialog based on  
a specific topic. I listen and respond via a voice recording, giving feedback  
on content, pronunciation, grammar, etc. I take it a step further by developing  
a fill-in-the blank-exercise worksheet based on their dialogues. This requires  
them to listen to each others' dialogues and complete the worksheet. This exercise  
fosters listening comprehension, reading, and reinforces correct grammatical structures,  
since I write the sentences myself, but based on their content and vocab. My students  
report that they generally like the assignments, especially composing and recording  
the dialogs.

I estimate that about one half of our language teachers (we offer about 12 languages)  
are using the Voice Boards on a regular basis, each between one and four times  
per semester. This coming semester I plan to verify these numbers, since our ITS  
department is hinting that they are re-evaluating our Wimba voice tools license  
due to economic considerations.

Enough from me on this topic now, but I think it's a good one given that language  
centers need to identify tools that work for language students in particular,  
and in my view this is one of them.

David Pankratz
Loyola University Chicago

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