(1) from Tony Beld <[log in to unmask]> --- Using a Gong server and NanoGong you will be able create synchronous voice chats and asynchronous voice boards. It is free and they have a Moodle module. The Gong Project: http://gong.ust.hk/index.html -Tony --- Tony Beld, Ph.D. Technology Director Academic Consortium for Global Education 5524 Library Lane Colorado Springs, CO 80918 Tel: (719) 528-6135 Toll Free: (866) 300-1498 Fax: (719) 528-6154 (2) from [log in to unmask] Hi Carol, The good news is that there are materials out there that do this. The bad news is that it can invoke privacy issues (which need a plan to be mitigated). If you are interested with that aspect, I would be happy to discuss what we are doing off-list. We have had to go this route early because our system chose to change LMS vendors before ensuring that our 3rd party applications (such as Wimba) integrated and so we have been without these tools over the summer. As you said, we are unsure what the long-term implications of the transition will be. Blackboard has promised to continue to work with other LMS's, but whether it will make the tools cost-prohibitive is yet to be seen. Here is my list of tools: "Public" single voice recordings: Vokis & Voicethread - the latter does offer educational solutions which you may wish to look into. The free options do invoke the privacy issues I hinted at above and it is always a guessing game as to when "free" web 2.0 applications will only be pay-for-service options (such as what happened with Ning). "Private" single voice recordings: Audio Dropbox from CLEAR at Michigan State University (http://ria.clear.msu.edu). Also check out their "Conversations" tool. I am doing some testing with tools to replicate the voice chat function and so if you are interested in that, please let me know as well. Not sure if Moodle may have another option built in though as we are not a Moodle campus (much to my disappointment). If you are planning to attend ACTFL at all, I am going to shamelessly plug the IALLT@ACTFL presentation that my colleague Carolina Moctezuma and I are preparing. Vokis and Voicethreads are two of the tools that she used in a wikispaces wiki with good success. Regards, Deanne ------------------------------------------------------------- Deanne Cobb-Zygadlo Director, Language Resource Center Kutztown University of Pennsylvania phone: 484-646-5865 email: [log in to unmask] (3) from [log in to unmask] Hi Carol, After many false starts, we've settled on Nanogong integrated with Moodle. It's been working beautifully for us barring a few initial installation glitches. Being open source it's very flexible and we've tailored the applet recorder to our needs. It's a derivative of the Gong standalone voice board, which might also be something you could look into (requires a tomkat server) if you need the functionality outside of Moodle. The beauty of Nanogong is that, in addition to a Nanogong activity board proper, you can add it as an icon to your wysiwyg toolbar in Moodle, enabling a voice recording option for virtually any Moodle activity entry that uses the wysiwyg toolbar. We use it extensively in forums, pages, and journals. http://gong.ust.hk/nanogong/ cheers, Ellen (4) from [log in to unmask] VoiceThread is a good voice discussion board, but I am not aware of any set of tools as comprehensive and easy-to-use as Wimba Voice Tools. On the other hand, Moodle, Sakai, Desire2Learn and other non-Blackboard schools do not have to drop their Wimba licenses. Blackboard has made it abundantly clear that Wimba and Elluminate products will continue to be supported and integrated with the various LMS systems out there. It's to their advantage to continue to do so. Besides, all/most collaboration, multimedia and LMS technology integration is slowly but surely moving to standards-based implementations where it will increasingly play together regardless of being commercial, open-source or a combination thereof. Ed Garay Assistant Director for Academic Computing Director, UIC Instructional Technology Lab University of Illinois at Chicago www.accc.uic.edu/Itl www.twitter.com/garay 1940 West Taylor Street, Room BGRC 124 Chicago, Illinois 60612 [ Sent from iPad ] (5) from [log in to unmask] Among CLEAR's Rich Internet Applications tools are several online voice recording options. They were not designed to replicate Wimba's tools, so they are not necessarily a replacement for what you have been doing with Wimba, but you might find some applicable utility there. The tools are free, and available here: http://ria.clear.msu.edu/ Hope this helps. (6) from [log in to unmask] Hi Carol, One of our instructional designers has been testing out a free plug in called Nanogong with Moodle. We're currently Blackboard users and I haven't looked into it closely myself, but it seems to work just fine. I will be piloting Wimba Voice this fall and would love to talk to you about how you've been using it after you come back from vacation! Best, Tina (7) from [log in to unmask] Carol, My guess is that BB/Wimba will continue to offer a Moodle option (the market is too big for them not to). But just in case you may want to check out U. Oregon's ANVILL (anvill.uoregon.edu) for some of your speech needs. Its speech tools include a voiceboard, quizzing, chat, and TCasting. All have a video option. It's Drupal-based, so your teachers would link to it (and create another user account and password to manage their students' work). The quiz tool, though, does have a "standalone" element to it. If you have good IT support, and only need audio, another project worth looking at is the Gong Project in Hong Kong (http://gong.ust.hk). It comes with a Moodle module. Regards, Jeff Magoto (8) from [log in to unmask] Hi Carol (and All), I guess I feel compelled/obligated to chime-in here. Just because Blackboard bought us (Wimba), there's no reason to fear that our integrations with Moodle and Sakai will go away. Ray Henderson, President of Blackboard Learn, has gone on the record several times (in his blog, during his keynote last week at BbWorld 2010, etc.) saying that Wimba's integrations with open source LMS's will continue and even grow. CCSF has been a long-time, loyal customer of Wimba, and I speak on behalf of all of my colleagues here that we hope CCSF remains a part of our family. In fact, if it will make you feel better, you might want to read my two most recent blog postings about this subject: http://www.wimba.com/community/blog/archives/2010/07/ Sincerely, Matt *********************************************** LLTI is a service of IALLT, the International Association for Language Learning (http://iallt.org/), and The Consortium for Language Teaching and Learning (http://www.languageconsortium.org/). Join IALLT at http://iallt.org. Subscribe, unsubscribe, search the archives at http://listserv.dartmouth.edu/scripts/wa.exe?A0=LLTI Otmar Foelsche, LLTI-Editor ([log in to unmask]) ***********************************************