Narrable - Narrate your Photo Slidehow

Here is a free tool you can use to create a photo slideshow that can be narrated with your own voice.
Teacher can sign up for a free account HERE.
Students over 13 years old can sign up for a free account HERE.
Here are the 2 easy steps to create a Narrable.

1. Upload your photos.

• Pick a cover photos.
• Drag the photos so they are in the order you want them to appear in the slideshow.

2. On each picture you have the ability to record up to 5 minutes of audio.

• Can be recorded by calling in by phone.
• Uploaded from your computer.
• Recorded from a computer with a microphone.

Fotobabble - Talking Photographs

Fotobabble is a site that allows the user to upload a photo and then record voice to play while the photo is on the screen. You can string your Fotobabbles together to create web-based presentations, digital stories or virtual tours with your voice leading the way. To use this program you need to create an account. An account requires a username, password and email address. For that reason, only people 13 years and older can create an account on Fotobabble. (Companies are not allowed to collect personal information, such as an email address, from anyone younger than 13.)


Watch the video below to see how to create a fotobabble. It takes just minutes to upload a picture and add audio. The max record time on the website is 1 minute. If you have the updated version of the app for iPhone or iPad the recording limit is 5 minutes.




Ways to share the fotobabble: 

• With the URL link to share through email or post online
• There is code to embed in websites and wikis

Here is a link for directions on how to change many fotobabbles in a slideshow.
Ideas of ways to use Fotobabble:

• Home-made greeting cards
• Talking postcards from your travels
• Review products, songs, movies, TV shows, anything!
• Citizen journalism: Reporting from the scene of something newsworthy
• Provide commentary on a photo found on the web
• Promote a brand, products or services
• Create contests
• Narrate the story behind a special photo
• Adding a visual element to your poetry or music

Soundzabound

Did you know that if you are using copyrighted music in a project, under Fair Use you can only use 10 seconds of that music? If you have your students download music from anywhere on the Internet that is not royality/copyright free they are infringing on copyright policy.

Here is a simple solution to finding royality/copyright free music! Check out Soundzabound. 

Soundzabound is a site that the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, Division for Libraries, Technology and Community Learning has purchased a subscription for Wisconsin to use. Soundzabound Music Library offers a wide variety of music, audio themes and sound effects for grades K -12 and universities that ensures your copyright safety. Perfect for podcasts, PowerPoint™, videos, news shows, video yearbooks, digital storytelling, presentations, TV broadcasts, web design and more! This site is one of the more frequently visited sites that the DPI offers through Badgerlink.

To access Soundzabound you need to first go to www.badgerlink.net and click on the link for Soundzabound. By entering the site this way, you enter through the subscription that the DPI has purchased. Watch the video below to learn how to locate music and download a song for use in a project.




The music from Soundzabound can also be used in Windows Movie Maker and Animoto.

Capturing Student Voice

Here is another free site that I'm excited to share with you! It is a very simple website that allows users to capture voice and then put that recording into wikis, websites, blog and more. The site is called Vocaroo. The is no need to log into this site. It used to be an option but they got rid of it. The netbooks that are being used in the 7th grade and by Maplewood staff have microphones built into them so you can easily record audio. Watch the video below to see how easy it is to capture voice using this site.


The ability to record voice can be useful for many multimedia projects as well as in foreign language classrooms. There is no limit to the length of the recording. If you close the window before copying the code or URL for your recording, it is lost and you will have to re-record. If sounds quality is bad, adjust the volume on your computer.