Audio

podomatic text to speech, speech to text recording options, etc.

Audio file Tape recorder Blank cassettes Microphone Mp3 player (often will record) Cell phone Http://audacity.sourceforge.net Recording software. Needs a microphone built in or attached to computer http://mp3cut.net/ Cuts mp3 files http://beta.yodio.com/ Create and edit audio files (can use cell phone for recording on this site) http://vozme.com Text to speech (computer voice)

Making Text Audible If you are teaching a non-language arts class and you have students who could use audible texts for any reason (they have a learning disability, they are English language learners, they have a visual impairment, or they simply learn better by listening), then you need a way to create audible texts that can be easily shared and disseminated to the people who need/want them.

There are two ways to do this. One is where you record your reading of the text. The other is where you use a speech synthesizer to read the text.

Reading the text yourself into a recording device is probably the best alternative for your students. There are numerous ways to do this. One is the old-fashioned read the story onto a cassette. The problem with this is that if the cassette gets lost, your time has been wasted. Also every time you copy the cassette, you lose quality in the recording. Better ways would be to create an mp3 file. You can get a small digital recorder that will hook into your computer via usb port. This way you record the text and then you can put the mp3 file on your computer.

A cheaper way than buying a digital recorder would be to buy a $15 microphone for your computer. Download Audacity software which is open source from http://audacity.sourceforge.net. Be sure you also download the "LAME" file that goes with it. The web page for Audacity will tell you how. Record your text on your computer using your microphone. You can then turn it into an mp3 file (the LAME file makes that possible). There is online documentation for Audacity at: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/help/.

Once your recording is on your computer, you have a number of options. You can create a CD that students can take home (and you never have to worry about loss of the recording or recording quality). You can also upload your mp3 files into a podcast that students can access from the internet. This is a really good option for kids who have access to computers because they can never use the excuse of losing the CD. Here is a podcast page I made for my high school student fiddlers. I believe it is still in use by some of them and also others who have stumbled across it.

http://woodshed.podomatic.com

Using synthesized speech This is not the world's greatest solution to the need for audible text, but it will help out when you have a lot of text that must be made audible in a short period of time. Here are some web-based free text to voice conversion sites:

http://www.ivona.com/online/editor.php http://vozme.com/index.php?lang=en http://www.yakitome.com/ http://www.readthewords.com/

Check out all these sites and what they do. Then select the one that works best for you. back to top