digitalgoonies.com

http://croak.it/

Fans of online voice recorders like Vocaroo, Soundcloud and Aviary’s Myna know that these web apps have many uses. Students can use these for things like storytelling, summarizing, explaining concepts, etc.  But one of the major drawbacks (relatively speaking) is that these are all Flash-based . That is not all bad in itself. However, since Flash is on the way out and is not supported on iOS devices, a replacement is needed to fill this void- especially one that will work on iPads!

There are many options out there, but Croak It! is by far my favorite for a couple reasons:

• No registration required (this is critical for student use)!
• Free (this is also critical in our line of work)
• Has both Android and iOS apps
• Can also be used online with a computer as a Flash-based web app
• Creates a unique URL for each recording
• Can add a CroakIt! button to your own website!
• By default, the recording is private only to you (or whoever has the URL to your recording)
• Can post to Twitter or Facebook
• And I love the frog logo!

http://aviary.com/tools/myna#

Wow, now this is one beautiful and very useful site. Think of it as a kind of GarageBand and Audacity mashup. Well, it’s not exactly like that, but it comes pretty close in its available features! It is intended to mix and remix audio files and loops.

This web app will let you:

• Import/export audio in all kinds of file formats (including .wav .mp3 .wma .aif and more) Continue reading

http://www.macjams.com/music/

I love music. I love messing around with GarageBand- not that I’m that good at it. But there are lots of people out there who are so talented with mixing and creating their own music with all kinds of computer applications- from GarageBand to Sibelius. Luckily for us educators, many of those talented musicians have posted their songs online and have even licensed it with a Creative Commons license! We can use these songs in our slideshows, videos, Web 2.0 projects and more!

MacJams is actually a whole social network of musicians, with forums, blogs, and articles. But the music is where the real treasure is. You can search by keyword, genre, and other factors.

Some of the music is great- some of it… not so much.

Preview the song by clicking the play button in the search results list. Once you find a song you like…

Continue reading

www.pandora.com

The following blog entry has no educational implications- it’s just a great site for personal use!

I thought by now that most people had heard of Pandora, the internet radio site where you can make your own “station” based on a particular artist, song, set of songs, etc. You tell it what you like, then it will play songs it thinks you will like. I had my doubts, but I must say it’s pretty good.

You can also share a radio station with others (via email) where I clipped this one from:

I created the above station based on Phill Collins, Billy Joel, and U2. Click on the image and it should link right to my cool station. Here are some other features that I really like…

Continue reading