Take a look inside 5 images
Voxopop
Pros: It's easy to set up Talkgroups and propose discussions, and kids can practice for speaking in real-life situations.
Cons: Many of the public boards haven't been updated in years.
Bottom Line: Whether they're learning to analyze text or get practice speaking, Voxopop offers students a solid way to start a dialogue.
This type of voice-based message board could be a good way to get kids with writing challenges, literacy issues, or learning difficulties to communicate in a different way. Conversations are created verbally, and kids can share feelings, opinions, and ideas without being under pressure to write them all down. Also, Voxopop is an excellent tool for language-learning teachers, both world language and ELL. You could assign students a series of practice conversations within the site, ask them to dictate a text for reading-fluency practice, or have them ask and answer each others' questions in another tongue.
Voxopop is an online message board system that uses voice instead of text. Its forums are called Talkgroups and can be created by anyone, including teachers, to talk about any subject. Talkgroups can be public, private, or invite-only. The site's design is a bit cluttered and contains some advertising; finding the recording tool might take a few tries, but once you've found it, you'll know where to go.
Anyone can explore and listen to public discussions, but only users who have created an account can contribute. Teachers can choose to make discussions private. When you create an account, you'll also be able to set up email notifications so you'll know when others contribute.
Since the advent of real-time, video-chat forums like Google Hangouts and Skype, tools like Voxopop don't fill the same void that they used to. You have to record your message, then wait for others to respond. This may not fit for a heated political discussion, but could be just fine for a slow-paced chat or in-depth literary analysis. Plus, the ability to record and play back could also work well for language learners, a speech or class, or any other time a student needs to prepare and perfect a verbal presentation. Most members use Voxopop for language practice and learning, and it seems to work well for this.
However, the site isn't kept up very well, and there are some problems: At the time of this review, the browse/search function doesn't work due to "technical issues," and the blog hasn't been updated since 2011.
Learning Rating
Community Rating
Has potential but a security risk and has technical issues because of Java
First of all, although it was easy to set up an account, if Java is not installed on your computer initial set up can actually take a long time to get it installed and all the settings correct to record. Usually, I work on mac, and Java is not installed on it. This is recommended due to Java being a security risk. This website is not the risk, but this website needs Java to work, and Java is the security risk. If Java was not required, I would recommend this website. I think it does have a lot of potential, especially for English language learners. Teachers can set up a private discussions to collect homework, student collaboration areas for class projects, peer-assessment areas for class work, have debates and more. However, because of the security risk of Java, I'd go with an alternative.
Explore Our Favorite Tools
