Website+or+School+Network

At conferences I saw inspirational glimpses of what other people were doing.

Under Thekla Fall's leadership the Pittsburgh Public Schools had instituted district-wide oral proficiency testing by recording students' voices. They had begun with an assessment program that used cassette tape recorders and eventually were able to contract with a software developer to create computer-based oral assessments and digital audio files. (Pittsburgh Oral Proficiency Practice PowerPoint slide shows.)

Elizabeth Wylie Ernst and Claire Bradin Siskin of the University of Pittsburgh designed their own computer-administered oral proficiency testing system with programming software called [|RunTime Revolution].

Both of the above reside on the servers at your school and can produce student audio files that you can listen to when connected to your school network or wherever you are, if you've copied the audio files to your computer or USB drive.

I bought an inexpensive version of RunTime Revolution a little over a year ago, but still haven't taken the time to learn how to use it.

I also looked at doing something similar with shared **documents** on the school network and **recording tools** installed on individual computers. I could place a speaking prompt on a Word document, for example, that everyone could see on their own screen or on a projection screen and then have the students record their responses by opening a recorder on their computers. For example.
 * Windows computers have a built in Sound Recorder (found in the Start Menu- All Program - Accessories- Entertainment) that is good for recording for up to 60 seconds with one's computer microphone.
 * Audacity is a free, downloadable recording tool that allows for longer recordings.

Something similar can be accomplished with **slide show software** that contains its own recording device. Here the students need to have their own copies of the slide show with the speaking prompt(s), record their voice on the slide, and then save the file with a new name in a location where the teacher can find it.

**PowerPoint** example. **PhotoStory** example. (PhotoStory is a free downloadable product from Microsoft.)