The Web 2.0 Tool that I found interesting is called iSpeech from http://www.ispeech.org. With ispeech you can convert any text-based file to audio speech as an mp3 file. In other words converted Websites, RSS feeds, Blogs and Documents (Microsoft Office, Adobe PDF, Text, etc.) can be turned into mp3 files. These mp3 files can then be downloaded onto your blogs, wikis, or news feeds as mp3 or podcast.
Okay, why would I want to do this you may ask? For me personally, because of the nature of my position I have very little opportunity outside of my responsibility to instruct Web 2.0 communications tools to engage and respond to my personal or instructional blogs and wikis. I serve the teachers in several local school districts up to 85 miles from my office. So I find myself traveling and then spending a day to catch up on emails and blogs. I have little time to spend in front of my laptop to engage in social networking sites and many of the teachers I teach find themselves in the same boat. This Web 2.0 application allows you to convert this same media into a media that can be downloaded or uploaded to any device or site that can play mp3 (i.e., ipod, ipad, car mp3 players, website embedded players, etc.).
By adding an interactive tool such as iSpeech to your blog site you can increase or improve your reader’s chance of receiving your blog content by listening to your blogs instead of reading. In situations where students are engaged in a classroom blog where involvement is not optional, adding ispeech may level the playing field for those students who have diverse learning needs.
I signed up for an iSpeech account and put it to the test with this post to see how it worked and how effective it will be as an instructional tool.
iSpeech Example
Click on the link below to hear an example of iSpeech.
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