Tuesday, July 17, 2012

HearALL Assessment Recorder - Product Review and GIVEAWAY!

HearallI was recently sent the HearALL Assessment Recorder by Learning Resources and asked to review their product (I am not being paid to do this review.) Here is what I think about this product:

What an awesome tool to use in the classroom! I love this recorder! It is very lightweight and easy to operate for students in any grade. The recording can be played back instantly or easily downloaded on the computer with a USB cord. It charges by connecting it to the computer and doesn’t take long to charge. I used it several classroom situations and was truly surprised how well it picked up sound. I sat in the back of a class and recorded the small group session in front of me. It was able to pick up what was said even though the teacher and students spoke softly. I was very impressed with how clear the playback sounded.

I could see using this in small groups where you want to record several people speaking. The 4 omnidirectional microphones are very effective in picking up the sound. I think this would be great to use when correcting speech, working on reading fluency, practice vocabulary and many other language lessons. It would also be great to use when recording group work so that even though the teacher might not be with that group, the work can be recorded and documented. The price for this is $99.99 and I believe is well worth the money!

Class Sample

Find out more info about Learning Resources:

https://www.facebook.com/learningresources

http://twitter.com/#!/learninghandson

http://www.youtube.com/user/LearningResourcesInc

http://pinterest.com/learninghandson/

Giveaway info:

If you would like to win this Assessment Recorder for your own classroom, you must leave a comment below this post answering the following question:

How would you use this in your classroom?

A random drawing will be held in one week (July 24) so also include your contact info or email me to let me know that you left a comment so I can contact you if you win.

Original picture from Learning Resources site

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I could envision using this Recorder in a variety of ways: oral book reviews, group project presentations, fluency practice, etc.
Thanks!
Christine
Christinebarry@comcast.net

aews said...

I'm going to try again except this would be great for my speech path to use. We have some students who need to hear themselves quickly. I would pass this to her to use.

*s* said...

This sounds awesome! The conversations that go on in science groups (I use FOSS kits) are invaluable in learning about how the students are thinking and whether they're understanding the concepts. Recording groups to listen to later would be a big help, especially in assessing students who have difficulty writing down their thoughts and findings.

Sue
aka Eleanor_Rigby
btls4fr@gmail.com

Anonymous said...

This recorder would be perfect for reader's theater. Students love to act out scripts and stories; why not use them as assessments of students' best work? This recorder can provide an authentic assessment for a teacher to use not only to assess but also to discover any reading traits that could help the teacher work with the student in the future. I would LOVE this in my classroom!

K4Teacher said...

It looks like a great tool that can be used in many ways. Once you have one you would probably think of more and more ways to use it.
I would use it for helping students with their speech. I teach kindergarten children and pronunciation is something the little ones struggle with often. It would be a fun way for them to hear themselves saying certain words. They would love listening to themselves and it would be an incentive to say the word correctly!

luckeyfrog said...

I think one of the best ways for students to improve their fluency is to listen to themselves read. I also think that, while it's important for them to hear adult models reading REALLY well, it's also incredibly powerful for them to hear their peers reading fluently. I would love to use it to set up a fluency center and then use the recordings to put into our listening center!

Jenny
Luckeyfrog's Lilypad

ראובן ורבר said...

We have students who need to submit their tests orally, because of learning difficulties. this would really help us. We also have to record tests for some students who have difficulties reading This would be great!

News From Jackson said...

One of my favorite poets is Mary Ann Hoberman. http://www.maryannhoberman.com/ Each year I introduce my second grade students to her poetry that they absolutely love! They especially enjoy the 'I'll Read to You, You'll Read to Me' series. We practice reciting these poems until they become 'our own' and then I record them onto a web page. You can see the poems that we recorded this past spring at this link: http://poetryjackson.weebly.com/ I have students come up to my computer to record, but it would be great if they could pass around a recorder like this one to do their own recordings.
I also love to ask students questions and record responses and make short podcasts that sound like radio news reports. I call it 'Reporting Live from...' Children love sharing their learning with their parents this way. The recorder would be a wonderful addition to our podcasts. Thanks!