Moving at the Speed of Creativity by Wesley Fryer

Web 2.0 Audio Conversations

For several weeks now I have been having fun playing with the fantastic web 2.0 tool Yackpack. Last night and today, I finally setup a family “pack” and turned my kids loose on it. I could hardly get them to stop! My youngest even caught the contagious enthusiasm and had to get in the act with some audio recordings, although she is not yet ready for her own account! (That will probably happen next month at the rate she’s learning!)

As a related aside, I am amazed by the high levels of intrinsic motivation to communicate which reside inside each one of our children and the students we teach– contrasted with the vigor with which most public school administrative and IT staff members strive to ban all during-school instant messaging, blogging, or other social communication facilitated by technology. There is a major disconnect here, and significant opportunities to leverage natural student inclinations to communicate in the service of developing literacy skills are being missed BIG TIME in most schools.

Yackpack is fantastic. Browser based and simple like Google, it reflects great design and functionality. You can tell in a blink of the eye this was not designed by Microsoft. 🙂 After a 5 minute lesson with Yackpack and some parental help with her initial setup, my kindergartner became empowered to communicate on the site for about two hours with other family members I designated in our “pack.” In the end, I had to pry hands away from the laptop! Both computers in our home have rarely been used so intensely at the same time! Behold the motivational power of technology for digital natives! We saw clear evidences of this at our house today!

If you are interested in joining the “pack” I have created on the topic of disruptive technology, please let me know and I’ll send you a yackpack invitation. If you want to create your own, the site is now out of closed beta and is accepting new users directly online.

Thanks to a post from David Jakes, I learned that Odeo.com is not just “another” podcast directory, it is also a web 2.0 resource for recording, publishing and sharing audio podcasts. According to their website, with Odeo you can:

1. Record Audio: Create Create recordings from your browser—or your phone
2. Share with People: Send your voice to friends, family, or colleagues
3. Podcast to the World: Make shows that people can get with iTunes
4. Discover New Audio: Hear friends, favorites, or something new

This type of browser-based access to microphones is exactly what Yackpack is doing, along with MacroMedia Breeze, to facilitate web 2.0 audio conversations. Web 2.0 just keeps getting more powerful and easy to use. Does anyone else feel like they are on the set of Star Trek now, but 24/7? Where’s the transporter room, btw? 🙂

If you enjoyed this post and found it useful, subscribe to Wes’ free newsletter. Check out Wes’ video tutorial library, “Playing with Media.” Information about more ways to learn with Dr. Wesley Fryer are available on wesfryer.com/after.

On this day..


Posted

in

, , ,

by

Tags:

Comments

2 responses to “Web 2.0 Audio Conversations”

  1. […] YackPack…thanks to Wes Fryer for this one. Web-based voice messaging allows you to create groups and leave voice messages. I like the simple interface. I’ve already started using this one with the Posse and Wes had open invitations to his disruptive technology group. […]

  2. […] History of Digital Storytelling ” Web 2.0 Audio Conversations … doing, along with MacroMedia Breeze, to facilitate web 2.0 audio conversations. … Continue […]