Since I am not currently in a school or library role, I do not have access to materials in this blog. Instead of creating a sound setup for my school, I took the information and research to make a plan for how to create a mobile sound setup. Ideally, classes or libraries that I work on French podcasts or other recording activities with would have their own sound setup. Practically speaking, it is unlikely that all schools in our district have this setup. It would therefore be helpful to create a mobile Sound Setup. I would follow the directions on the Elearning Brothers blog and allow for the panels to fold into themselves for easy transport.
As for a microphone, from basic research and reading of others’ responses it looks as though the Blue Snowball Ice microphone would be the best microphone for the price point. I would be hesitant to spend more since I could be using it with kids from elementary through to secondary school as well as transporting it, and I would not want to worry about it getting stolen or breaking.
I was already looking into microphones as we are doing several zoom-based cultural events in French classes, from zoom improv and theatre productions to author visits. The feedback I received from one author is that it is hard to hear students when they ask questions. A simple microphone could help create a more authentic exchange between our zoom guests and the students.
References
Smith, J. (2017) My favourite Microphones for Audio. The Techie Teacher. Retrieved from https://www.thetechieteacher.net/2017/07/my-favorite-microphones-for-audio.html
ELB Guest Author (2014) How to Make Your Own Sound Booth for Better Voice Overs. Elearning Brothers. Retrieved from: https://blog.elearningbrothers.com/blog/how-to-make-your-own-sound-booth-for-better-voice-overs
Technology in the language learning classroom and library 