Russell Stannard goes mad for Voxopop.
It is not often that I write about a technology before I have used it myself in class or with my trainee teachers, but I am going to make an exception this time.
For a long time I have been looking for a tool like Voxopop (www.voxopop.com), which I heard about recently in a talk. Voxopop is like an oral discussion board. You set up a topic for discussion, say ‘technology’, then record a question. Your students can then go onto Voxopop and record their answers. This can be a great way of brainstorming and sharing ideas around a topic, or for simply having discussions around a theme. The students can listen to your question – and listen to all the other recorded answers – and then add their own answer. It works just like a discussion board, but everything is oral.
Of course, you are not limited to just one question. You can set up as many questions under a theme as you want; you can even add a new question halfway through the discussion. The tool is really flexible. You could end up having seven or eight recorded questions under a theme – and then each question could have as many answers as you have students in the class. Here are some ideas for more ways to use it:
Chain stories
Voxopop isn’t just good for discussions; you can also use it for chain stories. A chain story can be done with the whole class, but it is much more interesting to put the students into groups of four or five and get each group to create their own chain story. Instead of starting with a question, one student simply records the first part of a story and then the next student records the next part. It is advisable to give them time to prepare their stories. You might provide them with a theme or some key words which they have to use. Once the students have decided on their story, you can get them to record it bit by bit, with each student recording one part.
Another way to use the chain idea is to combine it with a listening comprehension. You could play the students a story in the class, then put them into groups and get them to rebuild the story as a group. They could then go onto Voxopop and try to record the story, again part by part.
The news
Again, this idea would work well with groups of four or five students. Get each group to think of a number of news stories which are current in their country. Tell them to brainstorm each story so that they more or less agree on the details. Then ask each student to prepare one of the news stories by making notes and working out the basic structure. The students can practise presenting their news stories in their groups before recording them on Voxopop. Once they are happy that they know their stories well enough, they can go to Voxopop and record a whole news broadcast, taking turns to present their stories.
History
Voxopop is great for anything linear. Imagine, for example, that you want to record the history of a certain country, person, club or institution. In fact, anything with a linear history will work well. Suppose, for example, that we asked our students to research the life of Steve Jobs. They could work in groups of four or five and each take a certain period or event in his life. They research their part, take some notes and then practise presenting their information orally within their group. Once they are clear about their part of the story and have practised it, they can go to Voxopop and take turns to record each part of the life of Steve Jobs.
The activity doesn’t have to involve something that the students have to research. We could, for example, get them to work in groups and prepare information about five important events or five important people in the history of their country. Again, they could discuss the topic and take notes, and then each student in the group could practise talking about one person or one event. Once they are happy that they are able to talk about their person or event, they can go to Voxoop and take turns to record their part. A key thing here is to give the students time to prepare and practise before they go to Voxopop and do their recordings.
As you can see, Voxopop can be used for lots of different things. As I admitted at the start of this piece, I haven’t actually used the tool myself, though I am planning to try out some of these ideas as soon as I am back in the classroom. I like any tools that encourage students to do more oral work, and this one really opens up lots of opportunities.
Voxopop is not as easy as some of the other tools I have recommended. My advice is to watch my free help videos (at www.teachertrainingvideos.com/voxopop/index.html) as these will show you, step by step, how to use it. Voxopop is not particularly difficult, but it will take a while to become sufficiently familiar with it to be able to demonstrate it to your students.
Russell Stannard is a Principal Lecturer in ICT at the University of Warwick, UK, where he teaches on the MA in ELT. He won the Times Higher Education Award for Outstanding Initiatives in Information and Communications Technology in 2008, TEFLnet Site of the Year in 2009 and a 2010 British Council ELTon award, all for his popular website www.teachertrainingvideos.com.
This article first appeared in English Teaching professional, Issue 81, July 2012
