Incorporating a Microphone and Headset into Learning Using the Technology Integration Matrix

 For this blog post, I'm looking at incorporating a headset into library lessons, guided by the Technology Integration Matrix (TIM) by the Florida Center for Instructional Technology. This hardware can be wired or wireless, and consists of headphones and a small microphone that reaches down toward the student's mouth. These are used on a 1:1 basis, so each student must wear a headset in order to use it. Students can record their voices to a computer, listen back, and listen to other audio material as allowed by the teacher.                                                                    

Two brown-skinned teenage girls in a classroom. Both are wearing headphones and pointing to a tablet. One is laughing.
One of the areas of school library services I am most   passionate about is literacy, so I wanted to consider how these could be used to help create fun, enriching, and hopefully transformational, literacy experiences. 

The technology integration categories in the TIM are: 

  • Entry
  • Adoption
  • Adaptation
  • Infusion
  • Transformation
They are in ascending order of levels of integration.                                                                                                                                 Image source

Additionally, the TIM has five characteristics of meaningful learning environments, which are: 

  • Active
  • Collaborative
  • Constructive
  • Authentic
  • Goal-directed

Each lesson or use of technology should be done in a way that meets each of those five characteristics. 

In the rest of this post, I'll describe ways that a headset can be used for each of the technology integration categories. Each of these ideas is aimed at middle school students, but could be adapted for high schoolers or elementary school students. 

Entry: A librarian demonstrates the use of a headset by putting it on, recording a short response to a video or lesson, and playing it back to the students. 

Adoption: A librarian introduces students to the headset and the app or webpage they'll be using to listen to audio. They use the technology mainly to allow for personalized listening via a specific app or webpage. 

Adaptation: The librarian offers students a digital one-pager with several websites, videos, and an audio recording app. Students choose a piece of video or audio content, and then record a response using the audio recording app link provided to them. 

Infusion: Students are asked to create accessible book reports that have both visual and audio components. They are asked to use Google Slides to prepare their book reports and have access to the headset, but could also choose to work in pairs and record using their computer microphone. 

Transformation: Students are asked to create audio-annotated short stories as part of a collaborative library-ELA lesson. Students begin by selecting a short story available in digital text format from a teacher-approved selection.

After reading the story and thinking through elements chosen by their ELA teacher, such as symbolism, foreshadowing, figurative language, etc., the students record audio annotations via their microphones linked to specific words or sentences in the story. This could be done using a specific LMS, such as Canvas, or by recording audio files and directly linking them within a Google Doc (although this is more cumbersome for the student). Finally, students would also create a text version of their audio annotations using transcription software so that the end users of their annotations have both audio and visual options for learning, increasing accessibility for different learning types and incorporating elements of Universal Design for Learning. 

Taking this a step further in terms of choice and self-direction, students could do the inverse: select an audio-recorded story to listen to, and create a text document with annotations based on timestamps. This would allow users to choose either to read or listen to the original story. 

These annotated stories could be shared with each other as a peer learning exercise, or designed as part of an ELA lesson for students one year younger, to support both groups of students' learning. 

Here are a couple of resources that would be helpful for teachers seeking to use this technology in their classroom: 

GotTechEd podcast: 10 Ways to Use Audio Recording in a Student-Centered Classroom

Edutopia: 4 Ways Audio Recording Can Boost Classroom Learning

References:

EdTech Throwdown. (2023, Dec. 6). 10 ways to use audio recording in a student-centered classroom. [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAfPSQL6M3Q

King, M. and Sheriff LeVan, K. (2016, July 18). 4 ways audio recording can boost classroom learning. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/discussion/4-ways-audio-recording-can-boost-classroom-learning 

Florida Center for Instructional Technology. (n.d.). The technology integration matrix. Technology Integration Matrix. https://fcit.usf.edu/matrix/matrix/ 


Comments

  1. Aimee McLaughlin-KobierowskiJuly 6, 2024 at 12:32 PM

    Hi Elizabeth! These are terrific ideas for ways to use audio recording to boost technology engaged learning. The way you explained how to use this through all of the categories in the TIM model made this a clear and useful tool. I especially liked the idea in the podcast of using audio in a flipped classroom format with students listening to lectures or podcasts from the teacher at home. This is a great way to use audio recording that would surely help students.

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