Learning Resources sent me 3 of their products to review over the next few weeks. They will also give one away to one lucky reader. The first one I tried is the Hear All Assessment Recorder.
Why it’s useful:
The Hear All Recorder could be placed in any center in your classroom as an extra set of ears listening in on the children there. We all know preschool children learn by talking about what they’re doing, so the recorder will let you listen in on those conversations. I could see it being useful in the Reading Center when children sit down with a book to “picture-read”, when I’m in another area of the room. I would probably attach it to the wall or a shelf with velcro, and then all I’d have to do is go over and hit the record button.
It would also be useful during small group times. I have 4 small groups going at once, with two of the groups working independently. I could place the recorder with one of the independent groups and listen in later on what took place in that group.
The recording (or clips of the recording) could be added to a child’s e-portfolio.
It’s features:
- It charges with a USB cable connected to your computer. There are no batteries to buy and replace.
- It has a microphone on all 4 corners so it picks up multiple voices very well. It did pick up some background noise, but it was not as loud as the close-range voices. (I have to add: I tried it out during center time, which gets pretty loud in my room, and I had a child clanging on a xylophone at the time.)
- Compatible with MP3 and WAV files.
- Records up to 4 hours of audio.
- You can connect headphones or earbuds to it if you want to listen to it without others hearing.
Want one of your own?
You can get one on the Learning Resources site. Learning Resources is also giving away one Hear All Recorder (worth $99.99) to one lucky reader.
Enter the giveaway using the Rafflecopter below. One winner will be chosen.
Rules:
- You must write a comment below this post telling us how you would use the Hear All Recorder in your classroom.
- For a bonus entry, “pin it to win it” by pinning this on Pinterest.
- Entries are only valid if you enter with the Rafflecopter.
- If you are a winner, you will be notified by email and you have 5 days to respond or a new winner will be chosen.
- If you win, you must provide a U.S. mailing address.
- Giveaway ends at midnight on Friday, September 21, 2012.
Disclosure: I received a Hear All Assessment Recorder to review, I was not compensated in any other way. All opinions are 100% my own.
About Karen Cox
I would love to win a recorder. So much going on in a room full of three-year-olds, I know I miss hearing a lot of interesting conversations!
I also use Work Sampling Online as our program’s tool. This would help capture samples of the preschoolers’ language, their phonemic awareness, how they tetell stories, rhyme, understanding of problem solving- it’s endless!
I think this could be very helpful in not just capturing what happened in centers but while doing assessments and then reviewing afterward to make sure I got all the information I could!
I find that during playtime, it is impossible to hear the conversations taking place in each corner of the classroom. Often, this is when the best socialization is taking place. I’d love to capture the spontaneous conversations, rather than the stilted answers we so often hear in large group settings.
I would use it primarily to take language samples–to see how ELL are progressing in their English, story retelling skills, conversational turntaking, etc. It would be so helpful!
I would use the recorder to record our emerging readers . Not only will this help with assessment, but they will love to hear themselves read.
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