Well, this has been quite a journey..I have been trawling the web and my twitter PLN to exhaust all the free possibilities for students to record their voice and share with others via a URL rather than a large audiofile.
It’s not that this hasn’t been possible; in fact, for some time I have been promoting ShowMe and Educreations as they are ridiculously quick and easy to use ways to produce a recording with a public or private URL. However, it has always bugged me -perhaps unreasonably- that the URL shared opens an app instead of just playing an audio track.
Similarly, it has always been possible to record audio in one app like Voice Record Pro (free) and upload to a free cloud storage platform like Google Drive, Dropbox or Copy. Copy for iOS is my favourite as it gives 15GB free and the iPad app is fab, every file and folder has a private or public link. But, again, I just want the audio URL to play, not open an app or require a download. Fussy or what?
A decent alternative has been the Croak.it app, which is free and produces its own URL, but it only allows up to 30 seconds recording. Actually that is quite a long time for a Y7 or 8 student..and they could of course, make two or more recordings.
Numerous other options, such as iPadio, Audioboo and Soundcloud required signing up to social media sites or providing phone numbers, which is not ideal when students are not yet 13.
The free app Spreaker DJ, however, as tipped by @joedale and @suzibewell, might fit the bill. It does need a subscription but nothing in the Terms and Conditions mentions an age limit. I will give it a go and report back!
Steve Morgan Training 