Audio Tech Tool for the Classroom

Looking for an immersive audio tech tool for your classroom?

There are a lot of audio tech tools out there, but none quite like TableTop Audio.

Have you ever read The Great Gatsby and wished you could hear glasses clanking against each other and the smooth jazz playing during one of Gatsby's parties? Have you ever done a Hamlet read-aloud in your classroom and wished you could add to the atmosphere with the sounds of clanking chains and a howling wind (or is it a ghost!)? Thanks to the audio tech tool TableTop Audio, you can.

TableTop Audio is a website full of 10-minute sound bites you can either play right from the site or download for free. The website was started by a professional sound designer and composer and created with table top games in mind. However, people have used the site to enhance a writing or reading experience, help them fall asleep, or to serve as inspiration for all kinds of projects. As described by the founder, who doesn't give their name, the site is for anyone “who wants to immerse themselves in the audio-space of one environment, while physically inhabiting another.” Basically, the producer made the sound bites so people could immerse themselves into another place.

At the time this article was written, there were 89 different audio files on the site. The sound bites usually fit into one of these categories: historical time period, fantasy or sci-fi settings, creepy/Halloween-type sounds, or nature sounds. There's everything from the ocean, to imagining what dragons would sound like, to the sounds of the Wild West or the streets of Victorian London. If you want to take it a step further, a new function called SoundPad was added. With SoundPad you can use various sound clips to create your own sounds. There are currently six different SoundPad themes.

Obviously, there's an endless number of ways teachers could use this inside their classrooms. It could help students with their projects, or be used in any number of different ways including enhancing reading time or a read aloud, for student plays, to get students excited during the beginning of a lecture, or they could get incorporated into your own presentations.

What way would you use TableTop audio? What sounds do you like the best or hope the author makes in the future? Have you found any similar or other audio tech tool sites or apps?

Tori Pakizer is the Social Media Editor at SimpleK12.com. She writes regularly about the use of educational technology in K-12 classrooms, and specializes in how teachers use Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and other social media. You can follow Tori and SimpleK12 on Twitter @SimpleK12. If you have ideas for using social media in schools, please send your information or tip to editor@simplek12.com.