Tag Archives: transcription

A Mind-Blowing Free Tool for Student Speech Recordings: Transcriptions, Audio, Summaries and Easy Sharing with the Teacher

Oh wow! This is quite a long title but I’ve stumbled upon an absolute gem of a website that I have to share with you all. If you’ve ever struggled with deciphering student recordings, trying to make sense of mumbled words, or spending precious time replaying audio to catch what they said—those days are officially over!

This incredible tool (it’s a website, no downloads needed!) lets students record themselves, whether it’s a presentation, a speech, or just a spoken reflection. The best part? it doesn’t just capture the audio. Nope, it goes way beyond that and also provides a full transcription of what the students said.

This amazig webiste is called Spacebar.fm .

Do students need to register?

They’ve got two options to choose from, depending on their needs:

  1. No registration needed: You can speak for up to 10 minutes per recording with a total of 5 interactions.
  2. Register for a free account: If you sign up, you get 200 minutes of recording time, with each individual recording lasting up to 90 minutes
How do you start the recording?

Easy, click on Tap and Talk and start recording.

What do you get after the recording?

Now, here’s what happens after a student records. You ‘ll get,

  • A beautiful image of the memory shared. (I know, not very useful but nice)
  • A summary of what the student shared, highlighting the main points and key ideas.
  • The full accurate transcription of what the student said, right there for you to read through or skim as needed.
  • The original recording, so you can listen if you want, but you’re no longer reliant on just the audio.
How Do Students Share Their Recordings? 

Very easy! After the recording is done, students just need to click on Copy Shareable Link. and send it straight to their teacher’s email. If you want to access your previous recordings, you’ll find them in the Memo tab.

Why I think this tool is a must-keep

Can you imagine? No more:

  • Playing back a recording ten times trying to catch every word.
  • Frantically jotting down notes as you listen.
  •  Worrying that you missed an important detail.

With this tool, you get a clear, written record of what each student said. This makes it so much easier to:

  • Provide detailed feedback.
  • Check for content understanding.
  • Highlight areas for improvement without struggling to hear what they meant.

I really think this could be a fantastic way to assess student speaking skills. It’s also a brilliant option for remote learning or when students are working on independent projects.

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Stop Typing: Transcribe your Audio and Video Files for Free

Freemium but with a robust free version, transcribing audio or video, downloadable in different formats and much more.  This little, easy-to-use speech-to-text AI tool is making my life way easier!!

Picture this: in one of your folders in your computer desktop or Google Drive, you find the perfect audio/ video that fits like a glove in the lesson you are teaching, but…. no transcript available. It sucks, huh??

No sweat! I got you covered! TurbosScribe.ai is just what you need!!!

Important:  Although it might look like a paid ad, it is not. None of my posts are sponsored. I just write about what works for me.

Why I like it
  • Freemium, but with a robust free version: 3 transcriptions/day
  • It transcribes and translates with amazing accuracy 98 languages
  • You can upload video or audio files from your device or paste the URL from YouTube and other platforms
  • Transcripts can be downloaded in various formats: PDF, DOCX, TXT, and even subtitle formats (SRT).
  • You can enable and disable timestamps in the transcript view. This will hide or show the timestamps in the transcript document.

Watch the video tutorial below if you feel like you need some extra help getting started.

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Otter.ai: an Awesome Free App to Get Accurate Transcript from Audios/Videos

Let me start by saying that this is not a sponsored post. I don’t get paid to write about tools. I just write about what works for me. And thisss …. has already saved my life 3 or 4 times.

Imagine this!  You have an awesome video/audio in your computer or on the internet that is great for the topic you are discussing in class. You want to give it to your students, but you cannot find the transcript. It is simply not available.

What do you do? I am going to give 2 options:

  1. Discard the audio/video. After all, you can always use something from the textbook.
  2. Use an app that will easily, effortlessly and accurately transcribe it, giving you the possibility of downloading it in different formats (including Docx), without time stamps and ready to share with your students?

If you have chosen Option 1, you may stop reading. This post is not for you. Hope you continue to drop by.

Those of you choosing Option 2, I can picture you rubbing your hands and holding your breath. Here we go!

Otter.ai is a mind-blowing text-to-speech tool. It is very user-friendly and the transcription you get is incredibly accurate. Perhaps, you might need to add a comma or a stop here and there but that’s it. It is almost perfect.

For free, you get 600 minutes of transcription per month but if you need more, you can always invite friends or colleagues to try Otter.ai. For every friend that decides to try Otter, you will get one month Pro Lite.  Not a bad deal! So, the link I am going to share with you is the one that will allow me to get one-month Pro Lite. There is no money for me here, just the opportunity to enjoy more free minutes of transcription.

I have created a video tutorial to guide you through the app. It is in Spanish but, don’t panic, I have added some explanatory notes with instructions in English.

A big thank you to Miguel A Sánchez (Michel) for bringing it to my attention.

Edited to include contributions and tips from other teachers

  1. “It also records sounds from a YouTube film opened in a different tab. Much better than YouTube transcript.” – Ewa.
  2. “It’s awesome to give feedback in oral exams. I provide my Sts the transcript and underline the death-penalty mistakes. They realise at once and correct them, something that hardly ever happens if they just listen to themselves” Loli Manteiga.

Try Otter here