YackPack

We decided to choose the 2.0 tool YackPack. YackPack is an online voice communication tool that can be used by both teachers and students. YackPack has many strengths including a very informational website that lists many ideas for classroom use. Some of these ideas include: grading student work and giving verbal feedback; collaborating with other classrooms; answering students’ questions verbally; and assigning oral practice for foreign languages. YackPack enhances traditional classroom by using the expressiveness of voice in a virtual learning environment. Being that it is a web 2.0 tool, students and teachers can access the free site anywhere, anytime. YackPack is a safe and private tool where only those you invite can access your messages. You can also belong to several groups at one time and YackPack automatically stores your voice messages. Before YackPack sends your voice message, you are able to listen to it and rerecord if necessary. YackPack can be used asynchronously so users do not have to be online at the same time to receive messages. There are, however, some weaknesses to the site. At this time they are experiencing some technical difficulties so the site is not running properly. We were unable to create our own YackPack to explore exactly how it works but current users are still able to fully access their YackPack account.

YackPack is user friendly and easy to learn for all ages. On the homepage, there is an informational video that walks you through how to use the tool. To send a message you simply click on the members of your pack that you want to receive the message, record, and send. It’s that easy! All members upload a picture of themselves when they create an account; this picture shows up in your pack. When you receive a message, the box around the sender’s picture lights up green informing you of your new message.

YackPack can be used in the classroom for many educational purposes. Each student can easily create an account and the teacher can invite all students to the classroom pack. Once in the private pack, the teacher and students can communicate. Students can ask and answer each others questions or discuss the topic of the teacher’s choice. The teacher can also verbally answer students’ questions or give verbal explanations of math, science, etc. problems. Students can also create a verbal blog to communicate their thoughts and opinions about a certain topic. Teachers can invite other classrooms to a separate pack to collaborate. Teachers and students can give verbal feedback on assignments as well as encouragement; parents can also access the account to view feedback. YackPack can also be used for distance education. The educational uses of YackPack is not limited to the ideas above.

To work on this assignment, we collaborated the old fashion way. We both sat with our laptops and searched for a useful online web 2.0 tool. We found one that we both liked and continued to critique it together. One of us typed while the other had the web 2.0 tool open for exploration. By collaborating we were able to navigate the website easily because we both noticed and observed different parts or links on the page. Because we worked together and at the same time, we did not use the internet to collaborate but definitely could have.