Audiblogs for the Win

While watching YouTube, I clicked back to my homepage to see what video I would watch next and saw a video called The 10 Best Chrome Extensions for Productivity in 2021 by Thomas Frank. I have always liked finding new extensions that add better functionality to the browser I use [currently Brave]. One of the extensions on the list was Audiblogs. 

Audiblogs allows you to take a website or text on the web and convert it to a podcast.

When I saw this for general productivity I thought it was cool, but then I started to think about how this could impact students and was really impressed.

How to use it

1. Install the extension. Here is the link to the Chrome Web Store. 

2. Navigate to a web page you want to share. This can also be a Google Doc.

3. Click the extension as shown below. From here you can listen in the browser, or send to yourself as a podcast.

4. If you want to send as a podcast, click One-time Setup in Podcast App.

5. Choose the device type. (See below)

6. On the next page you will find a QR Code that you can use to get a link to your podcast.

7. On your phone, scan the QR Code and start listening to your article as a podcast.

After the initial setup - the next time you want to save an article as a podcast, simply click the extension.

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Note: you may need to manually update or refresh your podcasts for the new ones to show up. In my testing, podcasts have taken a few minutes to show up in my feed. Until becoming comfortable with the app, try gathering the resources before class.

Note2: Some things, like PDFs, don't work. For these, I copied the text and put them into a Google Doc. Then, I had to publish the Doc to the web, then I could import the audio.

For this to work you will need a podcast app already installed on your phone. I think this could be a great way for reluctant readers or EAL learners to access the content.