Life just gets easier and easier the more I investigate what is available for teachers.  Don’t get me wrong, life was good when all I had was my Xperia Z and the Easy Voice Recorder app. I was able to record my students while I conducted informal reading inventories and then send these files to Google Drive.  Recently, I ran into a problem… one of my files was not able to be played through Google Drive when I was involved in a grueling report card writing session.  This left me scrambling to come up with a solution since none of my default programs could open the file either.  Enter the Chrome extension Music Player for Google Drive to save the day.

     Music Player for Google Drive is a very simple Chrome extension. It allows you to save audio files into playlists.  These playlists are saved and accessible through Google Drive.  Now when I want to group audio files so that I can listen for a specific purpose, such as assessment, I can easily!  I would also consider using this extension for making a digital portfolio of oral reading fluency for each of my students.  The extension folder can easily be shared with other professionals in my building that work with the students, like my school’s Academic Intervention Service provider for literacy.

     The first step is to make a recording with the Easy Voice Recorder app with your tablet (see my previous write up on using this app).  It is a simple interface that allows you to record audio, organize, and share the files. I choose to share the files in a specific folder within my linked Google Drive account.

    Once you have exported the audio files to your Google Drive account, you can click on a an audio file in the designated folder.  Chrome extensions are not supported on the Xperia Z’s operating system at the moment so you will need to go another device that does.  You will get a message in the preview mode to open the file and then you select “Open with Music Player for Google Drive.”

Once you open the playlist using the Music Player extension you can edit the playlist by deleting songs or adding new ones that have been uploaded to your Google Drive account.

     Below is a picture of what appears in a new tab when you open the extension. When saving the file in the Easy Recorder app,  I like to write the child’s name, title of the text, and the date of the assessment to help me keep organized. When I work with the file later I can easily find it!

     Voila! You have a solution to playing audio files that cannot be played in the preview function. Not only that, you now have files grouped together in a searchable, accessible playlist that is available anywhere you have the Internet.