Do we need HTML5 audio recording?

Audio recording for many websites is more than just a novelty. Foreign language students have turned to the Internet in great numbers because it makes connecting with other students, teachers, and native speakers much easier than in the old days.

On many of these sites, peer activities such as forums and graded activities such as quizzes and homework require the student to record their voice and submit that recording. Instructors also need this ability to create resources for their courses.

Flash used to be the weapon of choice for online audio recording. And these days it’s possible to record audio in the browser and convert it to MP3, all without using an external recording server. But with the flood of mobile devices that don’t support it, Flash simply doesn’t cover enough bases to be an acceptable solution on its own.

HTML5 recording to the rescue, you say. Recent developments in browser technology mean that plug-in-free in-browser video and audio recording (also known as HTML5 recording) is almost here. Chrome browser proponents have been experimenting with this for some time, and in January of this year Firefox released a version of its browser with advanced audio and video capture capabilities. These are all implementations of the W3C getUserMedia API. But the functionality is not yet in the main browsers, it is not fully developed and seems to be some way off yet. And it’s probably even further away for mobile browsers.

Meanwhile, smartphones and tablets are storming classrooms, almost universally complete with built-in video cameras and microphones. It’s a tech-savvy language teacher’s dream. But how do we collect audio from these devices? They don’t support Flash and HTML5 recording isn’t here yet.

Until HTML5 recording really comes, what can we do? For mobile devices, although HTML5 has not yet been delivered, it is possible to collect audio and video recordings by placing a standard html file upload button on the page. If configured correctly, the user after touching the button will have the option to record through the microphone or the camera. Android allows users to record audio or video. iOS (currently at version 6.1.4) only supports video recording. So for iOS, the recorded video needs to be converted to an audio file on the web server.

Using a “horses for courses” approach, it is possible to approach a universal audio recording solution. Use Flash-based recording for desktop and laptop users, file upload for tablets and smartphones.

So do we need HTML5 recording? For language teaching the answer is a resounding yes. But we need it now. Fortunately though, by using a combination of the available technologies, we can cover things until HTML5 recording arrives.