Teachers who enjoy playing any types of games or competitions in their classes will enjoy Game Show Soundboard (iTunes link), a free sound effects app that I found while preparing for an all-school assembly earlier this year. I was the host to a trivia show which featured the a group of students vs. selected teachers and our principal. Simply typing in “sound effects” in the App store, I was pleasantly surprised to see a large variety of apps. Most of them were free, while some were around 1-2 dollars. I chose Game Show Soundboard, (which can be enlarged to fit the iPad screen) and the sound effects worked well. I asked my co-worker doing the sound to attach his iPhone (he had downloaded it prior) to the sound system. He was therefore then able to, at the tap of a button, immediately play sound effects based on correct and incorrect answers given by the contestants.

Here are some of the sound effects that this great free app has:

• Bell
• Applause
• Horn (to indicate a wrong answer)
• Laughter
• Audience Boos (though probably not appropriate in younger classrooms)
• “Oh” (a “lighter” version of a boo, like “too bad”)
• Cricket (to perhaps indicate waiting for an upcoming answer)
• Cash Register
• Short Rim Shots (to be played after a funny joke by the host)
• Audience Cheering

As you notice near the bottom of the screen, there are also countdown timers of 60, 30, 10 and 5 seconds, each with cool sound effects/thinking music to give groups or individuals time to think of answers together.

Finally, there is a scoreboard that allows you to keep score for two teams, which can go up to 99.

Check out the developer's website at dreaminjector.com to check out other apps that they make.

This might be a first for this blog, but I'll mention that this app is also available for Blackberry and Android (gasp!)

If you need to type it in the search bar for the App store, type in “Free Game Show Sound Effects“. Remember that it is an iPhone app and not an iPad one.

Classroom Use

This app worked for me in the classroom as well. I brought out a numbers version of BINGO. Students, upon thinking they have a bingo, are required to state their letters and numbers in front of the class. If they are indeed correct, I chose to play either the applause or the cheering effect. If they were mistaken and did not have a bingo, I played the “Oh!” effect. As you can see from the photo, I used my blu-tooth wireless speakers and was therefore able to roam around the room to check their bingo cards. The kids enjoyed the game and the sound effects were a neat addition. If wireless audio is not an option in the classroom, teachers can just hook up their speakers to their devices and the sound effects will come through loudly. The sound effects within the app can be embedded on top of each other, so you don't have to wait until one is over to start the next one.

There are a myriad of sound effects apps out there. I think this is one of the best ones for games in the classroom. Teachers could simply play the sound effects off their iPads/iPhones/iPods, and not worry about projecting the display. A lot of the apps I tried only had a couple sound effects, like “buzz” and “wrong answer” and “correct”. Being a free app, there is an unobtrusive banner at the bottom. I have barely even noticed it. This one is a keeper.