What are the Best Headsets for Teaching Online?
The best noise-canceling headphones for online teaching are often call-center headsets with a good noise-canceling mic.
Of course, when setting up your online classroom, it is important that you choose a quiet location. But until you have to teach online, you don’t realize how noisy your surroundings actually are.
Remember, the most important aspects of your home office set up
- Fast, stable internet
- Quiet location
- Good lighting
- Cheerful or professional classroom background
As you can see, a quiet location is number two. Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to find a location that is completely quiet.
I have taught in many different places. I am always surprised by unexpected noises. For example, dogs barking, a neighbor’s car alarm from across the street, or sudden building construction next-door. Yes, the last one happened to me and it was horrible! They drilled all day and my entire apartment rattled. I had to move my teaching space to a completely other building.
Choose a Quiet Area to Teach Online
Pick the quietest location you can to save yourself a lot of heartache later on. Your dining room might be really roomy, but if your husband cooks in the room next-door, this is not a good location for your onlien classroom. At one point, I taught in an upstairs closet. Yes, a closet! There were many larger, more comfortable locatoins in my home, but this was the quietest.
Even then, you will need to find tricks and tips to eliminate the noise that is left over.
You need a Noise-canceling Microphone
The first tip is to have a really good pair of noise-canceling headphones. But be careful! You don’t want it to cancel out the noise you hear from around you. This isn’t about your listening experience. This is about your students’ hearing experience. So, what you are actually looking for is the best noise-canceling microphone on a headset. And call-center headsets are a great place to start when looking to buy a headset.
The best noise canceling headphones for online teaching are often call-center headsets
The Best Noise-Canceling Microphone, Headset Combination
When I began teaching English online, I asked many people for their recommendations for noise reducing headsets and everyone recommended the Bose headphones. I spent like $75 dollars on them and they weren’t good at all. First, they were uncomfortable. Then, the plastic on one side broke so that the cushion dangled off. They were still useable, but I had to tape it back together. But, worst of all, when I polled my students, they all said they heard the most background noise while I wore these headphones.
The Best Cheap Noise Canceling Headset to Teach English Online
Surprisingly, when I bought much cheaper headsets, the JABA headsets, my students said they worked much better. So, I recommend this headset:
They were cheap. And best of all, my students claimed it drowned out most dog barks (I tested the mic with various small and loud dogs, as my neighbors kept bringing more dogs home to my extreme frustration). I tested it by asking a trusted student when he heard background noise. I tried to sit by traffic, and he said he couldn’t hear it.
My daughter crying, unfortunately, cannot be blocked out by any headset. But, this headset did better than the more expensive brand and it was far more comfortable over my ears.
Best Noise Canceling Headphones for Online Teaching
Casti bluetooth Logilink BT0027, Mono
What tech requirements do I need to teach online?
Qualities of your Headset for online Teaching
- noise canceling mic
- noise canceling ear pieces
- wireless or wired.
- mono aural or supra aural.
Noise canceling Microphone
This is the most importtant aspect of your heeadseet
Noise Canceling Ear Piece
Do you want padded over-the-ear coverage so you can block out the outside noise that you hear? This is not important to me. In fact, I prefer hearing my surrounding noises. If this distracts you while teaching, though, then choose a headset that minimizes outside noises for a better listening experience for you.
Wireless or Wired
I don’t mind wired headsets but wireless is preferable. If you like to teach while standing, or you tech young kids and you will be spinning and running ini place and dancing to head, shoulders knees, and toes, then choose wireless headphones
Circumaural or supra aural
There are also Circumaural (‘around the ear’) and supra–aural (‘over the ear’) headphones.
Binaural or Monoaural
There are also monoaural headset that you can use to teach for Palfish. Palfish lets you teach from your phone. My monaural headphones are cheap, have a decent noise-canceling mic, and they link to my iPhone via Bluetooth. I could not find a cheap dual earpiece headset with a noise-canceling mic that would connect to my iPhone 11. However, these work perfectly fine.
Best headset for online teaching
Headset
Jabra UC Voice 550a is the one I already have
Qualities to look for in a noise canceling headphone and mic
- must have a BOOM mic
- be Uni-directional
- Boom microphones with noise cancellation
- the ANC (active noise cancelation) helps block out distracting sounds, which is great for a noisy office.
- have cVc (Clear Voice Capture), which is a noise-canceling technology. Most headphones (with Bluetooth) that claim noise cancellation use cVc technology made by Qualcomm (the same company that makes aptX). It’s a set of algorithms that cancel out background noise like wind and traffic.
