Voicethread is a web 2.0 application that allows users to share their ideas through audio, text, video, or images.
I think Voicethread is a great tool and has lots of potential in the field of education. Although these are my thoughts after finishing the project, I cannot honestly say I had this same perspective 10 days ago when I first started the project.
Voicethread is very easy to use, once you have learned the basics of the tool. For instance, you need to know how to upload video, images, and PowerPoint presentations from your computer or the web, then you need to know how to create identities. It is also essential to have a microphone and headset to record audio comments.
For my first experience with Voicethread, I involved my students. They absolutely loved it and it got them very excited about learning and sharing what they knew with their classmates. I ran into a few obstacles when using my students, but I think any teacher would the first time implementing it. First of all, I should have modeled a little more before letting them do it independently. Second, I learned that you really have to use open ended questions rather than black and white questions. It needs to be set up so the students can discuss their ideas, rather than their answers. Finally, I learned that I need to remind the students to speak up when recording their answers.
Here is my Voicethread Project
Have you ever involved students in Voicethread? What advice would you give a teacher before they use it in their classroom for the first time?
I found the same challenges when I used Voice Thread with my students. However, I still haven't figured out how to upload images as comments. Can you share how you did that?
ReplyDeleteThe advice I would give to teachers as first time users would be to model it. For the first question I had my kids answer I simply had them record their answers I uploaded their comments and let them view the question with all the comments. For the second question, I modeled how to upload them. And for the rest of the questions I let them practice uploading. Hopefully our next time will be more independent on their part!