Voicethread is one of the easiest tools that I have used so far. Voicethread is a tool where one can upload a picture or a video and then others can add comments through either a voice recording, a telephone recording, a webcam recording, or through text. The telephone recording was the most unique to me since it would allow students who don't have a microphone on their computer still participate in the conversation. The program just ask you to put in the phone number that you will be recording from and then the program phones that number and prompts you to leave you comment. The sound quality is still very clear and it was easy to listen, delete, or save. The other neat option is the Doodler where the people leaving comments can draw on the picture while leaving their comment, highlighting the important parts of the picture or slide during their comments.
Some uses for Voicethread:
- Sharing poems, art work, and presentations. Students can then comment on others works as well.
- Audio discussion where the teacher poses a question and then has the students respond.
- Students could complete an exam orally. The teacher could pose questions on different slides and have the student leave a reply for each question.
- This could be a great tool for those students who are shy and don't participate well in face to face discussions.
- Import video and have a discussion about the content.
Voicethread also provides a number of examples of projects in the classroom.
In my online psychology 20 class I have my students complete a learning styles inventory where I have the students determine which learning styles suit them the best. It is with the auditory learning styles that I seem to offer the least in my courses. The auditory learners are the ones who have the most trouble figuring out how they can choose auditory options that will help them with their learning.
Last semester one of my students and I talked through some ways that knowing they were an auditory learner would help them with their online class. We came to the conclusion that I needed to create more auditory options. I have struggled with this since I am not an auditory learner myself. I would much rather read information than listen to a podcast about it. As such I have very little podcast material in my courses. Even though I am not an auditory learner I do learn well from conversations. This is where Voicethread comes in. What a great opportunity to include more audio materials and allow the students to engage in a conversation. Being able to say something outloud, at least for me, allows me to understand it or absorb the material on a different level. I would assume that it would be the same for my students.
If you do want students to be able to add slides to the initial Voicethread then you may want to create a classroom Voicethread account and then create multiple users for each student, otherwise you will have to invite each student to the Voicethread and then change their editing options so that they have the same permissions as the creator. You may also want to check off who can view and comment on the Voicethread, but as long as you don't have the link available for all to see in a google search then the privacy settings should be sufficient.
Here is a great Voicethread created by elementary students about bullying:
1 comment:
I couldn't agree more, as you know. I think that audio is one of the most under-used, under-appreciated media in our classrooms. Of course, VoiceThread allows for more than that-- text and video for sure.
But I love the way it threads the conversation visually as well as aurally. We see faces or avatars as we hear the voices exchanging idea or carrying an idea forward. I really enjoyed listening to your contribution to our discussion today, for example.
If you ever want to track some of the theoretical roots of voicethread and similar tools, check out the work of Sam Postlethwaite from Purdue University in the 60s. He created the audio- tutorial method and applied it to biology labs at Purdue. A visionary!
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