Voicethread

Using Voicethread

The media sharing site that I chose to investigate was Voicethread. I had a look at the Jumpcut site and at first glance, it appeared to be very similar to YouTube with the added bonus of being able to edit the video using the site. I felt that because of the simiarity to YouTube, I would look at Voicethread instead.

The moment I went onto the Voicethread site, I was intrigued. A site that allows you to both share photos and allow you to record a commentary that goes along with the photo! My immediate thought was that it would be great for personal photos. I must admit I didn’t really start thinking about the educational purposes right away- that came a few days later when I was thinking about my blog.

I found the sign-up process really straight forward and simple. Some sites that require sign-up want to know more information than a passport application! It was easy and I had an account in less than five minutes. I also found the tutorials really informative and I got to see a voicethread in action, which helped when I had to think about how I would use the site, both personally and professionally. My only problem was to figure out the subject of my own voice thread. I had originally thought that I would take some pictures of my dog and my parents’ dogs (I was home for Easter weekend) and do a mini biography for them. When I went to upload the pics, I had a bit of trouble (still don’t know why) and I saw that one could upload from Facebook. I have several pictures of my dog, Paddy, on Facebook and they were already organized in an album dedicated to him, so I thought that would be easier. I connected to my Facebook account and uploaded the pictures without any problems and it was extremely quick. You can also connect with other sites such as Flickr.

The actual process took very little time and the steps are very clear. My biggest problem was being interrupted while I was recording or making mistakes. I always have that problem when I have to record things- I am much better live!

The link to my Voicethread presentation is here. Please let me know if there is a problem with the link. I am not really clear on how to share files without emailing them or adding everyone in the class as my friends. I am crossing my fingers that this will work!

Using Voicethread in the Classroom

As I mentioned earlier, I thought that Voicethread would be an excellent tool to use for personal photos. When I thought about how I would use it in the classroom, I had a bit of trouble. I initially thought it would be an awesome tool for students to create story books or as a tool to help with creative writing. Students could use their own pictures and create a plot with characters to share with their classmates, teachers, parents and others. When I started doing research about using Voicethreads, I came across the wiki called The Connected Classroom that talked about digital story telling. There are links on the site that explains the concept and thinking behind using various tools for oral and digital story telling. It also has many examples of voicethreads and digital stories.

Beyond digital story telling, I was a bit stumped about what I could use Voicethreads for in my own teaching. I thought about using it for history; scanning and uploading historical pictures and adding a commentary. But, using pictures that aren’t your own brings up the copy right issue and I don’t believe it would be good to encourage copyright violation. As I kept on reading various sites, I found a blog by a technology manager in Maine called The TechKnow Blog. He lists the following suggestions for using Voicethread in the classroom:

ev--> In Lower School, classes can use Voicethread with their own class pictures to create a audio/visual newsletter. Especially in the younger grades where students cannot write yet, this would be a great tool for the kids to use in order to better express themselves.

-->In Science classes, students could use Voicethread to document an experiment - a kind of visual lab report.

-->In Math, students could use Voicethread to narrate their way through solving a math problem in order to demonstrate their understanding.

-->In English class, they can put original poems or short stories to pictures.

-->In Art class, Voicethread can be use a tool to reflect on their work.

-->In Foreign Language, kids can create stories or tours using Flickr images and narrate them in their language.

-->In History, they could use use flickr images in a digital narration of a historical event.

I could see myself assigning the kids to do an experiment and have them document it on Voicethread. It would free up some classtime and make it a bit more exciting for kids to find, perform and record their labs. Sometimes ordinary labs and experiments need a bit of spice or something different and this could be it. Each student could do a different experiment and share it with their classmates.

There are also really interesting links on the blog that connect you to sites that deal with using Voicethread in art classes, elementary schools and story telling. I spent a great deal of time looking at this blog and the links. Very interesting reading.

I found a lot of sites and information about using Voicethread in elementary schools. One of the best sites I found was Talkabout Primary MFL blog; I found it had a lot of ideas for the primary grades. I must say that I did have a lot of trouble finding sites with suggestions for the secondary level.

Reflections:

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I found my opinion of this Web 2.0 tool running to the personal side. I have many pictures that I would like to share with my friends and family that live far away. It is a way for me to connect with them in a different way. I used to send pictures to them with typed comments, but I feel that by having my voice recorded, it is in someway a bit more personal and adds a new dimension to media sharing. I am actually going to make a Voicethread presentation of a variety of pictures and send them to my granny in BC. She is in a care home and I have not been able to get out and see her as much as I would like. I have arranged for my uncle to bring his computer to show her and it will be really special I think. I also have a few pictures of different vacations I’ve been on and I would like to create a presentation with commentary for those photos as well. I have big plans!

As for using this tool in my classroom, I’m not entirely convinced that it would be beneficial enough for me to use. In all honesty, I’m not sure that it wouldn’t take too much time to organize a project like this and present them to the class. I don’t see this being as useful to my teaching as other tools that I have used and investigated. I mentioned that I would be able to have students perform their own experiemnts, but I think that the time involved in organizing the experiment, the materials and explaining the process (of both the experiement and Voicethread) would be too time consuming. It is not one of my "Must Use" new tools.

I can see that it would be useful for PD. It would be a good way of sharing information with other teachers. You could take pictures of lessons, have examples of work and have a way of orally explaining what was happening. I think that it could be a good way for teachers to collaborate and exchange ideas.

That's what I think about Voicethread! Katie

P.S. Please forgive any typos, sentence errors, etc. I am writing this post after a lovely turkey dinner with my extended family and I think the chemicals are kicking in! Happy Easter to everyone!