Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Voice Thread

 Voicethread:
What is it?

I’ve used Voicethread before in class, but this was the first time I’ve actually taken the time to explore some of the things Voicethread has to offer. It is a pretty interesting tool in the sense that comments can be made by using video, voice, or text. Of course to do this, you would need access to a microphone, or video camera on the device you’re using, but that’s also why it is nice that in place of this text comments could be made.  The comments or discussions can be focused on media, images, or topics from previous discussions, and once created, will stay on the account until they are deleted. This allows for a collection of tools to be gathered and reviewed.
Voicethread is free with an email address but for students in the elementary classroom, this is obviously more difficult to assign students to create because they rarely have email addresses that young, so there are two options. One would be, purchasing as Single Educator Membership for $79 per year or $15 per month. This type of account will allow up to 50 student accounts to be added by creating a username and password for students but no email is necessary. This subscription allows unlimited video commenting and Voicethreads for those 50 students. If more than a few teachers are going to use this, it would be more beneficial to attempt to purchase a School License for a minimum of $450 per year. This allows you to create a large number of student accounts (which can give you discounted rates based on the number of students “enrolled”). All of the tools in the school license are similar to those in the Single Educator Membership with the major difference being in the number of accounts that can be created.

What to do with it:
This would be a great tool to use in the classroom. One of the ways I would like to use this (if my school can purchase the license) would be during small group time.  If my students are reading a novel and we are having a discussion that runs long, we can continue the discussion through Voicethread that day while they are at their seats and I work with another group.



The link below has many more suggestions for using VoiceThread across content areas:
VoiceThread Across Content


The link below will give you more information on connecting and collaborating using VoiceThread.
Connect and Collaborate

My Created VoiceThread: Secret of the Seal


1 comment:

  1. I enjoyed using Voicethread in our hybrid class. I was thinking about some other ways it could be used in the classroom: 1) Students post something for feedback from classmates, like a speech, poem, or writing. 2) Each child will be given a different budget. They need to use their favorite toy store’s sale circular or website to price some items they may “purchase”. They will need to figure out: a) How much they are spending with tax, b) How much of the budget is left after the purchase(s), c) How much of a discount would it be if there was a particular discount, and d) How much your share of the cost would be if you and your choice of a number of friends shared the cost of the purchases. Each student uploads one relevant picture to a new slide and then makes individual comments answering the questions. Each child will be assigned 2 other students’ posts to check and comment on. (Formative Assessment)

    Here is a Voicethread of ways teachers can you Voicethread: http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2010/06/100-ways-to-use-voicethread-in.html#.U9A_irEYAVM

    ReplyDelete