This week I used Voicethread as a summarizer for a mini research project our students had done on the 1930's and John Steinbeck's novella, Of Mice and Men. I had experimented just a little with this powerful communication tool last semester but did not really use it in my classes. I went to a technology workshop a few months ago One of the sessions was on Voicethread and I have wanted to explore some of the possible educational uses for it ever since but had not had the time. I thought that using this tool to have students reflect on their projects would be a great way to share what they learned.
Voicethread is a web based application that allows you to have conversations about images, documents, or presentations that you download. Because it is web based , there is no need to download the application and students can easily access it anywhere anytime as long as they have an Internet connection. Once you download the object that you want to be the topic of conversation, students can participate in a variety of ways. They can use a microphone, webcam, cellphone, or they can even type in text. With an educator account, teachers can create classroom accounts. The creator of the account can also set permissions. It can be can be open and anyone can read or post on the Voicethread or it can be closed to group members only.
We used the Voicethread to reflect on our research assignment but the possibilities are endless. It could be used as activator to establish prior knowledge of a subject. It could be used to communicate and collaborate in almost any subject area. In the workshop that I went to, the teacher said that she had her students create accounts and used them to do a course reflection at the end of the year. There are many other possibilities as well. Lesson ideas can be found at http://VoiceThread.com/Library Just click on the browse tab.
Here is a link to the Voicethread that I started this Friday. Students should be adding reflections over the weekend.
https://voicethread.com/share/2835248/
I find I can go through things much more quickly if I'm reading something, rather than listening to it. How did you evaluate the students' reflections? Was it more time consuming? Did you find the students had more interesting things to say since they were speaking rather than writing?
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