Yet more adventures in VoiceThreading

[Philip Roberts]

Ok, so by now you'll have realised that I'm seeing some potential in this VoiceThread thing.

In terms of student responses to it, as with any new resource, their enthusiasm may simply be a reaction to its novelty.

One thing's for sure - the ease of use and simplicity of the concept mean that it's the kind of ICT that anyone can quickly start using with any grade level. As important is the fact that an audio visual representation of concepts (and of students' understanding) can be useful to any unit focus / subject specialism.

My kind of ICT, then!

If you'd like to see my latest creations, browse the VT archive for the following:

QA Grade 6 SWW

or

QA Grade 9 SWW.

These are images of students in those grades working up at the School Without Walls site this week. With grade 6 I wanted the students to add text (and perhaps vocal) comments to photographs of their own 'Eco-sculptures' in order to explain the underlying concepts. The purpose for grade 9 was more general - to introduce them to the VoiceThread technology (so that they can start using it in Science in the near future) and to remind them of the ecological activities they were involved in to help them write reflections.

Both the 6th and the 9th graders were very engaged making comments and reading / listening to others' comments.
The 'MacBook' clique in 9C (4 MacBooks, 1 MacBook Pro and 1 MacBook Air) had particular fun leaving (then deleting) video comments.

With 3 VTs up and running, I've now maxed out the storage limit for my free account. I submitted my email address so the site could contact me about a (free?) "Educators account" (unlimited capacity, I believe) but have received nothing. I think the school should investigate a site licence.

In the meantime, I'll probably set up another free account so that I can make more VTs without deleting my first 3.

Next step: getting the students to make their own, of course.
That's planned for next week.

Stay tuned!

[Julie Lindsay]

Philip, I added a comment to this about 20 minutes ago but it did not come up....wondering if you have comment moderation turned on??
Anyway, just to add that I enjoyed viewing your VTs! Could not hear student audio (if there is any).
Next step, can I suggest you request to set up QA wikis and embed these communications, even invite students to then post material and discussions on the wikis.

[Julie Lindsay]

Philip, very interesting. I did not hear any of the students speak....have they deleted their audio? What a great way to capture a field trip!
Next step also, consider setting up a wiki and embedding these VTs so that they are all collected in the same place for each grade level. You could even set up the wiki so students can edit and add content/discussions etc and extend what has ben started using VT.