chanced upon this tool “Voice Thread” when i saw it mentioned in one of my blogline feeds (which has been neglected for 3 weeks at least), it’s a pretty impressive tool which allows a teacher to engage students in self-expression or group conversation on some common topic. the ‘topic’ can exist in 14 types of media format (wmv, ppt, gif, pps, pdf, jpg, doc, png, opd, bmp, xls, mov, flv, avi) and the conversation can occur in 5 ways (voice, video, phone, type, upload).
more useful features for teachers include comments moderation, which allows teachers to invite parents, communities to view and participate (students can only invite peers within the community to comment on their work); to protect privacy further (or i think it suits students’ needs to adopt different personalities at different time), they can create multiple identities/avatars when ‘talking’.
would definitely like to experiment with it if i were in the classroom right now, if only …
you simply have to check out the following official intro to learn more about Voice Thread (not juz in written form here):
if you are currently in school teaching, you can ‘go pro’ any apply for a FREE (with some conditions) account and explore it for use with your students! details’ here.
am slow in finding out about this platform, but it’s never too late 🙂
Hi,
I have been reading your postings since last year and I have been learning a lot from you. A brief introduction of myself: I am a primary school Chinese teacher currently in my third year of teaching. I like to use technology in teaching.
In fact I was thinking I should comment in English or Chinese, in the end I chose English, probably because most edublogs are in English anyway 😀
I have been trying out Voicethread, so maybe you would like to offer me some advice on my experiments.
http://voicethread.com/#b99642
Btw how do I address you? 🙂
Cheers,
Tucksoon
(comments posted in å…³è€å¸ˆ’s blog, copy-n-pasted here for self-reference)
å…³è€å¸ˆä½ 好ï¼å«æˆ‘育焕就å¯ä»¥äº†ï¼Œæ„Ÿè°¢ä½ 到我的”储è—室”ä¸ç•™è¨€ï¼Œè€å®žè¯´æˆ‘并没有机会åƒä½ ä¸€æ ·æŠŠvoicethreadå¸¦åˆ°è¯¾å ‚ä¸ï¼Œæ‰€ä»¥æˆ‘çœŸçš„å¾ˆç¾¡æ…•ä½ åšåˆ°äº†ï¼å¯¹äºŽvoicethread我没有任何“实战ç»éªŒâ€ï¼Œä½¿ç”¨voicethread的过程和平å°ä¸çš„é—®é¢˜ä½ ä¹Ÿå·²ç»æ‰¾åˆ°ä¸å°‘，所以这里请å…许我谈一点我的想法。
you mentioned in the previous post that the responses were lukewarm, but i believe the excitement level would have gone up with your current attempt 😉 (correct me if i’m wrong)
i think the one thing that strikes me abt voicethread is the ability to empower students to VOICE, virtually anytime and anywhere in any voicethread (if i recall the functions correctly from my explorations few mth ago). i must agree that the school’s equipment can hinder the progress. if i were you, my next step would be to try to realise the power of the platform by getting every student to VOICE using their very own IDENTITY. for a start, i thought the star cruise thread could be turned to allow everyone to talk abt the pictures, answer some of the questions you have asked, or simply to voice any opinions or share their experience … i always believe the sky’s the limit where our students’ concerned 🙂
预ç¥æˆåŠŸï¼ŒåŠ æ²¹äº†ï¼ 🙂
è‚²ç„•ä½ å¥½ï¼å«æˆ‘德顺å§ï¼ˆé˜¿é¡ºä¹Ÿå¥½ï¼Œå“ˆå“ˆï¼‰ã€‚感谢您的点评。
Absolutely. In fact I guided one class to register for Voicethread. As mentioned previously, they can only comment in English. Also, not many pupils are comfortable in doing voice recording. They are either shy or not confident.
In fact I think the lower primary kids could be more enthusiastic than the upper primary kids in voice recording based on my experience with the previous. The younger ones love to show and tell. Voicethread is a perfect place to let their voices be heard online. The only problem is I need to spend more time to guide the younger ones through the technical issues.
I am planning to share this tool with my fellow teachers and work with my school IT administrator to improve the lab environment. Hope Voicethread will bring some authentic learning experiences to the pupils.
Thanks for your encouragement, 育焕. I will update you with further developments in this edublog. Meanwhile, I look forward to learn more from your edublog 🙂