Sunday, April 10, 2011
After spending some time in Voicethread and thinking about how I could use this in class, I came up with the following ideas. One could use voice thread to do collaborative research, collaborative critique on a movie and even a photo slide show sharing experience. I decided to create a voicethread about a Japanese book called The Boy Who Drew Cats. I found it in the NY Public Library gallery. I chose this as it would allow me to do reading comprehension exercises with my ESL learners as well as critique on the artwork and story content itself.
I had a few hiccups getting the voice thread together. I wasn’t sure about which order the slides went in when I selected it from the gallery. Another challenge I came across was that it took me a a while to figure out how to create multiple identities and get the identities collaborating on the same voicethread. Luckily the support of voicethread is amazing. The tutorials are really helpful and easy to navigate.
In the end though, it is really simple and easy to use. Being able to watch the collaborative comments as a movie was really enjoyable. I really look forward to be able to use this in class and really use it collaboratively. I would make sure that proper directions are given to the students so that time isn't wasted on trying to create an identity or trying to draw on the screen. This could be done in a previous class.
Other good functionalities were being able to moderate the comments before they were published or not if you decide. One can also add comments to individual slides and the voicethread as a whole. The examples of how voicethread can be used are diverse and transcend all groups and environments. Here is a link to my first voice thread. Get Involved!