1. It is not necessary to download VoiceThread onto your computer which allows easy access for students at school, and it means that it is accessible anywhere at anytime.
2. It provides a creative avenue for students/people to present their work/ideas!
3. As a teaching/learning tool, It's a thousand times better than powerpoint because it is interactive, allowing others to comment on students' work, as well as contribute their own ideas.
4. It does not require people to have a microphone or webcam, as they can comment using the keyboard.
5. The author can moderate the comments that are made in order to avoid any personal or inappropriate comments.
6. It is user friendly!!! There are tutorials which are very straightforward and easy to understand.
7. It can be used with still pictures, video or text, which are all easy to download from places on the web or one's computer.
8. One VoiceThread can have multiple identities, which is great for teachers.
9. One can "doodle" on the picture to emphasize or point something out.
10. K-12 educators can apply for a free VoiceThread Pro account by signing in, clicking the Create tab - 'Go Pro' – ‘K-12 classroom educators’. If one isn't an educator, it is still FREE, but the options are somewhat limited.
For the above listed reasons, and probably others that I haven't thought of yet, Voicethread has become my new favourite web tool!
My brain has been buzzing with all of the possibilities for using VoiceThread in both my personal and professional life. In my personal life, it will allow me to EASILY and QUICKLY document and share interesting events, successes or journeys that we are experiencing. After creating A fairy-princess' Hallowe'en, I immediately added all of the addresses from my address book onto my profile, and I invited everyone who would want to know what's happening in my daughter's life to view it. This is great for my family because we are so spread out around the world. Unfortunately, the only one who can't view it is grandma who is stuck with dial-up, but at least she can see these little "documentaries" when she goes to visit someone who has high-speed.
As for in the classroom, there are endless possibilities - I only wish I would have known about this two weeks ago when we were working on poetry anthologies in English 11. There are a lot of good ideas about how to use VoiceThread in the classroom, and below I have included a few links of interest.
Voicethread Examples in Education
Digitally Speaking Wiki / Voicethread
Voicethread 4 Education
Another idea that I think is great and could be easily done in an elementary or middle school classroom is to create a digital scrapbook - sort of like a yearbook, but with pictures only relating to one classroom. I think this would be a great way of creating a classroom community by allowing all students to participate in the contribution and creation of the scrapbook.
"Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual." Arthur Koestler
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