My first experience in using Voicethread was to provide a book review of a young adult book selection for my M.A.T. course, Teaching Literacy in the Upper Elementary Grades. (I reviewed The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie.) I had never used this kind of technology before, so I was a little unsure at first of exactly what I was doing or why. But once I was signed in and had recorded my Voicethread I was hooked! I loved it. There's something kind of exhilarating about listening to your voice knowing that other people will be able to hear you too! Okay, I admit it, I listened to my Voicethread about 5 times in a row after I made my first recording. My little "inner ham" had come out, I felt like a star, so important. I had made a Voicethread!
But I also enjoyed listening to my classmate's Voicethreads as well. It is such an intimate way to get to know what your classmates are thinking. Everyone's voice came across so clear, like they were sitting right next to you. (You could even hear a cat meow in one Voicethread.) I also thought the assignment of providing a book review worked well as a Voicethread. I immediately thought of ways I could use Voicethread......
My first thought was what a good idea VoiceThread would be to share pictures with my family (they live in other states) that I would provide narration, explaining what was happening in my life. I thought it would be more fun than sending a Snapfish album or even making an Animoto clip. I think this idea of making a "narrated photo album" would also work in the classroom. Students could narrate pictures of a day in their class, pictures from their field trip to the zoo or art museum, directions on how to use a piece of classroom equipment or a narration of classroom procedures with pictures.
I think using VoiceThread for a book review is perfect! While you display an image of the cover of the book, a quote from the book or an illustration, you can narrate a review of the book. Having a library of Voicethread book reviews would be an interesting way to connect students to books. Students that might not feel comfortable giving a book review in front of the class, might prefer making a VoiceThread book review.
I found some great ideas for uisng Voicethread in the classroom in a Slideshare presentation from Tom Barrett, (his blog is at edte.ch). Here's the link:
http://www.slideshare.net/GrahamAttwell/26-interesting-waystousevoicethreadinthe-12639428
Some of my favorite ideas
I'm not familiar with De Bono's 6 hat thinking technique, but I love using this idea for students to take different points of view and record their thoughts on Voicethread from different perspectives.
What a great idea to incorporate art in the classroom. It would be great to actually have the artwork to display in the classroom in conjunction with a Voicethread where students could comment on the art.
This idea for setting up Voicethread in the classroom as described in this slide may get around the issue of having children under 13 use Voicethread without having to have them set up their own account.
This idea sound like a engaging way to read a play, or write a play.
Great way to bring poetry to life!
This may be a better way for students to provide their observations and explanation of their understanding of a science experiment, especially good for students that struggle with writing.
These last two slides show just two of the many ways to use Voicethread for math assignments. Story problems can easily be used with Voicethread.
I'm hoping to be able to use some of these ideas to incorporate Voicethread in the classroom. I'm still unsure about the privacy issues for working with students under 13 with Voicethread and how teachers get around this. It's such a great tool, I do hope I will be able to use it! 
This was an inspiring look at ways of using Voice Thread. I especially like numbers 18 and 19 for explaining an experiment or process. I could see it would be useful for students who are weak on reading, as it's sometimes easier to speak than write. I could also see this kind of use with ESL students practicing sharing their ideas. They might have to practice thinking about their ideas before speaking, but it would give them practice planning, speaking, and listening to others.
ReplyDelete--Joy
Hi Bonnie, I like the one about performing a poem. The students could get into the poem in a way they might not otherwise. Trying to perform the perspective or emotion in the poem makes it that much more meaningful. The students would remember what the author was trying to say better.
ReplyDelete