Exploring VoiceThread

VoiceThread is a collaborative, multimedia web-based application that allows you to place collections of media like images, videos, documents, and presentations at the center of a conversation. A VoiceThread allows people to have conversations and to make comments by annotating the original artifact using any mix of text, audio, and video. VoiceThread runs inside your web browser, so there is no software to download, install, or update. It can be an easy way to differentiate instruction while providing engaging choices to "show" learning, engage in conversation, and think openly and critically about content.

I think that VoiceThread can be a useful tool for getting students to use the language in a variety of ways….listening, speaking, reading, and writing. The tasks could be created to use for practice or as a formative or summative assessment. It also allows the students to benefit from hearing and seeing other students’ work as well as being able to give each other feedback and interact with each other using the language.

The two VoiceThread posts I chose to comment on were Wen’s and Alyssa’s. Both of these VoiceThreads allowed the students to practice their speaking skills. In Alyssa’s task, the students viewed a picture and described what the characters were doing using the present progressive tense. In this way, she could get an idea about whether the students have mastered the use of this form. I could see her task being used as a practice activity or a formative assessment. Wen’s activity integrates content and language. The students need to know something about healthy eating to be able to answer the question. I thought these were both good ways of engaging the students in using the language and being able to assess their language skills. I definitely think that VoiceThread is something that I will incorporate into my classroom.

I'd love to hear any ideas you might have for incorporating VoiceThread into the classroom as well!