Voicethread
An Explanation
Voicethread is a Web 2.0 site that allows students to create interactive presentations and share them with teacher other. Voicethread enables students to load images, documents, video, powerpoints and then draw on top of the voicethread, hold conversations around the thread, and receive input from their peers.
A Solution to a Need
PowerPoint can be boring and limiting. I wanted my students to create a presentation that allowed them to interact with each other and go for some classy artistic designs. The solution was to use voicethread.
Demonstration
Reflections
Put simply, this was a fun program for my students to use. Sometimes I think it tricked them into learning. Voicethread certainly engaged them during the entire assignment.
Voicethread is very friendly to educators. They have an educators discount and will work with school districts to get teachers to use their product. I paid $60 for a year's subscription. This allowed me to create a safe "school" network (students could share their voicethread only with students in the same school nor could their voicethreads be marked "public" unless I specifically gave them permission) and gave me more space to create additional voicethreads.
Voicethread is not really a transformational piece of technology, however it certainly allows a teacher to create an engaging lesson.
Example of a Student Voicethread
