Voicethread Life

Today, I used Voicethread for the first time. Judging from the comments and reviews that I have read on various blogs, this seems to be quite a popular application. Its popularity is understandable. Voicethread allows you to upload media, such as videos, documents, photos or slideshows. Then, other users can comment on your media. Comments can be written or spoken. The users who have commented are displayed as icons in the margins of your media. Also, when someone makes a comment, they can supplement their comment with sketches on the media.

You can see for yourself what I did with my class. I posted a picture and asked the students to leave a spoken comment about the picture. I expected the students to only utter a brief word or two, but the results were pleasantly relevant and insightful.

Homeruns

You can’t hit a homerun every at bat.

I was feeling self-satisfied because I had invigilated a few successful, popular lessons.

Yesterday, the History class was not such a big success.

I teach two levels simultaneously.  Both levels were assigned web-based research activities.  The younger group had to complete a worksheet based on information from this website, Mysteries of the Catalhoyuk.

The older group had a similar activity, based on Renaissance Time Machine Adventure. Personally, I think this website represents a great deal of effort by its author, Russel Tarr, and it is well done. I thought that the students might find the game to be interesting; however, they became bogged down by the text.  One student commented on his blog,

today, i didnt like the course because the work was boring and it was hard but its nedd to be boring somethimes next i hope its going to be fun.

For a moment or two, I felt lost.  How was I supposed to teach about Sedentarization and the Renaissance?  Other than the aforementioned websites, I could find no activities dealing with these topics.  Then, I reminded myself that there are generic online activities that can be accommodated to any subject matter.  I just need to think creatively.

For example, students can use Brainflips to create flash cards based on the subject material.  They can use VoiceThread to find historical photos and comment on them.  The possibilities are endless.

Play ball!

GoogleDocs VoiceThread Presentation

Larry Ferlazzo has a great website on which he suggests many educational resources.

Recently, Larry directed me to Tom Barrett's blog, ICT In My Classroom.

Tom has a slideshow suggesting 17 ways to use VoiceThread in the classroom. This page also suggests uses for Wordle and Nintendo DS.

What interested me about Tom's presentation was that he utilizes Google Docs to present slideshows on his blog. The slideshow includes code so that other people can embed it on their websites. I have done so here: