Voicethread

Voicethread voicethread.com

What is a Voicethread?
Voicethread is a tool for having conversations around media.

What type of media?
PowerPoint Presentations, Word or Excel Documents, Images, Videos, Audio Recordings

How can you communicate?
There are five ways: you can use the phone, a microphone on your computer, a webcam, text, or upload an audio recording saved on your computer.

Why would I use this in my classroom?

• Differentiated instruction:
  • Students can contribute to discussions in a variety of ways - text, speech, visual
  • Materials can be presented aurally or visually
• When students participate in online discussions, a social barrier is removed; quiet or reserved students feel they have a voice in a less socially threatening environment.
• Learning 21st century skills:
  • Collaboration
  • Communication
  • Creativity
  • Conduct research and use information
  • Think critically
  • Solve problems
  • Demonstrate understanding
• Many of the National Educational Technology Standards for Students can be accomplished through the use of Voicethread.

How would I use this in my classroom? Please feel free to share your own ideas.
Language Arts:

• Literature circle: Insert pictures from book or novel. Divide students into groups. Assign roles for members of each group (vocabulary expert, summarizer, questioner, character describer, setting specialist, etc.) Have students comment on reading selection within their roles. Share each Voicethread with other groups.
• Fractured Fairy Tales: Use a Fractured Fairy Tale video and have students comment upon it pointing out similarities and differences between the fractured fairy tale and the original.

Math:

• Give students a word problem and have them describe the steps they followed to solve the problem. They can highlight important terms within the problem and show their work as they think outloud to solve. The teacher will be able to better understand the students' thought process and differentiate instruction to meet student needs.
• Have students create a video showing how they use math everyday. They can share their videos with peers and post comments and questions to each other.

Social Studies:

• Insert media of current event. Have students research and role play a stance on specific issue.
• Students can communicate facts about their assigned state by commenting on maps, pictures, and video clips as a way to present their state history reports.

Science:

• Students can demenstrate their understanding of electical circuits. Upload drawings of properly connected and improperly connected circuits to the Voicethread and have students predict whether or not they would work. They could add a video of themselves making an actual circuit based upon the circuit drawing to prove their hypothesis to be correct.
• Students can collaborate with other classes around the world as they explore green technologies. They can teach others about recycling by communicating the positive effects on the environment. Upload videos about recycling or posters created by students to serve as a springboard for discussion.

Visual Arts:

• Students can take a virtual gallery walk of artwork. They can describe, critique, and form opinions on various works of art created by professionals or by their peers.

Performing Arts:

• Marching band students can videotape a performance and upload it to a Voicethread. Divide the students into groups of judges (marching and maneuvering, color guard, percussion, brass, woodwinds, musicality, and visual expression) and have them critique the performance. As they comment on the performance, they can stop the video and mark spacing issues, discuss marching techniques, or critique tone quality and intonation. As students listen to their peers' critique they can work to improve areas of concern.
• The theater teacher can upload short videos of professional or amateur performances for students to discuss and critique.

Physical Education/Health:

• Videotape students serving a volleyball correctly and incorrectly. Have students compare and contrast the difference as they watch and comment on the videos in a Voicethread.
• Take a picture of a table of food. Have students identify the foods by food group and explain whether or not they would be healthy choices and where they fit onto the food pyramid. They can circle foods to create a balanced meal and defend their choices.

Special Education:

• Create a social story to assist students with proper behavorial expectations. Videotape student practicing proper and improper reactions to various situations. Have student watch the video and comment on the behavior in a Voicethread to demonstrate that they understand how they should behave in a variety of contexts.

Foreign Language:

• Practice vocabulary and proper pronunciation and vocal expression. Students can listen to examples of teacher modeling speech in a foreign language and record their own pronunciation of language. Many worksheets that require students to write in the answers can be uploaded to a Voicethread for students to answer verbally as well.
• Have students practice speaking in a foreign language as they describe pictures or respond to questions about a short video clip.

How do I get started?
On the Voicethread website, there are many video tutorials to get you started.
http://voicethread.com/support/howto/Basics/

You can also use this step by step set of instructions to quickly create a Voicethread of your own.