Creating a VoiceThread

I chose to create a VoiceThread about our cabin! I hope you enjoy the tour!


The process of creating a VoiceThread was relatively straight forward. I was able to watch various tutorials which helped to explain and clarify the process of what is a VoiceThread, how to use Video Doodling, the Microphone Set Up for Windows XP and even a 1 Minute VoiceThread was provided to name a few. I appreciated the opportunity to view them several times when necessary. There is even additional support under the Help Tab through Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), a Forum where additional support is provided through discussions on new features, some general questions and answers are shared and ideas for managing VTs in the classroom, also a variety of Tutorial topics can also be found here to assist your learning about VoiceThread.

The VoiceThread site allows you to create only 3 VoiceThreads for free. Should you decide you want to do more, you would have to pay to create more VoiceThreads. If so, as a teacher, you may want to register and pay to create a VoiceThread on the Ed.VoiceThread as this is a site for K-12 educators, students and administrators. I chose to make a VoiceThread for free and I have two free opportunities still available to create additional VoiceThreads.

To begin my VoiceThread, I clicked on the 'Create' tab and followed the steps of Uploading my pictures, Commenting on my pictures and then Sharing my VoiceThread.

First, I took several pictures around the cabin and downloaded them to my laptop. I selected a few photos and imported them to my VoiceThread website. I had initially attempted to upload them all at once but when I realized that it was taking too long, I made the decision to do one at a time, which was more efficient and effective. Once they were uploaded on VoiceThread, I rearranged them into the order that I wanted by simply clicking and dragging them to their new position. I was pleased and impressed when I was able to rotate a photo by clicking on the arrow in the corner of the picture! More pictures were taken and added to the site while others were deleted until I was satisfied with my selection. I liked the ease of using this tool to achieve the best layout.

Next, I made the decision to add commentary to my presentation. I had the option of adding text but chose audio as I felt it was more personal and effective for this type of VoiceThread which is a tour. I already had a suitable headphone/microphone set from creating the Podcast blog so I was familiar with how the equipment functioned. By clicking on the 'Comment' tab, I was able to record a brief comment for each picture. This went quite smoothly except for one problem. Previously recorded comments that I had deleted were still there for some of the pictures. I went to the 'Help' button where I was able to find a solution to my problem which involved using the trash can icon and clicking delete when necessary. I appreciated the fact that I could listen to my recording, delete and start again as many times as necessary until I liked what I heard and then would click 'save' before moving on to the next picture.

Finally, it was time to share my newly created VoiceThread. I chose to make my VoiceThread about the cabin, Public but I also selected not to allow comments from outside. Next, I needed to link it to my blog which was easy to do and you can access it by clicking on the word 'cabin' in the first line of this blog entry.

Considering that this particular web tool was quite unfamiliar to me, I am glad that I embraced the opportunity to learn about it and am delighted with the results! VoiceThread is user-friendly and easy to navigate. I can see so much potential for using it personally and in educational settings.