Teaching and Learning with VoiceThread

‘Participation is not optional’
A VoiceThread allows every child in a class to record audio commentary
about the ideas and experiences that are important to them. Whether it’s an
event, a project, or a milestone, children can tell their story in their own voice,
and then share it with the world. For teachers, a VoiceThread offers a single
vessel to capture and then share all the diverse personalities of an entire
class. A VoiceThread can be managed with little effort, creating an heirloom
that can be shared by students, parents, and educators alike. You can hear the
pride and excitement in their voices as the students “publish” and archive
their work. (from VoiceThreads in the Classroom website)

I think that VoiceThreads is a great multimedia tool that has so much potential in the classroom and in the educational setting. There are many ways to use VoiceThread which I will list for you. I will also direct you to Collette Casinelli's wiki where she is gathering examples to share of how educators are using VoiceThread in their classrooms and in their professional development. Collette is a high school computer teacher who actively blogs and was very proactive in developing this wiki to share VoiceThread uses. (reminds me of Jessie in our class starting a wiki for us!)

VoiceThreads in Schools:

• studying various countries, geography, cultures, animals, foods etc.
• solving math problems
• exploring art forms, reviewing and critiquing
• creating digital stories (I am very excited about this possibility to support challenged students)
• research projects in science and social studies, doing a final presentation using VT
• demonstrating/practicing oral reading skills to be assessed by the teacher (another area of interest to me as I teach guided reading)
• a creative way to do a book report both visually and orally
• discussion of favorite books that could be on the schools newsletter website under the Library heading (I contribute monthly to the newsletter and provide recommended reads, VT would provide a new innovative approach to this)
• through the sharing of photos on a VT, students could develop their creative writing skills(this is an skill that our school is focussing on, to develop student writing)
• professional educational articles could be commented on and shared
• support ESL learners in connecting words orally to pictures
• listen to music and respond critically
• use as an online discussion tool on current events
• allow students to share their learning as individuals or collaboratively
• enabling teachers to interact and support student learning(upload materials to reinforce topics taught in the classroom, explain concepts in more detail)

VoiceThreads allows educators and students to collaboratively share their thoughts and learnings through an audio component or text component while viewing pictures, videos, and slideshows with others online.