VoiceThreads for Education

"Communicate, Collaborate and Capture Voice"

What is a VoiceThread?

"A VoiceThread is an online media album that allows people to make comments, either audio or text, and share them with anyone they wish. A VoiceThread allows an entire group's story to be told and collected in one place."

100 Ways to Use VoiceThread in Edu

What can you and your students do with VoiceThread?

VoiceThreads In The Classroom

Foreign Language

• Teacher creates a series of Voicethreads and students could practice either repeating or responding.  Could be used as drill and practice or for assessment.
• Field Trips
• Teacher assign groups of students to explain the digital pictures taken during the trip and how they relate to curriculum topics.

Art

• Scanned images of student artwork could be used for students to critique their own works or that of fellow students.

• WCHS Online Art Exhibit

Language Arts 

• Using scanned images of writing pieces, students could comment as part of a reflective phase of the writing process.
• Post an image as a prewriting activity and allow students to respond orally in an idea-generating phase.   There is a great magnifying feature that would allow text to be read.
• Use for vocabulary development and oral expression in Speech/Language and ESL/ELL classes.
• Great Book Stories
• Book Review
• Thanksgiving Paragraphs

Social Studies

• Use for Oral Histories
• Have students bring in an old photo of their family (not studio a photo) to scan and have students record their thoughts and feelings or story behind the image.
• Have students provide a picture of a grandparent then narrate what they learned about that grandparent from interviewing him/her. Could also might be used for local history projects (pictures of local sites) or war veteran stories.
• Many Voices on Darfur

Math

• Have stduents explain a new concept.
• K-7 Mathcasts 500 Project
• Measuring Angles

Science 

• Use as a way to report on an experiment.

How Do I get started with VoiceThread?

1. Be sure to send a note home to parents telling them that students will be sharing information online. 
   1. Explain the project and that they will have an opportunity to see and hear their child's work. 
   2. Let them know that you have the ability to keep the VoiceThread private and moderate comments or turn comments off. 
   3. You'll need to decide whether you'd like parents (and others) to comment.
2. Join the site and set-up an account for FREE. 
   1. You will only need one e-mail address and password per account.
   2. You can set up multiple identities.
3. Set up student identities.
   1. Use first names only.
   2. Have students either draw a picture or take a digital picture of an object that somehow represents them. Upload each student's picture to their identity.
4. You will need a microphone to create VoiceThreads.  If your computer(s) do not have one built in, microphones can be purchased for less than $10   Invite parents to share.  If you have parent e-mail addresses this is very easy to do.

Ed.VoiceThread

"Specifically designed for K-12 educators and students, Ed.VoiceThread enables rich collaboration around multimedia in a secure environment. More like a pencil than a software platform."