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VoiceThread

Page history last edited by Emily Mann 15 years, 2 months ago

VoiceThread:  A New Campfire Story

In fact, one of the saddest but most common conditions in elementary school computer labs is the children are being trained to use Word, Excel and PowerPoint.  I consider that criminal, because children should be making things, communicating, exploring, sharing, not running office automation tools.  -  Nicholas Negroponte

 

Audience:  Classroom Teachers

 

VoiceThread is a free Web-based digital-storytelling application that allows users to share their stories through audio, images, videos or text. Learn how to use VoiceThread and incorporate it into your classroom for student presentations, collaborative projects, digital storytelling, and instruction.

 

Voice Thread Class Agenda  Images Documentation  Teacher Tools    VoiceThread.zip

I.       Introduction   VT Intro.ppt

A.    Interconnection between a Story-Teller and an Audience

B.    What is VoiceThread?

C.    What Makes it Unique?

1.    Options: text, voice, video, mp3

2.    Avatars & Identities

3.    Easy to upload photos or copy image URLs

4.    Doodling on the screen

  II.    Examples of VoiceThread*

A.    Small Moments by Peggy Steffens, Amphi Technology Coordinator

B.    Teacher-created examples in VoiceThread A Page Full of Examples for all Grade Levels with Descriptions

C.    Students teach each other - math example

D.    Travel Journals (Easy with Flickr)

E.     Students describe their work and peers comment

F.     Sample created at the RSC

        Others:

 

How I Became a Super Hero  - writing assignment 

High Point High School - review of what has been learned 

Help me write an ABC book - collaborative example 

Lewis and Clark 4th Grade - report with student illustrations

Who we are - an example of International School Students introducing themselves.  This example has many students commenting and sharing

Spanish Language Practice

 

Try Commenting with my sample.  Use the login information towards the top of the page Voice Thread Example Projects 

Now go to VoiceThread and Browse the samples after you are finished, please fill in the survey

 

 

Survey Results

 

     III.    Instructions

(one minute intro on how to make a VoiceThread)

A.    Create an Account

1.   http://voicethread.com 

 

There are Four Things to notice in VoiceThread Create Page:  1. Upload  2. Comment  3. Share & 4. The Bottom Bar (playback & publishing options)

The Gear Symbol gets you back to edit from anywhere in your VoiceThread.

B.    Importing Pictures

1.  My Computer (note picture size, they only need to be ~300x400 pixels) 

Flickr & Facebook (need accounts)

2.    Media Sources - Flickr, Facebook, New York Public Library, other VoiceThreads

3.    URL - to get the "link location" of an image online, right click & copy link location in FireFox

       Good places for Copyright images (but still read the digital rights details):  

Behold.cc             Flickr Storm              Library of Congress

C.    Arranging Pictures  - Click and Drag

D.    Creating a Title, Description, & Tags  (not necessary)

E.    Sharing & Embedding

1.    Privacy Settings

* Comment Moderation

2.    Options Tab: page turn rate, autoplay, full screen

3.    Adding Friends

F.     "My Account"

* Creating Avatars (I created a bunch of them for our class VoiceThread)

G.    Commenting on Pictures

1.    Deleting Comments

2.    Doodling

H.    Editing Previous VoiceThreads: The Gear Symbol

* Resources & Tutorials

* Classroom Teacher Forums

    IV.     In the Classroom: How will you...?  Handout_Voicethread_Tips4Teachers.doc

A.    Getting Pictures & making it Easy

1.    Story Board (online app)

2. "Call To Audience" for Input (eg: from Peggy Steffens)

Handout_Vthread_Permission.doc

B. Evaluating Projects from  Bill Ferriter

VT_Scoring.doc

Rubric, VT Feedback, Student Projects.doc

Voicethread_Student_Training_Guide.doc

 

 

C. Lesson Ideas

Best Practices

   from Bill Ferriter

Previewing a Voicethread  Handout_Voicethread_Previewing.doc

Commenting on a VoicethreadHandout_Voicethread_Commenting.doc

Commenting Language  Handout_VT_Comments_Wall.doc

Living & Not Living

Putting Posters & Student Creations Online & Have them Narrate/Describe Them

Water Cycle Drawings

Evaluation Tools

PBL (Project-Based Learning) Checklist

Rubistar

Recipes4Success (Enter through IDEAL)

Re

Recommendations from the Expert:  Bill Ferrier

Planning a Voicethread

 

Once you’ve created an account and a collection of identities for students to use while commenting on a Voicethread, it’s time to create your first presentation.  Begin by carefully selecting a topic that will promote conversation and debate between students—and that can be conveyed through images currently available to you.

 

Possible topics include:

 

  • What can you learn about the values of a country or a culture by studying images?
  • Is Global Warming having an impact on our world?
  • Has urbanization helped or harmed our community?
  • Where can evidence of math be found in our daily lives?
  • Is graffiti a form of artistic expression or simply vandalism?
  • Who are heroes?

After collecting a series of images that represent your topic, carefully script out short opening comments for each image that include a question for viewers to consider.  Scripting comments prior to recording will allow you to organize your thinking—and your images—in a logical order.  This early organization will save time as you produce your final product. 

 

Initial comments should be somewhere between 1 and 3 sentences long.  Longer comments will discourage viewers from adding their own thoughts—and tend to bore viewers quickly!  Remember that your goal is to promote conversation, not to lecture through pictures.  If you find yourself recording longer initial comments, you probably have images that aren’t very interesting.

 

Consider this sample comment, taken from the Denmark Voicethread referenced in the opening of this training guide:

 

“What do you notice in this picture taken outside the train station in Copenhagen—the capital of Denmark?” 

 

 

Commenting Tips for Voicethreaders

 

The best Voicethreads are truly interactive—with users listening and responding to one another.  They are super interesting digital conversations!  Highly accomplished Voicethreaders are constantly thinking while interacting with a Voicethread presentation.  They come to the conversation with an open mind, willing to reconsider their own positions—and willing to challenge the notions of others. 

 

Voicethreading requires users to develop the skills that active thinkers bring to any learning experience.  Some of the best tips about active thinking have been developed over time by teachers like Kelly Gallagher and Matt Copeland—who have each written books about reading and writing in middle and high schools.  They’ve also been developed by an organization called Project CRISS—Creating Independence through Student Owned Strategies. 

 

The following tips for Voicethreaders are adapted from the collective work of Gallagher, Copeland and Project CRISS:

 

To be an active Voicethreader, start by carefully working your way through a presentation.   While viewing pictures and listening to the comments that have been added by other users, you should:

 

  1. Gather Facts:  Jot down things that are interesting and new to you 

  1. Make Connections:  Relate and compare things you are viewing and hearing to things that you already know. 

  1. Ask Questions:  What about the comments and presentation is confusing to you?  What don’t you understand?  How will you find the answer?  Remember that there will ALWAYS be questions in an active thinker’s mind! 

  1. Give Opinions:  Make judgments about what you are viewing and hearing.  Do you agree?  Do you disagree?  Like?  Dislike?  Do you support or oppose anything that you have heard or seen?  Why?

Use the following sentence starters to shape your thoughts and comments while viewing or participating in Voicethread presentations.  Comments based on these kinds of statements make Voicethreads interactive and engaging.

 

  • This reminds me of…

  • This is similar to…

  • I wonder…

  • I realized…

  • I noticed…

  • You can relate this to…

  • I’d like to know…

  • I’m surprised that…

  • If I were ________, I would  ______________

  • If __________ then ___________

  • Although it seems…

  • I’m not sure that…

 

While commenting, try to respond directly to other viewers.  Begin by quoting some part of the comment that you are responding to help other listeners know what it is that has caught your attention.  Then, explain your own thinking in a few short sentences.  Elaboration is important when you’re trying to make a point.  Finally, finish your comment with a question that other listeners can reply to.  Questions help to keep digital conversations going!

 

When responding to another viewer, don’t be afraid to disagree with something that they have said.  Challenging the thinking of another viewer will help them to reconsider their own thinking—and will force you to be able to explain yours!  Just be sure to disagree agreeably—impolite people are rarely influential. 

 

If your thinking gets challenged by another viewer in a Voicethread, don’t be offended.  Listen to your peers, consider their positions and decide whether or not you agree with them.  You might discover that they’ve got good ideas you hadn’t thought about.  Either way, be sure to respond—let your challengers know how their ideas have influenced you.   

 

Tips for beginning with VoiceThread from VoiceThread 4 Education

  1. Begin by adding comments to other VoiceThread projects. Use text, audio comments and a webcam to become with how comments work. You can use a FREE VoiceThread account to do this. Get comfortable with the program before jumping in.

  2. Create one account for your class and create one VoiceThread project where everyone participates. Each students can add a comment or be in charge of finding a (Creative Commons) image to use or create an original image with basic photo editing program.

  3. Each student can have their own identity icon. Consider having younger children draw an image of themselves or choose an icon to represent themselves instead of a photo.

  4. Only after the class has quite a bit of experience posting comments and uploading images to VoiceThread would I consider an individual project made by students. If you do this, make the students do ALL of the script writing, image collecting or creation, voice recording (edit with Audacity) before you allow them to begin assembling their VoiceThread. I used Inspiration with my students for planning their VoiceThread. Students linked their chosen image and recording and I approved them before they assembled their projects. This could also be done in Word or on a wiki.//

 

Resources

Teachers Guide for Using VoiceThread (includes rubrics, students guides, ideas & more) by Bill Ferriter

*VoiceThread Tutorials - they provide excellent tutorials about how to create voice threads.  Watch the one on Identities to see how you can create an avatar for each of your students.

VoiceThread Wiki by Colette Cassinelli

VoiceThread ning

24 page PDF handout: How to use VoiceThread for Education (thanks Miguel Guhlin)

 

Professional Development through live.classroom20.com

 
 

Date:  Saturday, February 21, 2009

Time:   9:00am PST/10:00am MST

           11:00am CST/12:00pm EST

Topic: Using VoiceThread in the Classroom-Special Guest: Colette Cassinelli

Newbie Question of the Week: What is VoiceThread and Ed.VoiceThread and how do they work?

Location:  Elluminate

Recording (full): https://sas.elluminate.com/site/external/installinfo/playback?psid=2009-02-21.0910.M.4963F864EDF71F294F5C6929F767A6.vcr

Recording (audio): http://audio.edtechlive.com/cr20/CLASSROOM%202.0%20VOICETHREAD.mp3

Recording (chat): http://wiki.classroom20.com/CR+20+LIVE+21+Feb+09

 

 * From Peggy Steffens, Writing in the 21st Century Academy, Amphitheater Public Schools - Tucson, Arizona

 

Examples

Parts of a Plant - teaching a concept

Small Moment - writing example

The Secret School – book review

Mitch Miller Honor Roll Students - celebrating student successes

Schools Then and Now  - report idea

How I Became a Super Hero  - writing assignment

High Point High School - review of what has been learned

Help me write an ABC book - collaborative example

Lewis and Clark 4th Grade - report with student illustrations

Who we are - an example of International School Students introducing themselves.  This example has many students commenting and sharing

Spanish Language Practice

Bell Work - an example by a teacher of a VoiceThread writing prompt.

 

From the VT Educator's Ning

The Constitution

3rd Grade US History & Constitution

 

Lesson Ideas Brainstorm

(1) uploaded photos of year 7 student posters about the water cycle and asked each student to describe the processess involved - I discovered that, although they had created their own posters, many were unable to articulate precipitation, condensation etc. correctly.

(2)Uploaded photos of a science experiment to separate a mixture of rice, sand, iron filings and salt. Students were asked to comment on each of the steps in the experiment. This was a little more successful, because slower students could follow the lead of quicker ones.

(3) Joint project on the structural, functional and behavioural adaptations of Australian and American animals. (work in progress).

I believe this tool has great potential - students should have their own avatars (logos) if they are going to be public documents and they often spend too long fiddling with these - creating their own identities. Younger students may need assistance in setting up microphones correctly, although they can also use text.

I am looking forward to spicing up my maths lessons with it too - the drawing tool will be helpful for students to identify specific angles and sides (for example, "the hypotenuse is here", "this is an acute angle" etc.)

Have fun and let me know if you have a great Voicethread lesson to share!

By Britt Gow http://education.ning.com/forum/topic/listForContributor?user=18kelzi14evnk.

 

We've been using Voicethread for a few months. My Kindergarten students wrote, illustrated and recorded list poems, first graders wrote, illustrated and recorded poems based on "The Important Book" by Margaret Wise Brown, my fourth graders uploaded their animations and my fifth graders created a Voicethread for Women's History Month. I love Voicethread! I am the account holder and all my students have created avatars and are listed as Identities on my account. You can link to our Voicethreads through our blog, ps233techteacher.edublogs.org

By Ellen http://education.ning.com/forum/topic/listForContributor?user=ellenquilt

 

 

 

 

from http://www.edsupport.cc/mguhlin/share/index.php?n=Anthology.Dstorywebbasedtools

 

Story Tool: VoiceThread

The power of VoiceThread is that it can be used regardless of what type of computer you have since it is web-based. VoiceThread describes itself in this way:

A VoiceThread allows every child in a class to record audio commentary about the ideas and experiences that are important to them. Whether 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, VoiceThreads offer a single vessel to capture and then share all the diverse personalities of an entire class. You will hear the pride and excitement in their voices as the students “publish” their work.A VoiceThread can be managed with little effort, creating an heirloom that can be shared by students, parents, and educators alike.

MODERATED COMMENTS

After you manage to get the Internet Security Officer in your District to agree that VoiceThread is a benign digital tool usable in the K-12 classroom, you will want to point out that communications are moderated.

One of the key components of VoiceThread is the possibility of inviting moderated audio, or written, commentary on the work created. Imagine that. Other children can leave audio or text comments on a piece of digital work, and you, as their teacher, can choose to allow it or not. It is is incredible that children can interact with each other via the Web through the sound of their voice. How powerful is that as a way to create a sense of audience?

Variety of Uses

There are many more VoiceThreads available online, spanning a variety of media genres including poems, self-portraits, lectures, book reviews, multimedia presentations, and digital stories. Why not add your students’ work to the mix?

For example, consider the following projects (with more being added every day):

  • Poem book: In this activity, participants share their favorite poems to create an audio poem book. Imagine your bilingual/ESL students creating their favorite poem book, adding their audio narration, and then sharing that online.

  • Great Book Stories: According to Wes Fryer (SpeedofCreativity.org), The idea is basic: Narrate five pictures to share why you love a specific book, and why other people should read it. If you’re interested in contributing, please check out the site and the guidelines. The password to edit the wiki is “share” without quotation marks.

  • Online Literature Circles: Wouldn’t this be a neat way of having literature circles online?

  • Social Studies/Geography Applications

  • Using Moodle in Technology Applications Classrooms: This was created by TA:TEKS teachers as a way to explore VoiceThread while at the same time share ideas about using Moodle, an online discussion forum and teaching tool in their classroom. Note that someone Allanah King, a New Zealand teacher was able to leave an audio comment on one of the “slides.”

  • Teaching Chemistry Lecture: No, digital creations aren’t just for elementary school students.

  • A Book Review by the GED Book Club

  • A student presentation regarding The Invisible Children

In Your Classroom

Want to use VoiceThread in your own classroom? Consider these resources to get you started:

 

Previous Training Introduction  Survey -Please click on this link to take our intake survey

               Survey Results

Polleverywhere

1. Have you created a VoiceThread?

2. Do you have a VoiceThread Account?

3. Have you used Digital Storytelling with your students?

4. Do you have an assessment tool for these types of projects?

5. What is your classroom Arrangement?

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