I first used Voicethread last year with my own children when the volcano in Cook Inlet was threatening to erupt. It was on the news everday since the volcano was threatening to shut down air travel in and out of Anchorage since the volcano lies in the pathway of major airline traffic. My kids had a ball using it in the privacy of our home but were a little uncomfortable when they listened to the playback of themselves. So I tried it with my earth science class this past year for two different projects. The first was on clouds and the second was on the solar system. For the cloud project, they had to take digital photos of at least 3 types of clouds post them on our class voicethread and the record the information regarding each photo. This project seemed simple and pretty doable, however, these are the problems I encountered.
1. The Voicethread site can be a little slow to load and record info and sometimes the info is not save.
2. Others can delete your info unless important precautions as taken to backup the voicethread.
3. My high school kids had trouble getting a clear recording in a class environment and most couldn't do this at home unless they happened to have a laptap w/ built in mics or they had an external mic attached to a desktop computer.
4. The sound volume on the recording was really difficult to get just right so as not to blast the listener or be too quiet to where it couldn't be understood.
5. Even with all the kids these days having cell phones, I still had trouble getting kids to be able to upload their photos to our site. The most common problem was not have a cord to transfer from the phone, or kids not having the ability to email or send the image from their digital camera source.
I still think it was a worthwhile project however, but took twice as long as I anticipated and I spend way more time on technical issues than actually learning/discussing clouds.
In our second attempt at a Voicethread, this time on the Solar System, there was a little more success but we still had problems with slow upload/opening of our Voicethread when all students were logged in and trying to access the project, even though the kids were in teams and each group had a separate login account.
There wasn't the issue of upload pics because we used images from online. The kids were a little more comfortable this go around since they already knew how to use the site and what to expect for a final outcome. They seem to like using this tool for projects and I was able to get kids producing and collaborating and sharing their information.
The final requirement for this project was to do a scavenger hunt of solar system facts (I made a list of questions to find answers to using fill in the blank or short answer) that had to be obtained by review the posts made by the contributers to the project.
Our voicethread had to be kept private due to privacy issues since the students had their names on their identities. But here is a link to the project I made at home with my kids.
http://voicethread.com/#u357661.b456651.i2428402
That was cool, thanks for sharing. I’ve listened to several voice threads and the audio levels do seem to change drastically from slide to slide. I’m glad to hear the students enjoyed it after they got use to the program. Is this something you’re going to continue with? Is it worth the time and energy to build? Thanks
ReplyDeleteUsing Voicethread is so simple it really doesn't take long to learn how to use it, it's more of a management issue for the students passcodes etc. Backing up to make sure someone does delete a class project, etc. But I think it is worth it. It can be used as a presentation tool for students sharing lab data and discussing results too. I will definitely use it again.
ReplyDeleteYour reflection posted here is invaluable. Thank you so much for sharing your difficulties and successes. As with any new technology, the second time around is usually better, I'm glad this was the case for you. I was wondering if you had any handouts made to help students navigate or learn VoiceThread techniques?
ReplyDeleteAfter listening to some Voice Thread examples, I was wondering how easy it was to use and what technical problems might come up. Thanks for sharing your insights. It is often the technology side that has problems and not the content until students and the teacher get familiar with the site. I am trying to come up with a project to use in Biology with VoiceThread and I wonder how my students would do with it.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your insights. It always helps to know what challenges may be encountered during a project so that we can better deal with them! I have the same questions as VirtualFuller- Was the energy to put the project together worth the outcome? Do you think you will continue to use this tool with your students? I am glad to know the second time was a little easier!
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