Voicethread - Tues. Tech Tips

Voicethread is a great 21st century tool for students!.  Students can create a short video by importing and arranging pictures, then recording narration to go with each picture.  As you narrate you can also "doodle" over the pictures to point out key features with electronic ink.  I created my first Voicethread in about 20 minutes and it only took me that long because I rerecorded when I stumbled over words.



Wes Fryer used it with his daughter and offers these tips.

I can imagine students creating Voicethreads about science topics

• 1st graders studying rocks and minerals could find pictures in Flickr Creative Commons that match the different types of rocks that they studied.  After uploading the pictures they could explain three features of each type of rock while its image is displayed. 
• 3rd graders could upload images of the planets and add facts about each planet.
• 4th graders studying electricity could draw electric circuits and upload pictures of real life examples. 

Voicethread gives students an opportunity to integrate information from several sources (Web based pictures, classroom discussion of science topics) and create their own multimedia communication product.

Voicethread also has the option to allow comments on projects.  So students could evaluate their peers' projects and practice their critical thinking and evaluation skills.

I think students would love the creative nature of VoiceThread and would learn how to manipulate a multimedia authoring tool in the process.