Voicethread

The first time I ever made a Voicethread was when I created my Autobiography of a Tech User for this course.  I had a lot of fun using it, found it pretty easy to figure out, and was pleased with the results.  I saw plenty of possibilities for using Voicethread in my classroom, and when I searched the site, I saw many examples of student and class-created Voicethreads.  I had a few concerns, though, because in order to sign up, students would need an email address.  Even if we bought the edu license, students would still each need an email address.  Teaching ten year olds, I am not going to be responsible for managing 24 email accounts. The tech helping teacher for my district said that Voicethread could be used within Moodle, and that using google, there was a way to have one email address broken up into many, and that the students could not use these accounts for sending or receiving email.  I don't know the details, but this would eliminate some of my concerns.  Also, the Voicethreads would then only be visible to other people within the Moodle classroom, so students could create and comment in a contained environment.  There is a teacher in my district doing a pilot with Voicethread within Moodle, and when that is over, it will be opened up to other people who are interested.  I am going to wait to use it with mu students until I can do it in the secure environment provided by Moodle.

In the meantime, I am still excited about Voicethread as a tool.  I downloaded the app onto my iPhone, so I can easily create Voicthreads wherever I am!  I made one to introduce division with remainders to my students, and they were quite positive about the presentation.  They said it was fun and interesting, and they paid more attention because it was different.  I will post the link here.

Division Voicethread

After we watched it, discussing and practicing as we did so, my students worked in pairs and used the iPods that are on loan to another class in my school to create similar presentations using an app called SonicPics .  It works very much like Voicethread, but without the social networking part, since the presentations are saved on the individual iPods.  I am going to try to email them myself, and then upload them onto Moodle so that my students can easily view and comment on each others'.  The kids had a lot of fun making the presentations, and I found that they clearly demonstrated how much they understood about solving problems with division with remainders.  New ways of demonstrating learning tend to be fun and engaging, whatever they are.

I am not sure how legitimate my concerns about students publishing their work on an open social networking site are.  I think that before I did anything like that, I would have to involve students and parents in a conversation about security, safe practice, and the purpose behind it all.  Will Richardson (2010), in Blogs, Wikis. Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms, says that by publishing their work to a wide audience, students are empowered, learn that their voices matter, and expect that their voices will be heard.  This seems like a lesson that students, if they are to become active, responsible members of a democratic society (which is our eventual goal for all children), desperately need to learn.  Perhaps we, as adults, need to put aside our trepidations, teach digital safety and citizenship, and help our students dive into a world where their voices count.