Reflection on VoiceThread

Using VoiceThread for our last assignment was a fun way to create a multimedia slideshow that could have many applications in the classroom.  Using this site to create a digital story was a challenge because you have to keep in mind the interactivity of the program.  When you design a digital story telling project, I think it is natural to imagine that the story will need a certain level of flow between scenes or slides. In VoiceThread, though, there is a good chance that your story will be punctuated with other people's comments.  While the ability to comment on individual slides is one of the great features of VoiceThread, it changes the way that you must think about your presentation.

I could see using VoiceThread in my class in a number of different ways.  In addition to telling stories, this site would be a great way to show off student work, present class photos of an event, or communicate with parents what is going on.  A teacher could also create a VoiceThread as a form of assessment.  In this VoiceThread, a teacher has posted math problems and the students have commented their responses along with their strategies for solving the problems.

Overall, this site offers a lot of great ways to bring technology into the classroom and give every student a voice on the web.  Whether they are creating their own story or commenting on one slide about themselves in a VoiceThread about the whole class, they can have ownership of the work.  Also, it allows students to publish their work to the outside world.  This could be a parent or grandparent or it could be a complete stranger.  Either way, students' motivation will be incredibly high to complete work that they are proud of.