VoiceThread

Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevhickey/

VoiceThread is another ICT tool that allows for collaborative learning within the classroom. It allows users to have conversations about images, documents and videos. Users of VoiceThread are able to leave their comments in 5 ways - using their own voice (via a microphone or telephone), text, audio file or video (via a webcam). Comments can then be moderated. VoiceThreads can be made public or private, depending on your purpose.

In the classroom, VoiceThread can be utilised in many different ways. Say you are teaching your students about hazzards in a workplace, you could post a photo of a workplace that has a number of different hazzards in view. Students could then leave their comments about what hazzards they can see in the photo. This could then stem off to the importance of workplace safety. A VoiceThread could also be used to evaluate a piece of artwork, whether its a student's or a famous artist's. Or to perhaps decide, based on what students can see in a photo, whether a student created piece of technology would be suitable for the purpose they created it for. In a younger classroom, a teacher could put up a series of simple photos or images and the students could collaboratively create a story to accompany the pictures.

On a professional level, teachers could use VoiceThread as a tool to create presentations for professional development, to share teaching ideas with their peers, debates, as an assessment tool, to communicate with their students and their parents about how the student is performing in class and again the list goes on.

As with most modern day ICT tools, there are some security risks with using VoiceThread but these could be reduced by ensuring that students do not use photos of themselves, their own voices and ensuring they have full permission to use the images they have selected.

VoiceThread is another ICT tools that promotes the Engagement Theory framework, Oliver's Learning Design framework and the Active learning framework by providing students with opportunities to work collaboratively, have control of their own work, allows for multiple perspectives, engages the students and provides the students with an authentic learning environment.