by Courtney Rodgers

 

Historical Background  Relevance to education Start-up Costs Key-players, gurus, experts Sample Lesson Plans Tutorial Sources

 

According to the current VoiceThread site, “A VoiceThread is an online media album that can hold essentially any type of media (images, documents and videos) and allows people to make comments in 5 different ways - using voice (with a microphone or telephone), text, audio file, or video (with a webcam) - and share them with anyone they wish. They can even be exported to an Archival Movie for offline use on a DVD or video-enabled MP3 player. A VoiceThread allows group conversations to be collected and shared in one place, from anywhere in the world. ”

 

Historical Background 

 

Just fifteen months old, VoiceThread has experienced great success. Beta VoiceThread launched in March 2007, was touted as a “place to capture voices.” The description on this early version offered the following possibilities for uses:

 

• Create a VoiceThread and collect the stories behind your pictures
• Turn yearbooks, scrapbooks, or photo-albums into VoiceThreads
• Capture the voices of an entire group, on a single page
• Put your VoiceThread on any blog or website

 

A set of old family photographs in a traditional photo album? These photos could be scanned, uploaded to the site creating an online album and described in a recording created by the owner. Other family members, located anywhere in the world, could follow the link to view and listen to the album and also be invited to leave their own comments – creating the ‘voicethread’ of the application title. If this were all this site could do, one could already see how the site could be beneficial.

 

However, VoiceThread has come to offer much more.

 

The second version of VoiceThread - ‘fresh’ was presented in September 2007. A blog posted by team member Andrew (2007) discussed the newest version and boasted the following improvements:

 

• Redesigned browsing, creating content and account management functionalities
• Upload more media types to your VoiceThreads: PowerPoints (PPT, PPS), Adobe Documents (PDF), Word Documents (DOC), Excel Spreadsheets (XLS) and videos
• Seamless Facebook image importing directly to your VoiceThreads
• View VoiceThreads in a full screen presentation mode
• Integrated rotate and crop tool for uploading pictures for identity management
• Control the amount of pause between the pages of your VoiceThreads in play mode
• New informational site, complete with the forum

 

• Both versions were available for users as the new capabilities of ‘fresh’ were tested from within the company and by users of the site.

 

• By October 10, 2007, the team was ready to host ‘fresh’ at VoiceThread.com. A link was available from the homepage for users who still wanted to use Classic VoiceThread – with a promise that the classic version would be available at least through the end of the year.

 

This release also came with the ability to ‘go pro’ by purchasing a VoiceThread Pro account. Over the next two months the team added interesting features. Video doodling and phone commenting are two major additions.  Video doodling has been likened to the on-screen drawing abilities of John Madden and other commentators during football games. The ability to comment using a domestic phone number allows any registered user to enter a ten digit phone number and VoiceThread calls back and guides the user through leaving a comment.

 

In January 2008, VoiceThread launched a community especially for k-12 educators. This version, ed.VoiceThread, offers educators the same capabilities with added security and accountability for the classroom. The accounts are offered for a small one-time fee for educators for a single classroom license and for a larger fee for school-wide licenses. This site was born out of necessity. Although educators had expressed their delight with the application's offerings,many also voiced disappointment with the inability to access it from behind school internet filters (Allison, 2008).

 

In March 2008, VoiceThread was nominated as a finalist in the 2008 Webware 100 Awards. Webware, CNET site, held its second annual contest and announced VoiceThread as one of the winners in the video category. There are ten categories of awards given to the best Web 2.0 applications and services. Winners are chosen based on the votes of users of Webware and the users of the award finalists.

 

 

Relevance to education

 

SecondLifeEnglish.com

 

“The educational community has really been the core of what’s driven voicethread thus far” (Allison, 2008).

 

VoiceThread was heavily used by teachers as evidenced by the ‘classroom’ tag added to the site, as well as the ‘go pro’ account being offered free to teachers to allow for an unlimited number of voicethreads.

 

However, creators Ben Papell, a real estate developer from South Florida, and Steve Muth, a toy inventor from New York, are the first to admit that “[voicethread] really wasn’t designed for the classroom” (Allison,2008). VoiceThread team members had received numerous emails and forum posts from teachers on everything from technical issues to praise to requests for additional capabilities. Many items were covered in the multiple updates the team made to VoiceThread, but Ben and Steve realized there was a large market for their product through the education sector.

 

 

Major Issue

An overwhelming number of emails from educators in different parts of the country  were mentioning the same problem: the site was blocked from school computers. A characteristic of most web 2.0 tools, VoiceThread basic accounts are free. Because of the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) and other online safety policies, many sites with free accounts are blocked by schools and districts.

 

In a podcast from  the website teachers teaching teachers, co-creators Ben and Steve discuss why the issue of helping all schools have access to VoiceThread became so important to the team. As addressed by Ben, "The lack of access to the site itself was becoming not just an occasional email, but an email that we would receive on a daily basis ...; it was all over the country" (Allison, 2008).

 

Both creators had no desire to take away the free basic accounts from their users but did want to help alleviate the issue of access for schools and school districts. The solution was the creation of Ed.VoiceThread – a community designed especially for the k-12 sector. It is a safe, accountable way to offer the uses of voicethread and not be blocked by school filters. Steve Muth (2008) describes the new community as a "secure, collaborative network for k-12 classrooms. It's been designed for, and is restricted to, k-12 students, educators and administrators."

 

Ed.VoiceThread Team

 

There are numerous ways educators have found to utilize VoiceThread. Bill Ferriter, a social studies and language arts teacher from North Carolina, is one educator who has seen the benefits of using VoiceThread with his students. Interviewed for Edutopia magazine by Laila Weir (2008), Ferriter explains how he decided to "steal some of their online minutes" and what came of his attempts. Ferriter created and posted different VoiceThreads and allowed his students to comment on a voluntary basis. Bill found that more students participate online and that he could "basically extend [his] classroom."  Weir also spoke with creator Ben Papell who recommends that educators experiment on their own before introducing VoiceThread to the classroom. Papell's advice is to "Use it, experiment with it, figure out how it's going to suit your needs" (Weir, 2008).

 

VoiceThread is adaptable to any age, grade level and subject area. Since VoiceThread has the capability of accepting documents, a Works Cited page can be created and scanned at the end of any thread. Bill Ferriter  has created the wiki Digitally Speaking with a section dedicated to VoiceThread. He offers the handouts he has created for classroom use with VoiceThread and displays samples of several threads he used with his students. In his thread "Many Voices of Darfur" he has different comics from political cartoonists and encourages his students to comment. The students all have icons that represent their VoiceThread identities. He offers them  questions to guide their comments and explains what the students will be doing during the opening of the thread. The actual thread is below.

 

Many Voices of Darfur

                                   Bill Ferriter

 

Students as young as kindergarten age have used VoiceThread to work on learning the letters of the alphabet. The different threads that have been created continue through high school age covering math, science, language arts and history classes and go on to college courses with students creating class introductions or discussing art in an art history course.

 

 

Michelle Pacansky-Brock is an art history professor at Sierra College in Rocklin, California who demonstrates how she would use VoiceThread with her art courses. She has opened  her thread to others for ideas on other ways VoiceThread could be used in education. She includes a picture with an idea for history classes and one for an anthropology class.

 

 

 

Start-up Costs

 

As previously mentioned, students from as young as kindergarten to those in college courses can use VoiceThread (see ‘Relevance to Education’). Access to this tool in a classroom setting is readily available in most cases. This section will look at the necessities for getting started and using VoiceThread and Ed.VoiceThread within a K-12 classroom setting, as higher education would not have the same limitations with older students. This plan could be applied to any subject area, age or grade level.

 

As VoiceThread is a web-based application, there is no software to purchase or download. All educators are able to use VoiceThread services for free; however, there are many limitations with the free account, including a three Thread limit. Teachers can quickly and easily apply for a free “pro” account. This “educator account” allows access to the majority of the components of a “pro” account. A teacher can add additional identities for each student. While the students could upload a picture or avatar as representation, everyone -teacher and students- is on one account with one password.

 

Ed.VoiceThread is available for a per teacher cost of ten dollars ($10) for month by month or sixty dollars ($60.00) for a year-long subscription. A single teacher account covers one teacher and all of his or her students. A school account is simply one dollar ($1) per user per year with a minimum of 200 users. The benefits of an account through Ed.VoiceThread are numerous. The team has recently added an account manager to ease the teacher’s job of creating and managing student accounts. The students have an actual account to create voicethreads without the need for an email address. A major benefit is comment moderation. This is not possible in the free account because though there are different identities, each identity is essentially a different representation of the same user. Either subscription includes a custom Ed.VoiceThread URL. Higher Education subscriptions are available by contacting VoiceThread.

 

Identities in free educator pro' account                                                                      1 educator + all of their students on Ed.VoiceThread

                           

                   ed.voicethread K-12 Pricing Blog

 

When deciding which account is right for you, two differences in using a free “educator account” on VoiceThread as opposed to an account on Ed.VoiceThread must be considered. On VoiceThread, the students do not actually have an account; they have an identity within the teacher’s account. The other difference is the lack of accountability with the VoiceThread “educator account.” Students are open to comments from anyone and can invite anyone to make comments, whereas with Ed.VoiceThread they have a restricted K-12 community. All individual student accounts are linked to a teacher who is linked to a school, so there is accountability throughout.

 

The two basic items that are required are a computer and Internet access to begin utilizing the services. The majority of K-12 campuses and all colleges should have these available. Several computers in a classroom or a lab setting is not necessary; the asynchronous aspect of the program alleviates the need to have multiple users at one time.

 

The other two pieces of hardware that could be beneficial are a microphone and a scanner. While not required to use VoiceThread services, the scanner and microphone would ease the process of creating projects in the classroom. Microphones are very affordable; in a quick Internet search free-standing and headset microphones can be found from several retailers. It should be noted that comments and Threads can be created in multiple ways including typing or a landline phone if a microphone is not available.  HP, Canon and Epson all offer flatbed scanners for under $100 that would work well in a classroom. If a scanner is not a viable option, pictures and documents can easily be uploaded from a computer.

 

Images can be found from different sources. Initial projects will usually be teacher-led presentations that allow students to make comments. Flickr, Wikimedia Commons and Stock.xchng  are a few places where images with licenses allowing for use can be found.  Students can be allowed to search for images, or the teacher may download pictures that can be placed in a folder on the computers in use.

 

With these items, you are ready to begin.

 

Key-players, gurus, experts

 

VoiceThread

The VoiceThread site offers answers to frequently asked questions, helpful forums and tutorials for users from the help tag.

 

Bill Ferriter

Bill was highlighted in Edutopia magazine for his use of VoiceThread in the classroom. He has created the wiki DigitallySpeaking with a page focused on VoiceThread. He includes sample  threads, offers tips for commenting and provides the handouts he has created for use in his classroom.

 

Colette Cassinelli

Colette Cassinelli  is a high school computer teacher in Oregon. She has a blog “about innovative and visionary uses of educational technology” (Cassinelli, 2008). Colette has created the wiki voicethread4education to allow educators to discuss and place examples of how VoiceThread is being used in the classroom or for professional development. There are numerous examples by grade level, for college, administrators, educational technology, ESL/EFL and resources.

 

Pageflakes Members

Jepcke, a member of pageflakes, has several links to different VoiceThreads on his pagecast. These examples cover different areas.

Techieteacher also has a pagecast on VoiceThreads in different areas of education. The site has links from del.icio.us posts to threads categorized by grade level, subject and collaborative projects.

 

Sample Lesson Plans

 

Please use the following link to find sample lesson plans using VoiceThread: sample lesson plans

 

Tutorial

 

Sharing Stories is a one page overview of using VoiceThread from www.practicalparticipation.co.uk.

     The PDF can be found here.

 

Please use the following link to find several additional, helpful tutorials on using VoiceThread: VoiceThread tutorials

 

 

Sources

 

Allison, P. (Interviewer) & Muth, S., Papell B. (Interviewees). (2008, January 9). Giving all schools access [Interview audio file].  Retrieved June 12,2008,  from Teachers Teaching Teachers Website:  http://teachersteachingteachers.org/?p=150

 

Andrew. (2007, September 28). A 'fresh' look. Message posted to http://voicethread.com/blog/#20070928

 

Casinelli, Colette. (2008). Retrieved July 5, 2008, from http://voicethread4education.wikispaces.com/

 

Download Squad. (2007, December 18). Message posted to http://www.downloadsquad.com/2007/12/18/voicethread-oral-tradition-goes-web-2-0/ 

 

Johnson, Tonia. (2008, March 6). Children's book lesson plan. Scribd. Retrieved July 1, 2008, from

     http://www.scribd.com/doc/2230102/Childrens-book-lesson-plan

 

Muth, Steve. (2008, January 25). Ed.VoiceThread. Message posted to http://voicethread.com/blog/#20080125

 

Sharing Stories. (2007).  Retrieved June 15, 2008, from www.practicalparticipation.co.uk

 

Stannard, Russell. (n.d.). VoiceThreads. Teachers Training Teachers. Retrieved July 8, 2008, from http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/voice/index.html

 

VoiceThread. (n.d.). Retrieved June 7, 2008, from the Digitally Speaking Wiki: http://digitallyspeaking.pbwiki.com/Voicethread

 

VoiceThread Blog. (2007-2008). Retrieved June 7, 2008 from http://voicethread.com/blog/

 

VoiceThread Lesson Plan. (n.d.). Retrieved June 14, 2008 from http://ittwiki.northstar.k12.ak.us/@api/deki/files/131/=Voice_Thread_Lesson_Plan_Overview.doc

 

VoiceThread Tutorials. (n.d.). Retrieved June 7, 2008, from http://voicethread.com/#c28

 

Weir, Laila. (2008, April 16). Extending the classroom with interactive multimedia albums. Edutopia. Retrieved June 7, 2008, from

     http://www.edutopia.org/voicethread-interactive-multimedia-albums.