Do You VoiceThread?
With this posting I am going to begin a series on what I think is a wonderful teaching tool VoiceThread. This is one of a new breed of communication, collaboration, and presentation tools that you need to see in action to understand what they really do.
Let’s see if I can describe VoiceThread for you and maybe give you some ideas on how to apply this technology to your teaching and design. First VoiceThread is web-based software as a service where everything takes place online. This Flash based software allows you to upload content in many formats. When you upload your file it is converted to Flash which allows for compression and easy streaming.
Currently you can upload the graphic formats: JPEG, GIF, BMP, PNG, and doc types: PPT, PPTX, PPS, PDF, DOC, XLS as well as WAV and MP3 audio formats. Once your materials are uploaded you can mix and match the pages / slides to order your presentation as needed. Then you can add comments on each slide using text, audio, or Webcam video and audio to complement or if you like narrate your presentation.
Now you might say, “OK I get it. This is a PowerPoint presentation tool like Slideshare.” Yes, you can use VoiceThread as a simple presentation tool but there is so much more. For example, once you create a presentation you can share it with your students and have them ask questions right there on the page. When you see this in action what you have is one of the coolest teaching and discussion sequences. Students can interact with the content and each other in ways that a discussion forum just does not allow. Students can hear and see each other in this interactive asynchronous environment.
VoiceThread is worth the cost (as little as $60 per year) for the level of community it allows you to build in your online course. Students have responded very positively in my own pilot use of VoiceThread and we are seeing more courses using this technology everyday as you can see in this voicethread.
One thing I have learned over the years is that effective online learning requires a learning environment that is collaborative. This collaborative environment has been elusive for many, both faculty and designer. One of the underlying issues is that many learning management systems still lack the basic technology tools required to promote high-touch collaboration that we desire for our students. Just creating groups and simple document storage spaces in our online courses is not enough. What we need are real collaborative workspaces where students can create and share presentations not only with their workgroup but with the rest of the students in the course. One technology that will allow this is VoiceThread. It is simple to use for both the faculty and the student and has proven very effective in promoting community and allowing students to share and collaborate online.
We have applied this technology in two ways:
1) A collaborative lecture space – using audio, video, PowerPoint, PDF’s and graphics, we have developed interactive lectures where the students can ask questions right in the lecture.
2) A collaborative presentation space – using audio, video, PowerPoint, PDF’s and graphics, the students can present and get feedback right in the presentation.
This is not just about technology but about the application of a technology to facilitate a collaborative teaching model. I could go into great detail on the technology but what I would really like to do is show how to apply this technology to promote the development of collaborative learning spaces. In later postings I am going to show how I developed several workflow models that I use in online courses. These workflows allow me to apply VoiceThread in support of my overall teaching method and model.
I don’t want to use a tool just because I think it’s cool; I want the tool to be effective and facilitate the outcomes for the assignment. The workflow mindmaps that I develop also help me understand how students will work through the assignment and hopefully will point out any issues with the physical design of the assignment.
In my next post I’ll talk about a workflow for a VoiceThread Discussion Mode.
