Monday 24 September 2007

Interactive presentations

I’ve just been looking at a really interesting on line tool called Voicethread.

What's Voicethread?
Voice thread enables users to create online presentations using their own images. It also allows the creator to add audio or written text to the images and give access to other people to leave audio or text comments on the presentation. This is a really nice way of creating presentations that can interact and create dialogue with an online audience.

Here’s a couple that I’ve created. I decided that I wanted to use this tool for a class of students I teach in Second Life. I wanted them to explore various islands and take snapshots of what they found. They would then be able to upload these to Voicethread and record audio reports, which they could then share with the class and leave comments on. I thought this would be a good way to get them to really concentrate on producing a high quality fine tuned finished product, as they would know that there was and audience for these presentations.

I created these two presentations of examples of what I wanted them to do.
  • Example 1 This one is a tour of Edunation II in Second Life.
  • Example 2 This one is a visit to Vassar Island and you’ll see that a few people have already left comments.

How do I use it?
In order to help them understand how to use the tool I also created this movie tutorial.
I really think that this is a remarkable tool. It’s been specially created for educators and so it has some really nice features.

How can I use it with my students?
Here’s a few other things I think you could get students to do which would help to develop their language abilities.

  • Ask then to upload some images of things with personal significance and create a kind of online show and tell.
  • Get students to create and tell a story using pictures. If they have access to digital cameras, you could get the students to work in pairs or small groups to produce a story together.
  • Upload two images and ask students to record what they think is the connection between the two images
  • Upload images for students to describe, such as rooms or people etc.
  • Upload images of people speaking and ask students to add a dialogue. They could also add text bubbles of what they think the people are thinking
  • Ask students to research a member of their family then upload an image of the person and tell about them.
  • Get students to upload pictures from around their town and create a sort of interactive tourist guide
  • Upload some images of graphs and statistics and see if students can describe them appropriately
  • Upload some images with incorrect descriptions and see if they can spot and correct the errors
This page is also well worth looking at: http://voicethread.com/classroom.php
It has some user guides which you can download and also shows you how to set up identities for your kids so they don’t have to disclose any personal information.

I hope you find this useful and do let me know how you use it.
Best
Nik

12 comments:

Dennis said...

Nik,

Once again, thanks so much for a clear, useful presentation.

Can I ask a technical question? (I think this must be a Windows question, really). Is there anyway of increasing the size of the presentation as one views?

Cheers,

Dennis

Dennis said...

Loved the visit to Edunation 11. You make it all seem so simple. When I'm there, I get lost, walk into trees and fall in the water.

Dennis

Nik Peachey said...

Hi Dennis,

I've added a wmv version of the tutorial which you can resize in your media player. The down side of this is that it is a much bigger file than the flash one. The Voicethread presentations can be made bigger by clicking on the screen which should allow you to zoom in (another nice feature). I'm glad you liked the Edunation II presentation. I took the tour on the little boat and that really helped me to find my way around. Still do the tree thing too though, but I find it helps to have a small avatar!
Best
Nik

Rangoo said...

Thanks for the information.

I have referred to your post on my blog. I am sure teachers will find it very useful.

Voice Thread Interactive Tool

Rangoo said...

Here is the post where I have referred to you.

Teacher's FAQ

Alan said...

Voice Thread is great, especially for allowing multiple voices in a "presentations" or voice comments. And it can draw media form flickr.

There are heaps of web-based tools for assembling slideshows, presentations, visual stories- Voice Thread is one of the 50 Web 2.0 Ways to Tell a Story I am doing as a workshop http://cogdogroo.wikispaces.com/50+Ways

Geoff Taylor said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Prof. Nelba Quintana- La Plata- Argentina said...

Dear Nik, thank you for suggesting this tool - I think it is very interesting to explore - and for taking your time for the tutorials. I will refer to your post on my blog: http://englishvirtualcommunity.blogspot.com
I am sure colleagues from Argentina will find it very useful.
Best

Anonymous said...

Thanks for all this, Nik, it looks a really cool and useful online resource. Can't wait to get students using it!

Nik Peachey said...

I'm glad so many people have found this useful. It really is a great tool. I hope the tutorial movie does it justice.

Best

Nik

Roseli Serra said...

Hi Nik,

As usually, you feed us with your amazing ieas! Thanks a lot for sharing with us. I've experienced using VT and it's simply amazing!

Cheers,

Roseli

Unknown said...

Thank Nik, so clear instructions and ideas how to use VoiceThread in a classroom with students.

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