VOICE THREAD by Paola Sarmiento

VOICE THREAD

Presentation:  Voice Thread is a very interactive cloud application, used to create, comments and share all kind of features and information with a community of viewers. It allows people to post media artifacts for community feedback. This application, developed at the University of North Carolina, makes it easy for users to add voice annotation to an artifact, which could be a document, a slide presentation, a video, or a collection of photos. Commentators can add remarks by different means such as, microphone, webcam, keyboard, or telephone. What sets Voice Thread apart from other similar web sites is the ease with which voice commentary can be added. This gives a significantly different critical dimension when it comes to lengthy and detailed explanations, in a way than would be suitable only for text. It’s definitively a very interesting and multitask tool for all kinds of aims (Business for example), but especially for academic and educational purposes.

Implications and Importance for Teaching and Learning:  The design of this web 2.0 tool was thought specifically for teaching purposes (considering that was created by a University). That’s why it’s one of the most innovated educational tools out there, because allow educators to interact online with the students, offering a variety of tools within the application, in order to make the Speaking classes more dynamic and creative. A teacher can easily give a live explanation through video while showing slides, documents, presentations, images, audio files and videos in real time.  Thanks to the possibility the students have of commenting the presentation, the web tool works as a class simulation but more interactive and with the use of better features. It is perfect to practice oral and speaking skills and to motivate the debate and the argumentation among learners. This becomes crucial in a foreign language acquisition process. It also  allows meaningful learning to take place and enables the teaching process to move away from the traditional classroom methodology.

Examples of uses in teaching situations: As an English teacher for teenagers, I can see the importance of involving digital technology in the learning process and the planning of lessons, due to the fact that new generations are so connected to online communities and networks. Keeping this in mind, I would use Voice Thread as a complement for my Face to face classes and as the main platform for my virtual classes. In face to face environments I would have my students presenting different oral and written tasks using voice thread, and I would ask them to comment on their partner’s work using also their cellphones. I would share complementary material outside class to reinforce topics, and I would record explanations for them to consult any time they want. This would become a second classroom for them. In Virtual Environments the whole class would be performed using the platform and all its features.

ILLUSTRATION OF THE TOOL:

Link: WHAT IS VOICE THREAD?