VoiceThread is a great tool for sharing information and giving students a voice…literally. I tried this tool with my kindergarten students and was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was. My main disappointment was the cost. Though some of my research showed that a single educator account for VoiceThread was free, when I went to register I saw that the single educator license was $79 a year. The educator account offers the option to create student accounts and set privacy controls to private if so desired. If cost is an issue, they do offer a free account which is worth exploring. Under the free account, you are able to create 5 VoiceThreads, however the privacy controls are set to public so be careful.
Since I was using this with Kindergarten, I created the free account and had students work on a class VoiceThread. We created a “Did You Know?” assignment about plants. I like that this tool helped our students work on their speaking skills. Since each “Did you know?” sentence was a question, we talked about how your voice changes slightly at the end of a question. Students were able to record with ease and hear back their comments. VoiceThread also has a video comment option which can be a valuable tool for students who are hearing impaired as they can comment using sign language. It is important to keep in mind that with the free account, the video comment created would be public. Because of this, we stuck to voice comments.
VoiceThreads can be used to enhance literacy development, promote critical debate, and showcase valuable work. It certainly seems to be a tool that many educators should consider using. I may even invest in the educator account next year. The technology appears to be worth the $79 cost.
Check out our VoiceThread below and feel free to make a voice comment yourself!
Since I was using this with Kindergarten, I created the free account and had students work on a class VoiceThread. We created a “Did You Know?” assignment about plants. I like that this tool helped our students work on their speaking skills. Since each “Did you know?” sentence was a question, we talked about how your voice changes slightly at the end of a question. Students were able to record with ease and hear back their comments. VoiceThread also has a video comment option which can be a valuable tool for students who are hearing impaired as they can comment using sign language. It is important to keep in mind that with the free account, the video comment created would be public. Because of this, we stuck to voice comments.
VoiceThreads can be used to enhance literacy development, promote critical debate, and showcase valuable work. It certainly seems to be a tool that many educators should consider using. I may even invest in the educator account next year. The technology appears to be worth the $79 cost.
Check out our VoiceThread below and feel free to make a voice comment yourself!