Voicethread

In a previous class, a classmate mentioned plans to use a media tool called Voicethread to make her final presentation.  I didn't take particular notice because I have my "go to's" for presentations - PowerPoint and Prezi.  I preferred Prezi, but more than one professor noted that the animations made them dizzy.  Today, I watched the "Introduction to Course Voicethread" for EME6414 prepared by Dr. Dennen and my brain took off to a happy place.  WHY hadn't I used this product before???? Immediately instructional possibilities began forming in my head but before I get into those let me say a brief word about Voicethread.

Voicethread, developed at the University of North Carolina, makes it simple for users to add voice overs to any artifact - a slide presentation, video, photo, or a text document.  These voice overs are also called voice annotations.  I can hear you say "Well I can do that with Powerpoint and Prezi as well." It's the ease with which the annotations are done that made me give it high marks.  I particularly liked the thumbnail picture that shows up to let viewers know who is doing the commentary.  I also liked the doodling feature built into the tool.  Dr. Dennen was able to draw circles around points she wanted to emphasize while she spoke.  This little doodling act gave the presentation a real-time feel and made it engaging.

The real selling point for me was how easily I, as an end user, was able to collaborate and interact with Dr. Dennen and classmates in EME 6414 using a number of formats to the presentation.  I could leave a text-based comment or question.  I could also call or use the microphone to leave a verbal comment; even a video response.  I was sold.  I could see how this tool could make online classes more interactive and help to build community (something many people are concerned about when comparing distance education to face-to-face instruction.) I could also see how a faculty member who had an upcoming planned absence could "present" the lecture in a format almost as well as being there in person.  Students wouldn't lose the instructor's tone or inflection that so often happens when we look at plain slide presentations in online classes.

Like any good love at first sight story, or use in this case, I had some hesitations.  I am a chrome user.  Voicethread uses flash technology, and I've read that Chrome will discontinue Flash use in its browsers soon.  Will Voicethread adjust or will I have to use a new browser?  Additionally, as a student with hearing impairment, I had accessibility concerns.  I still have some hearing ability, so I just turned the volume up, but I wondered about others on the spectrum who have no hearing capacity.  Voicethread has a CC (closed caption) option that has the ability (in theory - I didn't personally put this assertion to the test) to translate voice into text to address concerns for the hearing impaired community of learners.  

I enjoyed all of the Voicethread presentations, and I was thrilled with its simplicity of use as an end user. I recommend that readers watch a few of the Voicethread tutorial videos on Youtube to discover how Voicethread can make presentations more interactive and assist in creating a sense of community among online learners.