The One With A VoiceThread

While the world is figuring out how K12 and higher education will resume this fall, as I teacher I cant help myself from wondering how I will transition all my materials, lessons and content into versions compatible with online learning. While some are pushing for schools to reopen fully, I am not sure I see that being likely in my area of the country, and if they do, I unfortunately feel it may be short lived and well be back online as some point this upcoming school year.

After the knowledge sharing project, I realized VoiceThread is an awesome and easy to use tool to share my lectures with my students.

VoiceThread allows the user to create a free account and upload existing PowerPoints into the platform. Once uploaded, you can record voice comments over each slide while students can listen to over and over without having to rewatch an entire recorded lecture. It also allows for students to engage with voice or text comments so they can respond to question to ask during the lecture or simply ask a question. 

What is great, is all viewers can see the question asked and the response so if others come across a similar question, they can view the answer without a teacher answering the same questions numerous times. In just a few weeks of online learning in the spring, the number of emails I received with questions that were already answered in our Google Meet chats, was, well, ALOT! 

It is also great for students with IEP's/504s who may need extra time. This can allow them to go at their own pace as each slide has its own comments/voiceovers. They can pause, take notes or rewatch slides numerous times without losing track of where they were. 

I tried Screencastify and Screencast-O-Matic and both limit the length of the presentation to 5 or 15 minutes and are done in one continuous audio recording. This makes it hard to get all the important information into the lecture without rushing and talking fast. It also does not have an option for comments or engaging with the content at all.

For those teachers out there who are planning for virtual learning this fall, this is a tool you should definitely check out!