Cloud Collaborations: ed.VoiceThread.com

Amazing things are happening in the Cloud! I don’t mean those picturesque puffs of moisture floating in the sky. I’m talking about the network of computer servers spread around the globe facilitating everything from stock trades to movie downloads. Tech companies use the Cloud to create applications that are OS neutral and contain built in text mark up, drawing and audio visual tools. No downloading; no CD installs, no hard drives at all. Just a solid Internet connection and you’re ready to create, collaborate or play. Cloud applications work entirely through unseen Internet servers, accessible through a web address (http://www...), and a web browser like Firefox, Safari, Chrome or Internet Explorer. The browser acts as a portal to the application that we can use to create, manipulate and distribute content. Let’s say you are attending a Cloud based video conference. You open your laptop; click on the conference address in your web browser and go to the site. Then, login, attach your headset or microphone and start working with your colleagues down the hall or Down Under.

Okay, you say, that’s great for businesses or independent schools with deep pockets,but what about my budget cuts constrained school?  

Example 1

Inexpensive or free collaborative Cloud computing is available here and now, and I’d like to share my experiences with one application designed to promote idea exchanges in the boardroom or  classroom, face to face or across the globe

 Ed.voicethread.com (or simply VoiceThread), is a web based/application that allows you to create slides shows from documents, graphics, images and videos that viewers can comment and record into the slide show with a keyboard, their voice, a phone, or a webcam.

You can familiarize yourself with the VoiceThread’s interface and tools by clicking the Browse tab (Example 1). It opens up a plethora of user examples to get you started. The Create tab is the essence of simplicity. Click on the button and a pop-up box prompts you to begin uploading your content from your computer. VoiceThread turns them into contiguous slides on which you can record commentary. Then distribute your VoiceThread by embedding it in an email, or blog, or website to invite comment. Viewers can record their comments as they view your content, and you can view those comments to create new content based on their responses. Sound cool?

In 2009, I used VoiceThread to add an online component to a demonstration art lesson I modeled in partial fulfillment of the Music Center’s Teaching Artist Apprentice Program. I designed a lesson plan for a 55 minute class on the Elements of Form and Design in landscape painting. My content adhered to California’s 4^th grade visual arts standards. But my background story came from the19^th century American Sublime Landscape Movement. Its key features were belief in the primacy of Nature over human enterprise, and a fondness for overstatement at the service of natural depictions of the land; a concept I thought 4^th graders could take to heart.

The demonstration combined storytelling with drawing exercises in a fairly conventional manner At the end of the lesson I encouraged my committee to login to my VoiceThread account and comment on the slide show summary lesson,  I wanted to demonstrate how VoiceThread’s comment features could aid assessment of student comprehension of a lesson, and benefit the instructor with feedback on the materials presentation.  The thread opened with a reproduction of a Sublime painting and a question, “What is a landscape?” (Example 2).

Example 2

After defining a landscape, I went onto show how all landscape paintings contain the same basic elements of line and form (Example 3) hidden under layers of color. Viewers could comment at any time during the audio exposition. 

Example 3

The comment feature is activated by clicking Comment above the Play button at the bottom of the slide screen. The slide show will pause as a pop up menu presents various modes of comment e.g. voice recording, keyboard input, phone or webcam video.

One thing I did not anticipate from the review committee was an absence of any response to the VoiceThread. No one volunteered a comment. Later, I found out that those who did logon forgot to comment because the slide show was so impressive.

            VoiceThread is not free. It’s is a subscription service, but its fee structure is very affordable and flexible based upon the demands of the user For an annual fee of $60.00 a teacher can have accounts for each student to her exclusive VoiceThread web address; administrative / management controls over student content; tech support, unlimited threads; and discretion over public access to class threads on the web site.

That’s it!  No technology purchases, no software downloads, no program installations, and a virtual flat learning curve. All you need to create your own VoiceThread is your imagination, your experience and a sense of adventure.