I did a demonstration of ed.voicethread - (check it out at http://ed.voicethread.com) and now all of the 11th grade and 9th grade students in my school have been given the option of doing a voicethread for their quarterly book report/book talk. This is the first Web 2.0 application that has really interested both the teachers and the students. I started with a 'free' (actually $10) educator account and now I'm getting a classroom account ($60/year plus a little extra for the phone recording option - Students can record audio by telephone and it will show up on their voicethread). It's kind of like podcasting only you don't need any special equipment. Students upload images and add 'comments' to each screen. They can add video too if they have the equipment. It's easy to use and it's a secure educational environment. Only ed.voicethread users can access it (and you can set it to be unavailable outside the school) and students can only see voicethreads created in schools-(there's a regular voicethread.com for non-educators)
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I introduced voicethread to my faculty and it is being used by several teachers. Our beginning Mandarin class used it and the kinesiology class. So far we just have free educator accounts and make the voicethreads private. I made one to explain how to sign up for a NoodleBib account, http://voicethread.com/#q.b19129.i111205, it's pretty dorky. I'm going to redo it as a screencast.
Yes, I'm using VoiceThread - there's been district training offered, but I'm also offering on-site training for our teachers after school 4/29/08 and 5/1/08. There's plenty of great, quick, online tutorials at VoiceThread that explain features.
Actually, educators can upgrade to what I call a "quasi-pro" account TOTALLY free. It is a bit less than Pro on a few features (like 3 min. for phone comments) - otherwise, it is an upgrade over the standard free account.
Free or paid, the program provides control over security and privacy for educational use. Class posts and pages can be kept private either way. Naturally, there's more features through ed.voicethread.com. Both options are great!
Steve at VoiceThread has commented that they put the sign-up for the free educator Pro upgrade at the "Go Ed Pro!" tab so teachers wouldn't miss it, but there has been confusion between the free upgrade and ed.voicethread.com options. There's some explanation and a link in the FAQs.
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Actually, educators can upgrade to what I call a "quasi-pro" account TOTALLY free. It is a bit less than Pro on a few features (like 3 min. for phone comments) - otherwise, it is an upgrade over the standard free account.
Free or paid, the program provides control over security and privacy for educational use. Class posts and pages can be kept private either way. Naturally, there's more features through ed.voicethread.com. Both options are great!
Steve at VoiceThread has commented that they put the sign-up for the free educator Pro upgrade at the "Go Ed Pro!" tab so teachers wouldn't miss it, but there has been confusion between the free upgrade and ed.voicethread.com options. There's some explanation and a link in the FAQs.
Hope this helps!