VOICE THREAD

Voice Threads are online slide shows of images, document or videos that enable viewers to comment on any slide (Weir, n.d.). It is a collaborative, multimedia slide show that holds images, documents and videos and allows people to navigate pages and leave comments: voice with a microphone or telephone, text, audio file, or video via a webcam (Voice Thread 2007-2009). Another alternative with Voice Tread is the comments can be embedded to show and to show and receive comments on other Web sites and exported to MP3 players or DVDs to play as archival movies (Voice Thread).

Voice Thread could be employed in the learning environment via students comment on the images that relate to classroom studies for example volcanoes, frogs, trees and plants. Ferriter (cited Weir, n.d.), “In a classroom conversation, there’s generally one stand of conversation going at any one time, and if you’re bored by that particular strand, you’re completely disengaged.” The advantage of Voice Tread is that multiple conversations are going on at once. He claims “If I asked them, ‘Take out a piece of paper and do some writing about your thoughts on the Sudan, or injustice,’ I probably wouldn’t get much.” While a thread is active, Ferriter brings up one of the posted comments on Voice Tread and asks the student to consider it and evaluate the comment.

Higher order and creative thinking are foster in this tool as group conversations are collected and shared in one place from anywhere in the world, collaborative activity, open-ended question can be asked by the LM and students, give the students more choice – which thread that want to reply and how and is an open task. This also can be foster under Oliver’s framework (cited AUCT, 2003) the students leaning tasks could be learning about frogs hence they look at the images of frog on Voice Thread and comment about them.