Voice Threads: An Interactive Classroom Learning Tool by Sarah Wickstom

With a VoiceThread, group conversations are collected and shared in one place from anywhere in the world. All with no software to install.

A VoiceThread is a collaborative, multimedia slide show that holds images, documents, and videos and allows people to navigate pages and leave comments in 5 ways – using voice (with a mic or telephone), text, audio file, or video (via a webcam). Share a VoiceThread with friends, students, and colleagues for them to record comments too.

Users can doodle while commenting, use multiple identities, and pick which comments are shown through moderation.

VoiceThreads can even be embedded to show and receive comments on other websites and exported to MP3 players or DVDs to play as archival movies.

Users can doodle while commenting, use multiple identities.

Commenting & Doodling

VoiceThread inspires collaboration and expression with 5 innovative ways to comment. Collect the voices of an entire group on a single page by computer microphone, telephone, text, audio file (MP3/WAV), and webcam.

Simple voice and video commenting takes place right in your web browser.

With Doodling, you can draw on top of the media as you record your comment (using mic, webcam, or keyboard). VoiceThread’s innovative Video Doodling feature allows you to control the playback of a video, while Doodling and commenting on specific video segments. VoiceThread Doodles are synced to your comment, showing viewers your thoughts in action.

Identities

One VoiceThread account can have many identities (commenting avatars) associated with it. A family, a class, or an interesting person can switch identities on-the-fly without having to sign in with a different account. Think 22 kids, 45 minutes, and a project to complete – and you’ll understand the wonder of this feature.

Sharing and Groups (Ed. Version)

Any way you want it. VoiceThreads security comes in many forms, from private to public, and anywhere in between. Simple security settings allow creators to choose what the VoiceThread viewers can do. You can change these settings as often as you like.  You can also easily create Groups of your friends, colleagues, or those you have common interests with, and have the Group’s VoiceThreads shared and shown in one place (on your MyVoice page).

http://voicethread.com/ (free site)
http://ed.voicethread.com/ (charge to create your own group or secure environment)