Using+Voice+Thread+to+Promote+Learning+For+Children+with+Emotional+or+Behavioral+Disorders

Using Voice Thread to Promote Learning Engagement and Success for All Students. The article I read shows how a web- based learning tool can help increase the learning skills and motivation of students with learning disabilities especially emotional or behavioral disorders. (EBD) Web 2.0 is a good way for us to help these kids express their ideas and share information at their own pace and ability level. Web 2.0 tools really help bring interest to these students because by the time they reach high school they are all too familiar with failure that they have very little motivation or desire to learn. Innovative technological tools can be used to promote such engagement, motivation, and ultimately enhance the quality of the learning experience for students with disabilities. One computer tool, called Voice Thread (http://voicethread.com), can be especially helpful at increasing student engagement and motivation while learning. Voice Thread is an interactive, multimedia slide show tool, making possible for users to hold conversations including images, documents, and videos. Voice thread is easy to get, free in most cases and applicable in every subject no matter what grade the student is in. This computer tool allows students to participate and collaborate in many ways at their own pace. By creating their own Voice Threads, students with emotional or behavioral disorders can demonstrate their understanding of different topics and subjects in an exciting way through the use of their own voice, or typed text, accompanied by their video. Another feature included with all Voice Threads is the ability to moderate comments. If a teacher turns the comment moderation feature on it means that all comments made by students, whether typed or recorded voice/video, must first be viewed and approved by the teacher before they are made avail- able to the rest of the class. This is a nice to have when you have kids who may or may not be prone to inappropriate comments. One obvious use of this feature is to ensure that inappropriate comments are deleted before being shared. Teachers can also provide students with questions within a voice tread slide show, but not want the students to be able to read or listen to their classmates' responses before submitting their own comments. The teacher could then use the comment moderation function and require all students to respond fully to each prompt before allowing students to see the comments made by their peers. The comment moderation would force students to come up with their own responses. The availability of free or low-cost tools such as Voice Thread has created opportunities for teachers to explore new strategies for providing instruction to kids with learning disabilities. (Byrd, 2011)

= Works Cited = Byrd, S. B. (2011). Using Voice Thread to Promote Learning Engagement and Success For All Students. //Teaching Exceptional Children// //, 43// (4), 28-37.