Using+VoiceThread+to+Promote+Learning

Using Voice Thread to Promote Learning Engagement and Success for All Students. By: Stein Bruvand Reviewed by Robby Crowley

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 works with multimedia to explore subject areas, express their ideas, and share information and all at their own pace and learning level. When these students reach high school they have experienced so much school related failure that they possess little motivation or desire to learn and have learned ways of relying on their teachers for work completion. Innovative technological tools can be used to promote student 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 activating learning. Voice Thread is an interactive, multimedia slide show tool, making possible for users to hold conversations around images, documents, and videos. This tool is easily accessible, cost-effective, applicable across most subject matter and grade levels, and adaptable to many learning settings. Educators can use Voice Thread in general education, self-contained, resource rooms, and inclusive settings in large group, small group, and one-on-one learning environments. This computer tool allows students to participate and collaborate in many ways at their own pace. Some examples of using Voice Thread to help students are:

Voice Threads allows them to take the lead in an online and interactive discussion with their classmates. By creating their own VoiceThreads, stu- dents 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 and/or video where appropriate. 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. One obvious use of this feature is to ensure that inappropriate comments are deleted before being shared. The comment moderation tool could also be used to facilitate assessment of student knowl- edge through Voice Threads. For instance, a teacher might want to provide students with a series of questions or prompts within a Voice Thread slide show, but not want the students to be able to read or listen to their class- mates' 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.