Tool #8: Voicethread

Tool # 8: Voicethread

Voicethread is a way to facilitate a discussion of images and video with a large number of people in a totally online environment. After creating a Voicethread account, you can create individual Voicethreads. For each Voicethread, you can upload images and/or video, comment on each page using text, audio or video, and then share the Voicethread with other users, who can then make their own comments using text, audio or video. It's amazing! Here's a little more about it, if you want more details.
Here is a link to a Voicethread created by the company itself: http://voicethread.com/share/409/ Watch it for an explanation and demo.
Here is a link to a Voicethread created by an educator, to be shared with other educators. Check out how many people commented on it! http://voicethread.com/share/3352/
You should make at least 5 comments on it, one of which should be audio or video. To leave an audio comment if you don't have a microphone you may borrow one from the Media Center or come in to the Media Center to record your comment. To leave a video comment, you'll need a webcam. We have only one available for loan.
FYI, you can request that your account be upgraded for free to an Educator Account, which lets you create an unlimited amount of Voicethreads and gives you a lot more storage space. You can generally get  upgraded within 24 hours of submitting the request.


Note: For $10, you get 60 minutes of “phone commenting” on your account. With this feature, you can click on the telephone icon after you click on "Comment", enter your phone # (cell, home, or school), and the program will call you within SECONDS! Wait for the greeting, record your message, then hang up. You've just left a comment on the Voicethread!


To complete Tool #8:

• Watch the two sample Voicethreads
• Set up a Voicethread account
• Make at least 5 comments on one of the Voicethreads, one of which should be audio or video (you'll need to have a Voicethread account in order to comment)
• Post about your experience on your blog. What do you think of Voicethread? Could it apply to you and your classes? Would you use it?

Tool #7: Photo Sharing

Tool # 7: Photo Sharing

You may already have an account with an online photo sharing site, or perhaps you've had friends or family send you a link to their online albums, like Shutterfly, Picasa, or Flickr. Photo sharing sites have progressed beyond being warehouses for photos, however: many let you edit, crop, organize, share, add comments, tag, create photo groups, and even apply cool effects to individual photos. We're going to be exploring Flickr, which is one of the most innovative photo sites around. You'll be creating a Flickr account, uploading some photos to it, tagging those photos, and then posting a slideshow to your blog. If you don't have access to a digital camera, you can talk to the Media department here and request to borrow one.
Your goal for Tool #7 is to create a Flickr account and upload at least THREE photos, one of which should be a picture of you doing something related to teaching/technology/reading - something specific to this program, basically. The other 2+ photos can be of anything, but ideally would be taken specifically to share with the group. You should then TAG the photos with keywords and tag at least ONE of the photos with the keyword "TTT."  Make these photos PUBLIC (you have to check a box making them public), so that we can search for them on Flickr. You should then write a blog post about your experience with Flickr and make sure to include your Flickr name so we can find your pictures. Your free account allows you to store up to 200 photos.
Here are some resources to get you started:

• Flickr Tour
• Flickr FAQs
• "Classroom" groups on Flickr (school-related photo groups that have been created by teachers)
• The App Garden (these are cool apps that Flickr users have created- there's one called FlickrPoet where you paste in the text of a poem, and Flickr pictures are matched to the text- so your poem becomes a poem in photos)
• BigHugeLabs (lets you do fun things with your photos like make them into movie posters, photo booth pictures, add comic book captions, etc.)

To complete Tool #7:

• Create a Flickr account
• Take and upload at least 3 pictures, one of which should have something to do with the TTT program
• Tag your pictures, and make sure at least one picture is tagged "TTT"
• Make your photos public
• Write a blog post about your experience
• Post your Flickr account name
• Search for and check out other participants' photos on Flickr! My Flickr name is "dhaivyd13", and you can see a number of my Flickr pictures in a recent blog entry on this blog. 

Just for fun (optional): Create something fun using one of the Flickr third party applications or mashups and include the results in your photo stream or post into your Tool #7 blog post.