VoiceThread~Step Five Creating and Sharing!

Well, we all signed in, students and parents, without tears!  As a matter of fact one little guy was so excited he went home and figured out the next step before his mom even knew he was on VoiceThread! "Gavin" created his own VT telling us all about Hero Factory. This is a big plus for me, I am in an all girl house and have absolutely zero schema for Hero Factory. My new knowledge is sure to help me on recess duty!

Parent Technology Night!
As I mentioned in the last post  I am moving more slowly and intentionally this year to help the parents find their place in VoiceThread. One step I took toward this goal was to host a "Parent Technology Night" with two of my teaching partners, @MrsCarolynCarr and @CathyMere of Reflect & Refine. We invited parents into our classrooms to experience the technology their kids are using. Parents were given lap tops and login information, VoiceThreads were viewed, identities for parents were created and comments were made! While most worked on laptops a few worked from their smart phones!

To prepare for Technology Night I created a simple VoiceThread containing a picture of our class. Student's logged in and left comments for their parents to hear during their visit that evening. This allowed kids to learn the login process, practice making comments under their own identity and build excitement in anticipation of there parents coming to school to learn VoiceThread!

Creating a VoiceThread-

This is where the fun begins and if you are at this step relax...you've made it through the challeng of choosing an account type and creating a class.
To create a VoiceThread, login in and follow the steps below!
Click create

Step 1. Upload/Edit-

• Upload photo, document or take a picture or video on your web cam to be uploaded. Each Voicethread can contain 50 slides on a free account, 500 for a paid account! If you want to delete an uploaded slide simply click the yellow trashcan on the uploaded media under steps 1,2,3 on the left of your screen. 
• Playback Options are located at the bottom of your screen. You will want to click here to choose comment moderation as well as who will be allowed to comment and view this VT.
• Playback options are also at the bottom of this page. As a rule I teach my class to check 1 and 4 only. This provides the most security to the VT once it is shared. 

Step 2. Comment

• Voicethread offers 5 ways to comment; video, voice, type, phone or upload your own media.

• Our favorite is voice and typing. Video is not allowed I am also teaching internet safety by not matching names and photos. All video comments will show student name as the avatar is moused over. 
• Another favorite in our room is the pen. Once you have selected a voice or typed comment you will see a circle of colors to the right of the comment button. By clicking on one of these colors commenters will be able to mark on the slide, drawing attention to particular parts of the slide as they comment. 
• Click save when your comment is finished.     

Step 3. Share

• You have a few options here too, share with a group and/or email a direct link to parents.
• To email a direct link click the share button. On the top of the page you will be given the option to copy the link and allow comments, viewing and moderation.
• Congratulations you are ready to go!

If you have crawled into my VT web I hope you will share your success with me @frazierde! This is the final post in the series Thinking of Using VoiceThread in Your Classroom? Follow us as we begin a new VoiceThread Adventure! As the year progressing and VT are created and new discoveries are created I am sure to share a few!