Multimedia Sharing Sites

“The Internet has given us many new ways to provide learners with an environment that allows them to learn through discovery, play, collaboration, and just plain having fun.” (Abram, 2006) Multimedia sharing sites are one of these new ways and they are indeed a great way to teach and learn.

Two multimedia sharing sites I explored were Jumpcut and VoiceThreads. They were both easy to register with and had guides which explained all aspects of their programs clearly. Jumpcut and VoiceThreads allow their users to upload movies, video clips, and photos from sites such as Flickr, as well as computer files. Once the media is uploaded, you can access them through your account and utilize them to create movies and slideshows. I viewed quite a few creations that people had chosen to share through these sites, which gave me an understanding of the potential uses for Jumpcut and VoiceThreads in the classroom. The commenting features on these two sites differed though. Jumpcut appears to have commenting similar to that which you see on blogs. They are put in chronological order from the most recent to the oldest underneath the image itself. VoiceThreads’s commenting features have more options which allows for greater participation.

“VoiceThreads might best be described as interactive media albums. They are essentially online slide shows of images, documents, or videos that enable viewers to comment on any slide (or at any point in the video) by typing, recording an audio or video comment, or drawing on the image itself.” (Weir, 2008) As I was navigating through the user guides in VoiceThreads, it was the choice in commenting that really stood out as an important, key feature. There are five different ways that a viewer can leave a comment – text, audio file, webcam, computer microphone, or even by telephone. Talk about accessibility! VoiceThreads also has a doodling feature which allows a person to draw on the image as they make their comment. Embedding, exporting, and sharing are simple and moderation ensures that the creator has control over the comments that are featured with their image(s). Many identities can be created for a single account thereby facilitating the creation of identities for an entire class on just one account. However, I still need to investigate this component of VoiceThreads further, as I am not sure how to do this and how it would affect the security settings. Do all students log onto the same account at the same time? Can they then comment on the same picture at the same time? With these questions in mind, as well as many others, I began my first attempt at using the multimedia site, VoiceThreads.

Inspired by images of original artwork, I chose two drawings given to me by children to share. I took photos of the artwork, saved them to a computer file, and then uploaded them into my account on VoiceThreads. They were both based on fairy tales so I added a typed comment to each which requested viewers to identify which fairy tale was represented and how they determined it. When viewing the comments, they appear as speaking bubbles similar to those in comic books and graphic novels- two popular forms of books for students at my school. The entire process only took a few minutes and was very simple to do. The link to view these drawings is: http://voicethread.com/share/241590/

Multimedia sharing sites allow for differentiation in the classroom and library settings. The uses of these sites are determined by our own and our students’ imagination and creativity. A great way to start deciding how to use these sites is by browsing the media already displayed for public viewing on VoiceThreads. Some slideshows that I saw while browsing through VoiceThreads included fractured fairy tales, global warming, fractions, and Ancient Egypt, all of which are part of the curriculum in my school. I also saw many slideshows which featured book discussions, such as those books students were reading as literature circles and reviews about favourite books. I plan to start using VoiceThreads by providing images for students to discuss and comment on the book I am currently reading aloud called “City of Ember.” With a large class, it is difficult and often impossible to have all students share their thoughts about what was read. As an alternative to having students write comments on paper and submitting them, students could post their comments online and participate in what teacher Bill Ferriter describes as “collaborative conversation.” (Weir, 2008) This form of conversation can be taught to students, as well as other skills, such as storyboarding, that would benefit them when creating a VoiceThread.

Multimedia sharing sites are a great environment to facilitate learning. Students are able to acquire and share knowledge in an interactive, collaborative atmosphere.

Suggested sites:

“VoiceThreads: Interactive, Visual and Collaborative Learning Spaces”
http://www.slideshare.net/brocansky/voicethreads-interactive-visual-and-collaborative-learning-spaces?type=powerpoint

“Using Voicethread for Digital Conversations” http://digitallyspeaking.pbwiki.com/Voicethread

“VoiceThreads for Education”
http://thinkingmachine.pbwiki.com/Think%20VoiceThreads


References:
Abram, Stephen. “Some Tricks to Build Information Fluency – Part 1.” Multimedia & Internet@Schools. Medford: Sep/Oct 2006. Vol. 13, Iss. 5; pg. 23, 3 pgs.

Weir, Laila. “VoiceThreads: Extending the Classroom with Interactive Multimedia Albums.” (2008) Edutopia.org