VoiceThread

[downer]

I did a search here and found one post mentioning VoiceThread.

It is a tool for online interaction between students. I did a training for it this year, and it looks impressive, but also a lot of work to set up and implement.

I'd be using it with Blackboard.

Before I invest lots of time and effort in actually setting it up for a fall class, I'm curious to know if other people have found it useful. It has a lot of promise, but in practice, do students actually benefit from the extra effort that you put in? I'm concerned that some students who have less access to good wifi and up to date operating systems may end up being excluded from participation.

[mamselle]

I used it, liked the result, and might have considered going further with it if I'd continued working for that program.

The trainer was excellent (we met in her office; she walked me through some glitchy spots) and I ended up with a complete file that a) showed scenes of Paris to match the dialogue text line-by-line; b) allowed for language-lab breakups of words and phrases for repetition practice; c) allowed for another full repetion at slowed-down speed; and d) ended with a regular-speed run-through for more challenging practice.

If students worked with it as intended, it should have functioned well on several levels...I did it later in the course, though, so I don't really know what effect it had on their learning.

On a different note, my showing it at a department meeting at which we were meant to show such things was apparently one of two things that threatened the longer-standing Frebch adjunct there. She interrupted comments as soon as I'd finished and started her own presentation, so the applause that was starting was cut off...

And when I was offered a more advanced French culture course for seniors, she actively undermined my continued teaching there again.

So, caveat innovator...

;--》

M.

[downer]

Thanks Mamselle. That is encouraging.

I'm guessing that not many other people have used VT.

[mamselle]

It might be a bit of a boutique thing...it's very good for what it does, but maybe people find workarounds they are more comfortable with, or don't know of it.

M.