Voice Thread- Journey to Egypt

VoiceThread is a web based free service that seems ideal for digital storytelling with your students in the classroom.

VoiceThread is an online media album that allows people to make comments, either audio or text, and share them with anyone they wish. A VoiceThread allows an entire group’s story to be told and collected in one place.

I am experimenting with privacy controls and how to allow students access without them actually signing up with an e-mail address. This is somewhat of a problem with us at elementary schools, since most of our students don’t own their own e-mail address, nor do we provide one for them through school. On VoiceThreads FAQ section, I found our about the ability of creating different identities within one account. I was impressed that parents and teachers were specifically mentioned for this option.

Think of an identity as your VoiceThread personality. Each time you leave a voice or text comment, your VoiceThread will attach your identity to the comment. By creating more identities you can share a single account with an entire family, so the whole group can comment on a VoiceThread without ever having to sign into another account. This feature is really good for parents or teachers who wish to monitor a child or student as they leave comments in a VoiceThread, or for those of you who enjoy wearing costumes and role-playing. One thing to remember is that all identities share the same account, therefore, there is no privacy between identities. If you would like a totally private account, we would recommend that you simply register a new account.

There is an entire section "VoiceThread in the Classroom " with a downloadable (.pdf) instruction guide on how to set a VoiceThread up for your classroom.

So, the idea is to create a VoiceThread story about our "Journey to Egypt" and share it with our students. We will ask them to create the story behind the selected photos, add background information and contribute what they have learned through our Egypt Blog .