Introducing…Mr. Watson

Check out my VoiceThread to see and hear parts of “My Story.”

I chose to use VoiceThread as a way to introduce myself to students because it is a good way for them to have visual aids along with my voice. It could be something that they could even potentially view outside of class in the event that they are absent during “syllabus day.” It could also be a way for them to present similar material to me as well as their classmates. Perhaps students could have a choice between making one of these, using a different digital platform, or drawing or writing about what they would like the class to know about them.

VoiceThread also permits videos and text to be included in the slides. It is an effective tool for differentiation. If students were to use it for their assignments, it would be necessary to require that they turn off the commenting feature or to heavily monitor what they write to ensure that cyber-bullying does not occur.

While VoiceThread is fairly simple and quick to use, there are some shortcomings. It takes a little too much time to find a few of the features and the layout seems somewhat dated. I think the biggest issue that I have with it is that you have to click when you are ready to go to the recording. It is not as flashy or contemporary as some of the applications that the students may be used to using.

I would advise other teachers to search for similar platforms that seem more user-friendly and cutting-edge. If they do endorse VoiceThread in their teaching by commonly employing it, they should continuously check to see other options if VoiceThread does not update with new versions somewhat regularly.