provides free access for individual accounts and allows
for private sharing amongst specific group members or
public sharing to everyone.
CASE IN POINT
The instructor of a Fine Arts course wants students to
critique one another’s paintings. He also wants
students to submit a photo journal with the paintings
to show and reflect on their learning process as they
created the work.
Students in a foreign language class want to practice
speaking, listen to their classmates, and comment on
one another’s submissions. They feel this will sharpen
their language skills.
An Economics professor wants to help her students
prepare for exams. She envisions something that can
help her students summarize key concepts and ideas
for a review session. They would review book
chapters and their classmates would supplement
these reviews with diagrams and charts. Students
would pose questions about certain concepts and use
annotation tools to explain these concepts.
Several universities including Penn State University,
University of Colorado-Boulder, Columbia University,
University of Florida, and Indiana Wesleyan University,
are currently using VoiceThread to provide this type of
interactive learning. VoiceThread can be used for any
class where students need to share and discuss a text
document, image, video or presentation.
WHAT IS VOICETHREAD AND HOW DOES IT WORK?
VoiceThread is a cloud application that allows students
and instructors to upload and discuss audio, video,
graphic and text files. Asynchronous discussion about
posted subjects gives students a voice in the discussion
where divergent perspectives can be analyzed and
learning is enhanced. The end result is a streaming
presentation that greatly improves instructor presence.
VoiceThread makes it possible to record “live
annotations” while recording a presentation. Once a
photo, video, graphic or document is posted, students
can comment on it by recording audio files or entering
text. Comments can also be submitted by phone.
Students can upload pictures and create an audio
narrative to go along with them. In addition, audio
comments can be left by other students. VoiceThread
After students create an online account, VoiceThread
uses a simple web interface to upload media. They can
upload from Facebook, Flicker, Vimeo, a home
computer, or mobile device. An easy to use toolset
allows selection of the appropriate source such as
webcam, keyboard, or audio file. Each speaker is
identified by photo. Each artifact within a lesson
created will allow comments from those who use the
VoiceThread. The commenters will appear around each
artifact. There is a doodling function included that
allows direct attention to areas of interest or discussion.
The doodle tools include lines, circles, and arrows. The
user can click on each commenter around the artifact
and everybody can easily see a discussion progressing.
The author gets the information out to the public by
emailing a link, embedding a link into social media, or
publishing on existing websites. A lesson can be made
public or limited to within a group. Although it is free to
individual users, groups wanting to have the ability for
multiple authors will have to pay an annual license fee.
WHY IS IT SIGNIFICANT: IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHING
AND LEARNING?
If you visit the VoiceThread website, you will find an
emphasis on PRESENCE. The more human attributes we
bring to the teaching/learning experience, the better
the transfer of meaning and understanding. When
students submit their work in something as dynamic as
a video, it seems only fitting to provide an equally
dynamic response using a combination of text, audio,
and even video. Instructors and classmates can provide
feedback that offers a wide range of expression to
enhance the learning experience.
HOW ACCESSIBLE IS VOICETHREAD AND WHAT ARE ITS
LIMITATIONS?
Technical support is focused on providing online guides.
There is a form where one can provide a telephone
number for a VoiceThread team member to call you.
Other sources talk about accessibility issues, which
should be considered for students and instructors with
special needs. VoiceThread Universal is a version of the
VoiceThread service optimized for a screen reader and
keyboard-only navigation. For more information about
Accessibility, see the VoiceThread Accessibility
Whitepaper (updated January 2013).
Although called VoiceThread, there is no actual thread.
All the discussions are presented in a linear fashion,
making it hard to have a conversation. The users need
to be educated to address somebody’s name or user
name to make it clear that a certain message is a
response to a previous message.
GROUP MEMBERS
Concerning HTML5, the VoiceThread Website writes,
“HTML5 does offer some improvements for certain
applications, but it does not offer the features required
to deliver the core VoiceThread experience. The most
glaring current omission is the inability of HTML5 to
access and record from a computer's microphone or
webcam. Our philosophy is to continue to offer versions
of VoiceThread that maintain the depth of experience
for those who will use them, but we will continue to
reevaluate technologies like HTML5 and will consider
future development once it allows us to offer a fullfeatured VoiceThread platform.”
Xiaojing Kou & Roger Crandall
Center for Language Technology and Instructional
Enrichment
Remaining issues include non-textual comment playback
that relies on the VoiceThread web application that is
rendered in Adobe Flash and overrides user-selected
display attributes. There are no alternatives for
multimedia presentations.
LEARN MORE ABOUT VOICETHREAD
VoiceThread has ongoing features and plans that
suggest a commitment to growing within the context
and “under the watch of” the broader higher education
community, as evidenced by:
 Monthly Google Hangout with Sloan-C Effective
Practice Award winner and author of Best Practices
for Teaching with Emerging Technologies, Michelle
Pacansky-Brock and the VT team.
 Digital Library for sharing VT projects
 A formal philosophy and roadmap for accessibility
Features on deck:
 Android App
 Updated player with more features
 Web mail service to facilitate 1:1 or small group
conversation
Previous reports about VoiceThread:
Penn State University
http://tlt.psu.edu/2009/01/03/hot-team-voicethread/
EDUCAUSE
net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7050.pdf
Examples of how the VoiceThread can be used:
http://www.nccu.edu/knowledgebase/faq.cfm?id=480.
Kyle Leach & Madeleine Gonin
Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning/CITL
Anna Lynch & Maggie Ricci
Online Instructional Design and Development
Elena Doludenko
Slavic Languages and Literatures