Voicethread Tutorial
- 1. Welcome to “Getting Started With Voicethread” Click on the button on each slide to hear audio!
- 2. Congratulations, you’ve logged in to Voicethread successfully! But what now?! We want to start creating our own Voicethreads so, hmmmm, which button do we need to press…make your decision!!
- 3. Yes! This is the best button to press when you want to get started creating Voicethreads. Hitting will bring you to an area where you can search Voicethreads. Hitting will bring you to an area Of Voicethreads you have made and Voicethreads that have been shared with you.
- 4. Nope! Hitting this button will just bring you to a kind of search engine of public Voicethreads.
- 5. Nope! This button will take you to an area of Voicethreads you have made and Voicethreads that have been shared with you.
- 6. So now that we have made it to the area where we create our Voicethreads, what next?! Which button do you think you will press to proceed? Remembering that we need pictures or video as the basis of whatever our Voicethread is about. Hint: There’s a really big clue helping you in which button to press!
- 7. Correct! Okay that was pretty easy. Voicethread makes it easy to follow simple steps to create a Voicethread, that’s why they made the “Upload” button in white and the other buttons grayed out.
- 8. Nope! Actually Voicethread won’t even allow you to press this button yet! After you upload pictures or videos then this button will become white and clickable! This is where you can add initial comments on each of your slides in your Voicethread.
- 9. Nope! Actually Voicethread won’t even allow you to press this button yet! After you upload pictures or videos then this button will become white and clickable! This is where you can choose who to share your Voicethread and who can see it.
- 10. So where are you going to upload our pictures and videos from?! Well, that’s up to you!! You will be glad to know there are no wrong answers to choose From on this slide! Just choose any button below to learn a little bit more why you would choose that option.
- 11. Choose this if you have pictures or videos you wish to upload on your computer that you are working on. A File Browser window will open and all you have to do is find your pictures or videos and click “Open” For example, choose this if you have a sequence of photos that tell a story.
- 12. Choose this if you want to record yourself saying something on your webcam or you just want to take a picture of yourself on your webcam. For example, choose this if you wish your viewers to respond to a prompt you say to your webcam
- 13. Choose this if you have pictures saved on websites like Facebook or Flickr. You can also bring in your own Voicethreads you have made. For example, choose this if you have a school trip set of photos on Flickr that you would like reflections on from students, family or teachers.
- 14. Use this if you have a picture you found on a website and don’t want to save it to your computer. If Voicethread likes the URL there will be a green tick, if it doesn’t you will get a red cross. Use this, for example, if you want to use Creative Commons images straight from the website you found them.
- 15. Once you have uploaded some photos, take a look at the Comment button…. It’s turned white so you are now able to comment freely! Clicking on Comment will open up your Voicethread, by clicking the arrows you will see all your pictures you have uploaded. But we will click on the Comment button underneath your slide. Choose one of the below buttons to learn about the different ways of commenting. No wrong answers!
- 16. Guess what? I’ve never used this one to comment! This is only available to American and Canadian users of Voicethread. They put in their phone number, Voicethread calls them and they leave their comment. Cool huh?! I guess users would use this if they are away from home and still wanted to comment on their child’s work.
- 17. Use this if you have a webcam and you want to get more expression into your comments! You may use this if you have some items to show or some actions you want to show the viewers! For example, you may have a simple science experiment to hold up to the webcam.
- 18. Use this if you wish to use your voice only. Make sure your microphone is not muted on your computer! You may want to use this if you don’t have a webcam but still want to get some expression and emotion into your comment. For example, you may want to get across your enjoyment in your voice of a particular part of the Voicethread
- 19. This is pretty straightforward; use this if you wish to leave a typed Comment. You may want to use this if you want to reinforce the spelling of relevant words to the student who has created the Voicethread and/or the to the viewers.
- 20. Now we need to take care of the most important part of creating a Voicethread; sharing! A Voicethread is nothing without a number of voices commenting! So let’s take a look at who we can share with.
- 21. This is useful to get a website address for your VT and you can then email to people to allow them to comment! This area is good if your school has set up Grade level groups and you only want certain groups to have access to comment. This area is good if you wish to pick and choose who you want to share your VT with.
- 22. There are a couple of icons shown in Voicethread when you want to start sharing your Voicethreads. We need to know which icon does what. Which icon do you think you would press to allow people to look at your Voicethread but not comment or edit?
- 23. Yes! How did you guess!? When you click on this beside a group or individual’s name it will turn orangey-yellow. That person or group will only be able to read your Voicethread and its comments. You may want this if you want to share your Voicethread with administrators and parents after your students have completed their conversations around it.
- 24. You choose this if you want the group members or individuals to be able to comment on your Voicethread. This is the most popular and the most likely option you will choose when sharing your Voicethread. You will use this when you want your students or peers to comment freely on your Voicethread.
- 25. You will choose this if you want the individual or group to be able to edit the Voicethread. They will be able to re-arrange or delete the slides, delete comments, rename the Voicethread or delete the Voicethread. Choose this option with extreme caution! I would limit this option to fellow teachers who may want to add more slides
- 26. Congratulations! I would hope now that you can create your first Voicethread. Create a simple story on Voicethread with at least 4 slides. Find some simple clipart images to illustrate each part of your story. Narrate using webcam and audio on each slide. Share it with me by email (cgallagher@isf.edu.hk) and make sure I can comment on it.