03 February 2012

Day Three: Voicethread and Capzles-Presentation Tools



Voicethread and Capzles are sites that allow students and teachers to create collaborative multimedia presentations.  Voicethread has a free educator account that allows you to create up to 50 presentations with your students.  These presentations can include videos, images, documents, and audio elements.  Students can comment on other presentations through written responses, voice recordings and/or web cam recordings.  Voicethread also allows you to “draw” on the presentation to point out elements of the image or document.
Learn more about voicethread:

At Voicethread Educator you can compare the different education plans available to you.
There are many tutorials to help you and your students learn how to use it.
Here is a 6th grade Middletown student's voicethread for some inspiration. (It will ask you to sign into your voicethread account to view it..hint)
You can use voicethread as an assessment tool.
You can use it for brainstorming writing ideas and peer editing.
Here are a couple of wikis of just voicethread resources.
Here are 26 interesting ways to use voicethread in the classroom.
There is an entire diigo list just for voicethread!
Of course voicethread itself offers a host of ideas for educators k-12 encompassing all content areas....



Below is a 7th grade Middletown student's voicethread for even more inspiration...





Sign up for Voicethread! 


Feeling inspired yet? Wait there's more, you should also try......


Capzles is a similar multimedia presentation tool that allows you or your students to create a free account. It is much newer than voicethread, and educators are beginning to harness the learning opportunities it has to offer. This site can be used to create a digital story or timeline. It allows collaboration with others while creating your capzles. They can be easily integrated into your curriculum in many different ways. You can create your own capzles for instruction or they can be a tool in a student's 21st century learning belt. Any way you incorporate them, capzles are very user-friendly and now many of our students opt to use this tool instead of traditional paper and pen!



Sign up for Capzles today, so you and your students can begin creating tomorrow!


Learn how to use capzles...







7th Grade Middletown Student Example:










Both voicethread and capzles are available in the itunes apps store and there are plans for them to be available for android devices soon.  Please let us know how you could use either of these tools with your students or if you have tried them before.  Have fun!

21 comments:

  1. Do we have a microphones in our computers to be able record sound? Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have used capzles in my USi history class-grade 10. The students seem to enjoy using the program, it was very user friendly. I would like to try it this year with the voiceover.

      Delete
    2. I brought in my webcam from home.

      Delete
  2. Some of the laptops have built in microphones that allow you to record with just the computer. If you have portable microphones at your school you can also plug a microphone into the computer and record that way.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Also, have the tech person in your building check out the computers to make sure that the sound in enabled. One of the issues we had with using the microphones was that those settings were turned off.

      Delete
  3. I downloaded the Voicethread and Capzles apps for iPad (free!!) I am a 6th grade math teacher. I will let you know how it goes.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm going to try downloading them on my iPad. Great idea! I teach 9th grade math...what are your plans for using them in your classroom?

      Delete
    2. I teach 6th and 7th Math - I would love to know what you are planning on doing as well :)

      Delete
  4. I was just introduced to Capzles and it was on the back burner....moving it to the front. Thanks for the reminder! I love the idea of adding your voice to the work you are doing. My students completed an interview with a Holocaust survivor and they can use Capzles to make it come to life!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I haven't actually tried either of these aps yet, but since students tend to respond well to (comprehend/retain) multi-sensory information they are really logical classroom tools. I also like the "timeline" aspect of Capzles because it reminds us as teachers as well as our students that everything is related to something else within a whole simultaneous and/or linear background of other events. That is, people grow over time both in body and mind, inventions tend to come about because of needs or wants of a particular society, struggles often to arise out of historical relationships, etc. Timelines can also show students specific ways they HAVE learned and progressed over the course of a year, that events don't happen in a vacuum, that to make cookies you have to follow a particular sequence of steps - etc.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I'm trying to think of how I can best integrate both voicethread and capzles into my classroom. I'm thinking it could be a great tool for analyzing characters or events throughout our literature novels. My first idea was to use the timeline feature to demonstrate the growth of a character over time. It also seems like it would be a great visual way of teaching the concept of summarizing/sequencing. I will download them both and see what I can come up with.

    Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thinking Capzles might be a way to track some of the technological changes that have happened in the last decade. Voice thread could be a good place to put information about digital citizenship and and digital footprints.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I created my first capzle...
    http://www.capzles.com/#/16a8ced1-e8df-4291-978c-903e9036c73c/

    I plan on having my students view the capzle as an introduction for a discussion about our next novel, Out of the Dust.

    ReplyDelete
  9. The kids really enjoy using voicethread. They love to hear themselves!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. One of our language teachers and I are doing a Voice Thread project with the students on French Artists and the teacher wants the individual VoiceThreads merged into one. It turns out that can't be done, but I can link from the last slide of one to the next in the lineup. I'll see how that goes....

      Delete
    2. Okay, figured out a way to do this. I think it will be okay, but I'll find out for sure when the kids try to present next week.

      Delete
  10. The Voicethread looks amazing. The projects and presentations that can be done. I love that students can make comments. I think it is great for instant feedback.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Lori Mulholland Thorne Middle SchoolFebruary 8, 2012 at 1:41 PM

    These both look great. Just signing up and trying to figure out the best way to use them in my classroom.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I've used Movie Maker and Photo Story, which seems like they might be similar. I'll definitely be checking Voicethread to see how I can use that as well.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I went on and looked at capzles and I love it!! I think this would be great with learning order of operations in mathematics and showing the steps little by little in each picture. That was the first thing I thought of. I will try and think of more.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Great alternative to movie maker or a simple slideshow.

    ReplyDelete