Using VoiceThread Technology in the College Classroom

Recently, I decided to make a VoiceThread for use in my 20th C. American Literature class. I started exploring different teaching strategies for my students when I realized that they were not very excited to read and respond in the traditional way. A VoiceThread is a wonderful tool which enables you, the instructor, to upload your media file (like a slide presentation), add your voice to it, and then allows the students to add their comments as well. The entire VT then can be seen by either just your selected "friends" or you can go global and have their comments read by the world. We decided to go global! All of my nervousness went away when I saw the interest of my students. Suddenly, they were really engaged and excited. They had never heard of VT, but were ready to give it a go! Then I noticed that during class I had somehow created 2 identities for myself, so that night as I read the student comments, I hit the delete key and poof! The VT, all student comments, and my unwanted identity all vanished at the same time! Arrgh! I couldn't believe it at first. Kept looking for it. Finally, realized that when it says "are you sure you want to delete this identity and all comments made by this identity", that is what it really means. So, as you have fun and create a VT, remember "delete" really means delete! Now, I am not touching the delete key ever again on a VT! We have one left of the two I made last week. Hopefully, some of you will check it out and comment. It is on a short story that we are studying by Tim O'Brien entitled, "The Things They Carried". Absolutely wonderful writing about being young and scared and serving in Vietnam in the 1960's. Very powerful story to read and truly a wonderful one to teach. I am very excited about the reaction of my students to responding on the VT. I am hoping that others who have read the story will respond as well. My students (so far) are reluctant to talk on the VT, but I am hoping that will change soon. They are all typing their comments for now, and I have promised not to touch anymore keys late at night! The link is below: