I will be using Voicethread to design an activity for students in a basic level ESL class at a community college. The activity will be a final project in a unit about the neigborhood community. The students will be placed into groups and asked to go out to a place in the community, such as a restaurant, supermarket, post office, park, etc. They will take a picture of the place they visit with a digital camera provided by the school. This picture will be uploaded to Voicethread. Then the students will use Voicethread to comment about/describe aspects of their visit. They can describe where the place is located, what services it offers, what they liked about it, etc.
The intended audience will be fellow students and the teacher. The students will present their Voicethread to the other students in the class. Then, the other students will have a chance to comment on each other's Voicethreads.
This activity will allow the students to practice areas of English they have studied during this unit. The activity is a task that gets the students out into real-world, relevant situations. Using Voicethread allows students to practice speaking in a controlled environment. It also allows students to practice listening skills as they listen to each other's Voicethreads. Students collaberate together to negotiate meaning.
www.voicethread.com
This sounds great. One comment, though. You mention that the intended audience is just classmates and the teacher, but Voicethread is public. Do you plan to make the class voicethread private? Is there anything wrong with it being public and with the students knowing that their work can be seen by others online? Discuss your thoughts on this in your presentation.
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