VoiceThread -WOW!

I spent a good part of yesterday's time playing with the voicethread tool. I am really excited about using this in my class. My first try at a voicethread leaves some room for improvement, but I was very impressed with the ease of use and the quick downloads of images. In addition, the tools for comments are very neat. I really like the way a viewer can comment using a microphone or keyboard. The interactivity of the tool will fit my class needs very well.
I think the first project I will try in the classroom will be an add on to the river water quality project. One of the challenges we encountered both years with testing was the ability of the students to follow written directions consistently among groups. It might be beneficial to assign one type of test to each of 8 groups and then require them to make a voicethread instructional piece on their test. This would accomplish three objectives: 1) each group would understand at least one test completely 2) the whole class would be able to view instructions online of any test they are required to complete and 3) since the instructions are interactive, anyone can ask a question online if the content is not clear. This last point should help the creators of the voicethread to hone their communication skills, as I learned while I experimented!