This
quarter, my classmates have impressed me with their knowledge and command of
current technological innovations. What has been particularly thrilling is the usefulness of these applications. Our
forward-thinking instructor, Dr. Darci Harland, introduced the course using a
program I had never seen before. It was a slide presentation accompanied by the
teacher’s voice and a pop-up window that presented the text of what was spoken.
“What
a great way to present information,” I thought. “How neat that our teacher did
that!” And then, one dark week, the professor urged us all to make a Voicethread of our own. Impossible. It might
be hard!
Dr. Darci provided us with – of course – another voicethread giving us step-by-step instructions.
Hmmmm…make
a PowerPointTM
and
then save the slides as jpeg files. We can save PowerPoint slides as
jpeg files? Very useful information! I must admit that the process seemed a
tiny bit complicated. I saved my slides halfway through and it stored them as
individual jpeg files. Then I didn’t know if I could add more slides to that
file so I continued on the regular PowerPoint and ended up with about four
separate saved copies that I had to keep straight.
I
created an account with Voicethread, and immediately began uploading my slides.
Simple! Then I recorded my script. I don’t have a headset microphone, so
sometimes I sounded a bit loud – I tend to be highly critical of what I sound
like – but again, the process was easy. I forgot to type in the script and had
to add it later. For some reason, I could not copy and paste from a Word
document so I had to re-type my words – Hello! IT people? Was it something I
said?
All
in all, I really had a lot of fun making my first voicethread. After making my
second, I realized these little slideshows could be quite addictive… the possibilities
were limitless…
References
http://emmiepeace.edublogs.org/files/2011/03/32126-Clipart-Illustration-Of-An-Expressive-Yellow-Smiley-Face-Emoticon-With-One-Big-Eye-Stressed-Out-Or-Nervous-1eglcri.jpg
http://images.firstcovers.com/covers/flash/t/to_infinity_and_beyond-1585762.jpg?i
https://voicethread.com