Howdy, students! Thanks for working hard to complete your first project, a slideshow story using Flickr. This time, I want to take online slideshows to the next level by asking you to your own voice to your pictures. To do this, we will use the very cool online service called “Voicethread.”
Voicethread is similar to Flickr, in that you can upload your photos and have people look at them and leave comments. However, Voicethread is unique because you are not limited to text-only captions. In fact, you can record your own voice or video talking about each picture! And that’s not all… People watching your slideshow can also leave audio, video, or text comments. This multi-media capability of Voicethread creates great opportunities to practice your English in a fun way.
Here is what I want you to do for Project 2: Create a slideshow story using Voicethread. The deadline is next week, June 26th.
Step by step:
- Create a Voicethread account. Hint: Use your Gmail username and password.
- Upload an avatar, an image that represents you. This can be a photo of you or another image.
- Hit the Create tab and then import your photos from your Flickr account.
- Type in a title and description for your slideshow (called a “Voicethread”).
- Record some commentary for each photo by clicking the Record button.
- If you like how the comment sounds, click Save. If not, click Cancel and record again.
- Once you are done, share your slideshow with me (talandis@gmail.com) and your friends. You will need to add people to your friends list before you can share your VoiceThread with them.
- Finally, enjoy watching the Voicethreads of your classmates. Don’t forget to leave comments!
I hope this is not too confusing! It’s actually easier to do than to explain. I will show you in class.
Overall, the purpose of this assignment is to:
- Learn how to use Voicethread, an exciting online tool for practicing English
- Create a multi-media digital story
- Have fun watching other stories and leaving comments, all in English
Hint: To make it easy, I recommend creating a VoiceThread version of your Flickr slideshow story. If you are ambitious, why not create a new story? Take some new photos, upload them to your Flickr account, and write out your comments on a piece of paper. I can check your English for you. Be creative! Have fun!
The following video clip was created by Kurata Kyohei as his final exam project for the 2007-2008 school year. In this project, Kyohei focused on promoting the school festival’s catch phrase, “Got English” in a fun way that included as many students and teachers as possible. This video was show at the school festival that year and received a great response. Way to go, Kyohei!
The basic technique was to film as many people as possible saying the catch phrase, then editing it all together in iMovie ‘08.
Hey everyone, You’ve been working hard at creating your Flickr slideshows recently, so I would like to post links to your projects here. Again, the goals of this project have been:
- To practice taking good photographs (Don’t forget the Top 10 Tips!)
- To learn how to manage and upload the photos to Flickr
- To learn how to use Flickr in general
- To create and share a slideshow that tells a story with English
- To practice English by reading slideshow stories and leaving comments
These are all skills you will need to do projects later on this year. The project, in other words, was designed to give you a base of knowledge and ability. Here is a list of links to all of your hard work:
Our Flickr slideshow stories (Don’t forget to leave some comments!)
My Busy Mornings (Jerry Talandis Jr.)
