voicethread

VoiceThread __Description __

This assignment was meant for us as students to research an emerging trend in technology. We had a list of choices that were given to us by the instructor. Once we chose an emerging trend to research we needed to post our name next to the one we chose. This assignment was two-fold. Not only did we have to research a new emerging trend in technology, but we also had to use voicethread to describe and analyze our emerging trend and its effectiveness in the classroom. The voice thread then needed to posted so that all students could see our findings and comment on them on a later day. The lesson's purpose was for us to familiarize ourselves with voicethread and to experience a new trend that is being used with education, business, and community. The purpose was also for us to use collaboration through the comments to discuss new trends and to "assess" others work.

__Process __

When I looked at the list of options for emerging trends a couple of things jumped out at me. I tried to look for things that could help me in the classroom with my particular students. I teach special education so I wanted something that I thought they could use effectively. I also wanted something that I could use with my sample blackboard course. The things that I saw that were interesting were mindmapping tools, bubbl.us, remember the milk, and wordle. The mindmapping tools and bubbl.us were very similar so they were at the top of my list. I thought that remember the milk would be fine for the students to use but it wasn't something that I thought the students would use productively in the classroom. I liked wordle but again it didn't seem as user friendly as bubbl.us. When I looked up the site for bubbl.us I saw how user friendly it was, and I thought it would be great for me to use my online lessons for blackboard. I also thought that it was a great website for the students to use in the classroom regularly. My students struggle with organizing their thoughts into like categories and completing a graphic organizer. I thought this website would be great because they could create their own organizer and it would help them write their papers.

__Reflection __

I thoroughly enjoyed doing this website. I understand why this is an emerging trend in technology. Not only does this website offer the students independence and creativity with creating their own organizer but it also allows for communication which is a key to web 2.0. When I first went on the website to research it I "played around" with all the buttons and the tools. Evey button there was available for me to push I would try it out. I found that the website was very user friendly in creating your own organizer. I did get frustrated thought with not being able to resize the buttons, but that was the only down fall. I think that this would be great for my students. Many times I think students have trouble with completing a graphic organizer because they did not make it themselves, or they might be confusing. This website would allow the students to create mind mapping tool and be able to use it later in their writing. I think that by having the students print out the organizer is great because then they can take it back to their seat and work from there. I absolutly loved the fact that you could share your organizer with others and let them change some things or just save it as a read-only file. This coincides with one of the web2.0 requirements, online communication. Not only can the child be creative but they can share their thoughts with others and get feedback. If students were working on a group project with research they could use this for collaboration and collecting data. The students could create this together and as they find information they could go right in and add the new information to the organizer. I will be using this website with my sample blackboard course and with my students in the classroom.  __Link __ []

__Resources __ Edelman, K. & Amelyan, L. (2006) //Bubbl.us beta// Retrieved from http://bubble.us

Aitchison, S (2007, January 1) //How to use bubbl.us to make 2008 your most productive year ever// Retrieved from http://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/

Davis, B. (2007, April 27) //Success with bubbl.us// Retrieved from http://www.classroom20.com/main/search