A picture is worth a thousand words, so what’s a picture with words attached worth? How about if we add music?
If you haven’t yet played with Photostory, run right over and get it. Yes, it’s from evil giant Microsoft and it won’t run on your Mac (but you have iLife on your Mac, so no complaining!) but it’s easy, and it’s free. How easy? I’ve used it (with guidance) with kids in first grade. If you can browse for files, something everybody does, and have access to a computer microphone, you can use Photostory.
Basically, the program asks you to upload your pictures. Then you can add narration for each picture, add a pre-recorded audio file or some music, and save. It’s a little harder to get your video online that with Animoto (see below) but you have much, much, more control over your content, and no limits on length. Once you’ve saved your .wmv file, you can easily upload to Teacher Tube or to your own website or blog.
How could this be used? To record and share library or classroom events, to create narrated stories (just upload images of kids’ artwork instead of photos), to create slideshows without the hassle of all the “stuff” kids want to add to PowerPoints. I, for one, would like to see a student slideshow with no clipart and no flying text! With Photostory, the kids are focused on the images and the audio. Older students can add more sophisticated looking transitions, or alter the timeline to keep a particularly important image on the screen for a longer time. Titles and text can be added to any slide.
I did discover that Photostory has an annoying habit of “fading out” the last few seconds of your music or audio file, but I solved that problem by recording about 10 seconds of silence when I was done recording my voice. Worked like a charm.
The weather in upstate NY is dreadfully hot and humid this week. I remember similar days when I was a kid, when we’d retreat to my grandparents’ lovely cool basement room, where my grandfather would show us family pictures on his slide projector. Years later, I still have a soft spot for the slideshow.
The web seems overflowing with slideshow apps, but VoiceThread is easily my favorite. To be more precise, Ed.VoiceThread, which is a dedicated K-12 / educational version of VoiceThread.
A “VoiceThread” is a series of images–still images or video–to which users can add narration, their own audio files, hyperlinks, or hand-drawn “doodles.” PowerPoints and .doc files can be uploaded,too. The end result is a multimedia slideshow. The site will generate the HTML code you need to embed on your own site for a lovely YouTube kind of look.
Here’s a VoiceThread my preK class made before going to the zoo.
I uploaded the pictures–though of course, older kids would be able to do that part for themselves, since it’s as simple as browsing your files for the images you want. You can also upload pictures from a URL or from other VoiceThreads you’ve created. Then I handed the microphone over to the kids. At age 4 or 5, they’re not writers yet–but they sure can make noise. That’s the sweetest-sounding polar bear roar I’ve ever heard!
The preK teacher told me that the kids were really excited to see the gate to the zoo–Holy cow! It was the same gate they’d seen in Library time! (Isn’t Flickr’s Creative Commons pool great?)
There’s a social aspect, too. Once you’ve created a VoiceThread, you can allow other VoiceThread users to add comments, too. This would work nicely in a classroom setting; students could collaborate on a project, or review each others’ work. A VoiceThread called Mr. G’s Shakespeare Page shows the possibility. The teacher created a simple, two-slide presentation. The kids then recorded their own reading of the prologue to Romeo and Juliet. Clever–the teacher has wrapped up his Shakespeare unit with a multimedia show that serves as a collaborative student project and an assessment piece, all in one nice package. The sense that they’re performing for a larger audience encourages the kids to do their best, too. School Librarians can seize the opportunity to talk about copyright–and copyleft–and the ethical use of other people’s media.
VoiceThread (without the “Ed.” in front) accounts are free, but K-12 educators are going to want to be part of the “Ed.VoiceThread” network. There are several pricing levels, but you can jump right in for a one-time $10 fee. Their customer service is excellent–when I’ve had problems, I have had e-mail responses from VoiceThread in as little as 15 minutes.
