Voice Thread Sections Analysis

VoiceThread SECTIONS Analysisi

S

Students Student demographics, access and differences in how students learn

E Ease of Use Computer literacy, orientation, reliability

C Costs Items of expenditures, and drivers of costs. (Cost to student/cost to institution)

T Teaching & Learning Is the technology educationally effective?

Web-based product Interaction will be familiar to many who have uploaded content from the web. Some may require assistance in some form e.g. tips sheets, web links etc. Students need access to cameras and headsets Products includes elements of text, audio and visual and may be attractive to students Fairly intuitive interface but students might struggle with editing the product (i.e. picture and sound quality) Interface akin to what you would expect from other web2.0 application (e.g. Facebook) Orientation is readily available on website (i.e videos, forums, contact info) Service might be slow at times Older computers may make audio or visual participation difficult Basic service is free but with limitations Preferred rates for K-12 educators Assignments need to be designed well as students may become mired in the process and spend too much time using the product Cost in teacher time if support an issue. This product needs to be evaluated according to its context of use

Can be used for a variety of activities that can be led by the learners themselves Allows students to be creative and explore Can appeal to a variety of learning styles May lead to higher-order learning

I

Interaction Quality and quantity of interaction

O Organization Effective organizational systems required

N Novelty How new is this technology?

S

Speed Capacity for speed

i

Rich interaction in the classroom and beyond (e.g. twinning arrangements between schools) VoiceThreads can be kept private and shared with friends or made public as an example of student learning Students and teacher can provide feedback on presentations by means of text or audio Student presentations can be viewed as RSS feeds or on VoiceThread site in the 'Friends Section Might be privacy concerns form organization or parents. As such public assignments have to be designed with due diligence

Fairly new product some concern that some web 2.0 companies do not have long-term resources to make themselves viable

Rich content can be created fairly quickly by and for the students Teaching materials can be changed rapidly Content does best when it is dynamic and active

Based on the SECTIONS model as found in Bates, A.W. (2005). Technology, e-learning and distance education. New York:

Routledge.