Tool 6 Using Web Tools to Promote Discussion

I made a Wallwisher page.  I think this will be a fun tool for students to use in order to post their thoughts in reading.  My first idea was for students to use this at the beginning of the year to share their goal for becoming a better reader.  Another idea I have for using this tool is to have students post their ideas about what they have read.  I think that students could post big ideas, connections and questions.  Students could also post character traits with evidence for characters from a book.  In small group reading, I often have students who finish reading before others.  After teaching and modeling how to use this tool, students could go to a computer independently to post their idea after reading.  I think it will be very motivating for reluctant readers...they often enjoy using the computer more than physically writing their ideas!




I tried out Voice Thread.  I think this has possibilities for my very young students and students who struggle with writing.  You can upload an image or a video.  Then students can comment in on it through written comments or audio comments.  I uploaded an image of Nate the Great from Nate the Great and the Big Sniff.  When my reading group was reading this book, we worked on identifying character feelings.  So, in this example, I typed in 2 words to describe his feeling in the picture when he comes out of the store and Sludge is missing.  Then I recorded an audio comment.  To record audio comments you can use a microphone or you can have Video Thread call the phone number you put in.  I tried this feature; it called me seconds after I entered my phone number!  Then all I had to do was say what I wanted to record into the phone and hang up.    When I clicked on my picture, the 2 written words I typed in appeared one after the other.  Then my voice comment followed.  Students could each record different words that they think describe a character's feeling depicted in a picture.  

I am looking forward to trying this with my students!  I think that many could record comments about a character from a book, about a picture they have drawn, about a math concept we are studying.  As a special education teacher, I see the benefits of this tool in the general ed classroom for science and social studies.  A teacher could upload a picture; then students who struggle with writing could express their ideas with the voice comment.  For example in second grade, a teacher could upload a picture of a bird.  Then the student could identify the type of beak and tell what he knows that bird eats.  I believe that you can upload several images to the same thread.  Voice Thread was fairly easy to set up and use.  I had to do a little exploration once I had uploaded my image in order to figure out how to comment, but it has a wonderful "how to" video at the beginning.