Voice+Thread+Reviews

13 Days that Changed America- second voice thread from the bottom of this page. This was an assigned project in which each high school student had to pick a day in history that was significant to our development as the country we are today. This project covers a large portion of American history from the beginning of our country during Revolutionary times until the later parts of the 20th century. Each student provides a descriptive account of what happened on their particular day and they then go on to explain why it is important to us today. This provides the class and viewers with a highly informative understanding of major events in our nation's history, because each student is required to provide a specific amount of information. This is an excellent idea for a project, because it provides the students with a way to gain information and then demonstrate their knowledge in an interactive way. It combines several media outlets that students like to use and creates one collaborative and interactive format for the students to learn from. It also provides a fun way for the teachers to assess whether the students comprehended the content. If they provided adequate information and they followed the guidelines for the assignment, it is most likely that they understood the information they were presenting.

[|Opposing the Vietnam War] This was a voice thread that covered the peace movement that became associated with the Vietnam War. It discusses the various groups and leaders involved with the movement, as well as an overview of what exactly was happening with the war itself and the United States involvement in the war. This particular voice thread was created by a teacher and it would most likely be used more for teaching the content of this time in history. The students could watch and listen to the voice thread and take notes and at the end the teacher would create a quiz or assessment based off of the information presented. This is an interesting use of the voice thread, because it combines the pictures and text that could be used in a PowerPoint, but it also adds the audio element. It is also more beneficial to the students because they are able to respond and contribute their own perspectives to the information. Once again it is more interesting because it has the potential to be collaborative between the teacher and students and it is also highly informative.

[|Thoughts About Mr. King's Dream] This is a voice thread that commemorates and discusses the ins and outs of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Dream". It is a series of opinions and discussions on what the "Dream" actually was and how it impacted the country as a whole. It provides insight from students and teachers alike on the matter of what he was striving for during the Civil Rights Movement and how his goals and actions effected the country and ways of life that we know today. Throughout the discussion, there is a series of photographs and excerpts from King's Civil Rights endeavors and the students and teachers were then able to add onto the original project. This is an interesting way to look into the topic, because one could merely watch a video of his speeches and read his letters, but now they can voice their own opinions and add their own ideas to the topic. They can build off of the opinions of others and they can gain and contribute various perspectives on one universal idea. The students are gaining the historical elements of hearing about his tremendous efforts for the cause of civil rights and seeing pictures from the events being discussed. It's a great way to allow them to see what was happening, gain more information about King and then they can be assessed by their responses on the thread.