No More Silent Discussions: Engaging Online Conversations with VoiceThread

Presenter:

Olena Zhadko, Director of Online Education, Office of Online Education, Lehman College, Antonia Levy, Instructional Technology and Multimedia Manager, Office of Faculty Development and Instructional Technology, CUNY School of Professional Studies

This presentation showcases effective uses of VoiceThread to support student learning. VoiceThread, available at six different CUNY schools, is a TechEd tool that enables faculty to create engaging lectures, set up group work assignments, and allows students to design their own multimedia presentations. Used in various modes of instruction– from f2f to hybrid to fully online — it is an intuitive tool to extend student learning beyond the classroom walls and to engage students in collaborative discussions that are not text-based. For example, VoiceThread can also be successfully used as an asynchronous, interactive lecture tool during snow days.  Our panel will consist of two parts: First, various faculty use cases of VoiceThread from both Lehman College and CUNY School of Professional Studies. Instructors will showcase their VoiceThread presentations, explain assignment instructions, and highlight some of their students’ responses. Second, we will also demonstrate our collaborative “VoiceThread Bootcamp,” a 10-day fully online workshop, a successful faculty development model to assist your educational technology units in their training efforts. You will learn about the design and get a tour of the online workshop environment, and workshop facilitators will discuss lessons learned.