VoiceThread, Animoto, Last.fm and More

Multimedia
Don't you just love having to do an assignment on something you know nothing about? To try and alleviate some of those feelings of anxiety and fear, let's move forward and try and find out what multimedia sharing sites are. And what better place to start then at the Common Craft website with Social Media in Plain English.

After viewing this video I must say this is the first Plain English video that did not make the concept clearer for me. I had to go back and watch it more than once, not because I loved it but because my brain was still in a muddle after viewing it. I understand the multimedia sharing part but I think the ice-cream analogy was too much for me.

As I head into the readings from the Trailfire, I discover the tools that fall under this topic and they are quite exciting - for me as a learner and as a teacher. The first one I looked at was VoiceThread. VoiceThread is a tool for having conversations around media: video, documents, photos, images, presentations or a combination. Here is a tool I could see being used both personally and in the classroom. I tried to show it to the district technology teacher at school but it was blocked. I have asked to have it unblocked - we'll see where that goes. I have been sharing its possibilities all week with other teachers. Usually for these assignments, I use the technology we have been learning about at the end of my assignment but this week I couldn't wait. I tried each tool right away - they were just that much fun.

Bill Ferriter has produced an interesting wiki to help us learn more about VoiceThreads. There is a lot of useful information on how and where voicethreads can be used. Using voicethreads in the classroom helps to promote discussions and conversations between its members. VoiceThread could be used for story telling with kindergarten and grade one students. This would be a great tool for any struggling reader to tell a story with pictures instead of words. Using VoiceThread pushes students to think about what is happening in the picture and they get to put a voice to their thoughts. Often students do not get a lot of opportunity for this type of learning.

Professional Uses

• social studies - discussing clothing, food, any aspect of a people's culture showed in the picture
• two communities discussing similarities and differences of their respective communities within our province, country or abroad
• opportunity for students to give voice to their ideas and opinions
• young children telling a story of their picture
• help struggling writers tell their story
• gives students an opportunity to share their work orally and have others (students, teachers, moms, dads, etc.) respond to it.
• Classroom 2.0 - using a map to share where you are from
  

Personal Uses

• share and dialogue pictures of holidays/special events with friends and family
• share your child's work with far away family
• share and critique art work with other artists around the community or world at large
• sharing and dialoguing of really anything you want
  
  It has been very exciting learning about VoiceThread. I posted the VoiceThread I made to my blog early because I was so excited and had to share my learning - I would love it if you could respond to it.
  
  
  
  
  Animoto
  The next multimedia tool I discovered was animoto. I have come across both voicethread and animoto in discussions with classmates before but have never had an opportunity to experience either of these exciting multimedia sites. On the School Library Journal website, Joyce Valenza discusses the many uses of animoto and instantly I think of how it could be used to present an overall picture of your school to newcomers. This is a very cool tool to give a slideshow a professional look. She discusses how there was concern that this tool did not allow a lot of room for creativity as it does most of the work for you. I think I would have to agree with this statement but I think using animoto with students still has value. Using animoto with a group of junior highs just for fun or to bring a project to a conclusion would be a blast. But it could be used to introduce people to your library if you posted an animoto slideshow to your library website or made a movie of pictures of school special events. That's when this tool would be useful and powerful.
  
  Animoto: another very cool tool. With this tool one has to be careful not to be breaking copyright law by using someone else's music unlawfully. The site itself has lots of great music that you can use.
  
  Professional Uses
• with students just for fun to bring a project to closure
• present special events in the school posted on your school blog or website
• slideshow of the library posted on the library website
• slideshow of your school
  
  
  Personal Uses
• slideshow of family holidays (I did one of last summer and shared with my sister whom I often holiday with - she loved it and shared it with her friends)
• used to present any special events
• wonderful for a wedding or anniversary celebration
• school reunion
  
  
  Music Sharing Sites
  Here is an area that I feel totally incompetent discussing. If I had quick access to a teen I would haul them in and have them tell me all about what they know of music sharing sites. From reading Web 2.0 for Schools by Julia Davies and Guy Merchant, I get a small glimpse into this amazing world. I understand the powerful role music plays in the lives of our teens - I remember back to my youth and how important music was to me then as well. Teens today have the ability to make their own music and broadcast it either as a podcast or on Youtube. So what does it mean to have the ability and capabilities to share music?
  
  Sites like Last.fm and Pandora have a social networking side to them that allow their users to interact with each other to a degree. Last.fm allows its users to "show off your taste (in music), see what your friends are listening to and hear new music" while Pandora allows users to "provide feedback on the individual song choices that Pandora 'learns about' and uses in compiling subsequent selections." (which is based on music you have told Pandora that you like) At this time however, Pandora is closed to Canadian citizens due to licensing issues.
  
  When it comes to talk of current music, it is like I arrived from Mars. My eight year old knows more about current pop than I do. I had to do a Google search on "Lady Gaga" recently as her name kept coming up and I thought I NEED to know who she is. As quoted by danah boyd in Davies & Merchant (p. 72), "Music is social glue among youth." "and functions as a fluid marker of what is cool and what is not." (Davies & Merchant, 2009)
  
  As a teacher-librarian, the discussion of music sharing sites gives ample opportunity to discuss copyright of intellectual property. It is important for us to be aware of illegal downloading sites such as BitTorrent and LimeWire and to know where to direct students so they can access music legally such as Last.fm. However, I don't understand how you get to listen to the music for free - doesn't someone have to pay for the use of this music each time a song is played?
  
  Talking to students about music is entering into their world. If we want to get students engaged in learning, then I think this is the place to do it. "If nothing else, school-based work on music sharing can serve as an early and relevant introduction to ideas about copyright and ethics, about the rights of producers and consumers, and about the more adventurous ideology that informs Creative Commons." (Davies & Merchant, 2009, p. 72)
  
  
  Personal Uses
• enjoy the sharing of favourite music
• our daughter would love to be able to compile a list of her own tunes (parent approved)
• compilation of favourite artists and genres
• this evening we are having supper with some friends who are big music buffs and I will be sure to share Last.fm with them
  
  
  Professional Uses
• opportunity to teach about the legal and ethical sharing of other people's work
• to engage students -bringing today's world into the classroom to make learning relevant to our students
  
  
  The last idea I want to discuss is "mashup". After reading through Chapter 6 -Mashups and Web Services by Eric Schnell in Library and Beyond: Innovative Technologies and Tomorrow's Users, I can't say that I have a clearer understanding of what this term means. I head to Wikipedia and it tells me "a mashup is a web page or application that uses or combines data or functionality from two or many more external sources to create a new service." Michael Stephens in his blog gives three examples of different types of mashups that help simplify what a mashup might look like.
  
  Mappr - allows you to take Flickr images and paste them on a map
  Flickr Color Pickr - lets you find public photos in Flickr that match a specific color.
  Montagr – create a photo mosaic from photos found on Flickr.
  
  I suppose once you start looking, you will find countless number of mashups people have developed.
  
  After all this, do I have an understanding of this weeks tools? I understand the multimedia aspect of them, especially VoiceThread, where it allows different capabilites to exist together. Would I be able to have an intelligent conversation about mashups or music sharing sites? Probably not - but I now know where to start looking and am at least more aware of what is out there.
  
  To get an overall look at some of the relevant sites on this topic, check out Let’s Get This Party Started: Pump up the Volume. Streaming Music is a Great Way to Connect with Older Kids by Kate Pritchard on the School Library Journal website.
  
  
  Sources

Animoto. (2010). Animoto. Retrieved from http://animoto.com/

Common Craft. (2010). Social media in plain english. Retrieved from http://www.commoncraft.com/socialmedia

Courtney, N. (Ed.). (2007). Library 2.0 and beyond: innovative technologies and tomorrow's user. Libraries Unlimited: Westport, CT.

Davies, J. & Merchant, G. (2009). Web 2.0 for schools: learning and social participation. Peter Lang Publishing: New York.

Ferriter, B. (2009). Using voicethread for digital conversations. Retrieved from http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Voicethread

Pritchard, K. (2010). Let’s Get This Party Started: Pump up the volume. Streaming music is a great way to connect with older kids. Retrieved from http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6720445.html?q=music+sharing+sites

Stephens, M. (2008). Thing #6 More Flickr Fun (Toys, Mashups, More!). Retrieved from http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/blog/290000629/post/1020031302.html?q=mashups

Valenza, J. (2008). Announcing: Animoto for education. Retrieved from http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/blog/1340000334/post/1560024356.ht....

VoiceThread. (2009). VoiceThread. Retrieved from http://voicethread.com/

Wikipedia. (2010). Mashup. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mashup_(web_application_hybrid)