Voicethread is an online interactive platform for learners and educators to comment on and discuss documents, presentations, images, audio files, and videos. Teachers can easily upload over 50 different types of media onto Voicethread. Students can view the media and make comments via a microphone, webcam, text, phone, and audio-file upload. Voicethread offers total privacy, allowing educators to invite only specific groups of learners or parents, or they can choose to open the document up to the public.

Website: http://www.voicethread.com/

What Users Love About the App

“VoiceThread allows for students to speak, use video, share images, draw on images, and collaborate. It provides a lot of flexibility and ways of interaction. It’s very easy for students to use if the professor has set it up. With support, students can create their own VoiceThreads, as well.”

“VoiceThread allows me to assign group presentations in online courses that all students in the class can create and then react to and enjoy. It also allows me to put students in groups and assign them slides to annotate with a pen (perhaps put items in order or explain how a graph violates design rules, for instance). It is also very helpful in foreign language classes.”

“It is an awesome tool for instructors, teachers to use for various purposes. It is easy to use and user friendly. Especially those who watch the VT find it a click away to watch videos and even comment on it.”

“I think voicethread is a great way to engage students from a distance. There is a lot of different ways it can be implemented that I’ve seen. It is very user friendly for both the creator and the viewer.”

“Super user friendly. Great for grad school projects or workplace presentations. Looks professional. Great sound quality on Mac.”

What Users Dislike About the App

“I dislike that sometimes the interface with D2L makes it so that students think they are posting, but they are not. It’s really a mess–and in the past it would create one gradebook column and continuously overwrite it, which is a problem.”

“I absolutely hate how slow this app it. IT DOES NOT RESPOND TO YOUR KEYBOARD UNTIL LIKE THE 10TH TIME. Literally frustrates me beyond words, I’ve used voicethread in 6 different classes… yet to have a possitive experience. WHY DO THE ACCOUNTS EXPIRE LIKE WHAT IS THAT.”

“I wish you could edit the uploaded PowerPoint in Voicethread. It’s a little difficult to have to re-upload a slide anytime you need a simple change.”

“Some of the functions are difficult, also not being able to interchange audio with different slides if needed is frustrating.”

“Doesn’t work on mobile. I wish there was a corresponding app with the same functionality.”