VoiceThread and PhotoStory Project

I created both a VoiceThread project and a PhotoStory project. I did both of mine on literary elements; one was on assonance and one was on alliteration. I found it a little difficult to follow the guidelines for making the project "personal" and still tie it into something that could be used in a classroom curriculum, but ultimately I think it is personalized in a way since it is my own narration of poetry, and my own selection of photographs from the internet.

I enjoyed the PhotoStory project far more than the VoiceThread. I could not figure out how to add music to my VoiceThread project, so that seemed to be a little lacking as far as the interest it holds. I also did not like that it is so "choppy" in moving from one picture to the next. Aside from the fact that you have to download and install PhotoStory, I really thought it was incredibly user-friendly and very professional. I was extremely impressed with how smooth the video looks at the end. It really looks like a far more involved and complicated video than what it actually is.

I definitely foresee using PhotoStory in my classroom. I think it is a great way to make very quick but very professional presentations. It would be a great replacement for another more "boring" or "traditional" assessment if I asked students to present information back to me in a PhotoStory. I would like to make sure that it still involves some higher level analysis, though, and not just information recall. My stories would not "count" as an appropriate presentation if the poems had been covered in class; however, if the student were able to find and identify assonance or alliteration on their own, or create their own verse that utilized those devices, that would be an excellent application of knowledge. I would like to make sure, however, that the use of the pictures was also somehow relevant, and not just random. It would be interesting to require the students to use historical pictures from the time of the poem, or artistic representations of that poem, in the presentation. This would add an extra element to the project.

Regardless of what the details of the project might be, I was definitely impressed by the ease of using PhotoStory, and by the overall professionalism of the project.