Bill Ferritter is hosting an online discussion with Rick and Becky DuFour, the creators of the Professional Learning Community model. It’s definitely helped me to develop a more balanced view of PLCs in schools and how they might function to improve student achievement. While I don’t yet consider myself a PLC fanboy, I do agree that breaking down the isolators between educators in the same building remains the single best way to improve student achievement. Look for the Wiimote avatar to view my text comments.
As for Voicethread, I’m not sold. It feels a little clunky, but I definitely see the benefit of audio and text intermingling for conversation. I posted all my comments as text because my son was sleeping, and I think overall, I prefer the speed of reading to the fidelty of audio. I’m happy to interact with Voicethread, but I’m not itching to use it for my own projects or use it in my classroom yet.
Hey Joel,
First, I’m completely jazzed that you stopped by our VT conversation primarily because everything you’ve posted has been brilliant. You’re making me think and that’s what digital conversations are all about. I also love how you’re modeling a give-and-take, questioning style—something that people struggle with in digital conversations.
As far as Voicethread goes, I agree that text comments are far “speedier” to consume and tend to like those the best whenever I’m in a VT conversation.
What I always have to remind myself though is that I’m not normal when it comes to digital comfort levels! Even though I can feel “connected” to you just through your words and ideas, most of my colleagues feel that conversations based on words only are cold and impersonal.
For those teachers, the potential for audio and video comments is INCREDIBLY important, even if they do seem time consuming and clunky to us.
Also, VT may not be the perfect forum for a seamless and smooth digital conversation—I know I can imagine something much smoother—but it is incredibly easy to use, which is the only factor that matters when you’re trying to get teachers that are new to tech to embrace opportunities for digital interaction.
So while VT isn’t perfect, it offers what most of our peers need—an interface that makes digital moxie an afterthought and puts ideas at the forefront and an opportunity for the contextual cues that audio and video comments lend to conversations.
Does this make any sense?
Bill
You’re way too kind with your words. I feel happy when my half-baked ideas and questions make sense. The fact that my comments resonate with you and the DuFours and the other participants is a huge bonus.
VoiceThread is growing on me. I find myself planning out the next time I can check back to read and hear and see new comments in the thread. If they added RSS support listing individual comments, I’d be sold. I imagine that’s technically difficult, but it would make a big difference for me.