Digital Media Project - VoiceThread

My digital media project is a VoiceThread that asks students to watch a video clip of a “mathemagician”. Students would then respond to my prompt, asking them if they believe math ability is innate or acquired. Students could record their voice responses, post using their own picture or video clip, or simply type in their response.


Activity / Project is tied to curriculum, benchmarks / standards:This VoiceThread activity asks students to reflect on math as a learnable skill. Student discussions will be directed towards the math power standards of critical thinking and effectively communicating their understanding.

Presentation of the project is clear and audience friendly:The activity would be posted as a link to the VoiceThread on my class Moodle site for ease of access. Students would be encouraged to use their laptops as a resource if they need clarification on words such as “innate” or “acquired”.

Project utilizes interactivity:Students would be commenting / posting responses to my prompt regarding the video. With VoiceThread, they would then be able to view each other’s responses, and even reply to those if so inclined.

Evidence of how the activity / project will be used in the classroom to motivate students and help them learn:This activity would take the place of one of my regularly scheduled warm-ups at the beginning of class. The VoiceThread, however, could bring a level of continuity to the warm-ups throughout the week, as we could revisit it each day and have students respond to each other’s posts, or simply have a class discussion motivated by a particular comment or two. Students are typically more inspired to participate in a forum of this nature, having the freedom to create and share their views in a non-threatening online environment. Rather than jumping right into a class discussion, students could share ideas with each other before formulating their opinions. I feel this discussion itself would also help to motivate students currently struggling in math to put in a little extra effort on difficult material.