A little over a year ago I posted some instructions about how to construct a home made light box for taking pictures like the one above. Since I had recently done a VoiceThread about high speed photography, I thought I would do one for light box photography as well. So, without further ado, here is my VoiceThread tutorial on how to built and use an inexpensive light box…

[tags]photography, VoiceThread, light box, light tent[/tags]

I got a call from the folks at SCETV. I had planned to do several workshops on Basic and Advanced Google Earth for them in March, and they asked if I could also do a couple of workshops on Geotagging. I foolishly agreed to do so.

Actually, I had originally suggested doing something on Geotagging, but their schedule had been filled at the time. Someone dropped out, and they needed something to fill in. Regardless, I thought I might try putting together a simple introduction as a voice thread. Here it is…

[tags]geotagging, VoiceThread, photography, Google Earth[/tags]

As much as I was initially impressed with VoiceThread, I’ve noticed some severe limitations to the system.  I still think it’s an extremely easy way to narrate a slide show and to solicit audio comments.  I’ll probably still use it to create some quick narration to embed here and on other sites.  However, I’m spotting some things that are not as nice as I’d like for them to be.

First, there is no way to download individual VoiceThreads for use in other applications such as PowerPoint.  I’ve love to be able to snag an entire thread, including comments.  I’d even settle for the ability to export a thread to an AVI file or similar format.  Unfortunately, it looks like the system was designed so that the visual elements are stored separately from the comments, so I’m guessing this isn’t going to happen anytime soon.  There is an option for downloading the original images and comments, but not in an actual VoiceThread format.  As it stands, if you’re trying to teach a lesson and you suddenly lose Internet connections (which can happen at the worst possible moment) you’re screwed.

My second complaint is that the RSS feed provided on the site are a bit confusing.  There is a feed for new threads on the “Browse” section, and a feed on the “My Threads” section.  The “Browse” feed seems to carry links to new threads as they are created.  I’m guessing the “My Threads” feed reports new comments to your threads.  However, this isn’t entirely clear.

I would love to have more control over the comments themselves, rather than just the ability to delete them.  I’d like to have approval before any comment is posted.  I think this is just a learning issue for me.  For example, someone left an an audio comment on one of my threads that said, and I quote, “…this is just so very interesting, blah, blah, blah.”  I’m not happy that the comment appeared without my knowledge or consent.

Not only would I like to moderate the comments, but I would also like some control over placement, and have the ability to rearrange the comments to my liking.  As it is, they show up in the order in which they are recorded.

And finally, I wish there were a way to use simply HTML in the text comments so that you could include hyperlinks, etc.  This seems like such a simple thing to ask.

Even with these shortcomings, I do still like the system.  I’ve just created a Yahoo Pipe that parses the threads for place names in the title, then displays these on a map.  I didn’t work exactly as I had imagined, but it actually does a BETTER job of geotagging than I had thought.

[tags]VoiceThread[/tags]

A couple of years ago I took part in a workshop that used resources from the Library of Congress’s American Memory collection entitled “Adventures of the American Mind.” As part of the workshop, I created an activity called Photo Sleuth. Students were to look at historic photos, and using clues from the photos, were supposed to figure out what the picture was all about.

I figured that my Photo Sleuth activity would be a great one to incorporate as a VoiceThread activity, so here it is…

[tags]Library of Congress, historic photos, American Memory, VoiceThread, multimedia, lesson plans[/tags]

For the past couple of years I have used the Qoop publishing company to create a calendar from my Flickr photographs. In December I print up a limited number of these and give to friends and family for Christmas. Unfortunately, Qoop doesn’t provide any way to include text or descriptions of the photos on the calendars. The recipients of these calendars often ask about the photos, where I took them, etc. Therefore, I’ve done two things.

First, I’ve created a Flickr collection with sets all of the calendar images. There is a set for last year’s 2007 calendar and a set for this year. I’ve also got a set for calendar potentials, so I don’t have to go sorting through all my images when it comes time for the 2009 calendar. When I actually use an image from the potentials set, I’ll remove it from potentials and place it in the appropriate calendar set.

In addition to the calendar collection, I’ve created a VoiceThread for my 2008 calendar, which gives a bit of background about each image…

[tags]calendar, VoiceThread, photography[/tags]