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Voicethread gets even cooler! NYPL, Creative Commons, and more

August 19, 2009 In time for the new school year, it just keeps getting better!  Steve Muth of my beloved Voicethread shared an exciting press release this morning about Voicethread's super-cool new features.

 

Make sure you take a look at the new Media Browse and exploit Voicethread's new relationships with the New York Public Library and Flickr and Facebook!

The NYPL Digital Collection images display with hyperlinked subject headings, source notes that are easily embedded in presentations, and licensing notes.



The Flickr image choice offers to take users directly into their own Flickr collections or use a handy Flickr Creative Commons search box. Links automatically refer back to an image's original address.



And there's even more VT excitement.  Here is Steve's full release:

Hello VoiceThreaders,

We're very happy to announce that over 700,000 historical images from The New York Public Library's Digital Gallery are now freely and instantly available whenever you're creating a VoiceThread. Our new Media Browser allows you to search or browse these primary source materials - maps, photos, drawings, paintings, posters and more, and then import them directly. Links back to the original location of the images on the web are automatically inserted to make citing and attribution easier for you and your students

The Library asks you to draw upon their valuable collection

We've also created a unique VoiceThread portal where you can find and make copies of VoiceThreads created by the amazing staff of the New York Public Library that include expert commentary explaining the background of the images and provide a starting point for further exploration and use of these source materials in the classroom.





VoiceThread Learning Modules

A few months ago we added the ability for you make copies of your own VoiceThreads and now you can let others to make a copy as well. This is major new feature and allows something we've wanted for a long time, the development of private and public libraries of reusable VoiceThread Learning Modules. So if you've created a great VoiceThread that was successful for you, please share it with the community publicly, or just with those in your organization, company, district, or university. When you are editing your Thread just click 'Playback Options' in the bottom right of the screen and then check the box 'Allow other to make a Copy'.

Flickr Creative Commons Search

As part of the New Media Browser, we've rebuilt our Flickr import feature to make it much faster and most importantly to enable the search and import of images with a Creative Commons License. As with the images from the New York Public Library we will automatically insert a link back to the original web address of the image. We hope this makes gathering your content faster and simpler.

Comment Reordering

Our most requested feature of the last year is now live and ready for beta-testing. If you are the creator or editor of a VoiceThread you can now reorder the comments by moving your mouse over any comment segment on the timeline beneath the VoiceThread. Just hold down the shift key while over the timeline and then click-drag to move a comment segment to another position. This long overdue feature will allow you much greater control over the quality of your conversations. We'll be adding more advanced elements soon but please let us know what you think.

Also, please continue to share your great work in our Library. The submissions there continue to impress as well as educate others on best practices when using VoiceThread. Thanks so much for all your help developing and sharing them.

Have a great upcoming year, and continue to give us your feedback, it's the touchstone for all of our work.

               -The VoiceThread Team

I am pretty excited about all this news and I cannot wait to share all of this (especially the new media browser with its easy access to quality archived images), with teachers. 

Not to sound ungrateful or anything (700,000 wonderful images and direct linking to Creative Commons are nothing to sneeze at), but I am hoping that this is only the beginning for Voicethread's image portal and instructional partnerships.

Am I right, Steve????  Won't those other primary source portals want to get onboard as well?

Posted by Joyce Valenza Ph.D on August 19, 2009 | Comments (4)