This year, I used VoiceThread with my 4th and 5th grade students to publish online book talks. Here's an example:
We kept our projects simple with a single narrated image, and voice or text comments. But, VoiceThread allows you to upload multiple images and narration or video, or capture video with a webcam. Viewers can add text, voice or video comments, and create a conversation around each slide.
Filters are often an issue in school libraries. I used the educator version of the site to create and protect our work. (I used a workaround to embed the example here.) The site is user-friendly, and their tech support was excellent.
I would recommend it for school and public libraries. There are so many possibilities for creating, presenting and sharing ideas and information. One fabulous example: NYPL's digital collection is accessible via nypl.voicethread.com:
The next VoiceThread was created and used by a group of teachers in North Carolina "to develop a vision for what teaching with technology should look like." It is a great example of how a dynamic conversation can develop through the comment feature. (Check out the webcam comment on the first slide. Too cool!):
