Voicethread/Prehistoric Beasts

I can see how Voicethread could be a useful tool but I’m a little confused by the purposes of the demonstrations on the “Voicethreads 4 Teaching” site. I guess the idea of having a common theme around which to organize the students’ thoughts could have some relevance, but only if the purpose of the exercise is to encourage production. What is the theory behind this approach? It’s sort of a non-linear, theme-based brainstorming exercise, from what I can tell.

I think isolating the program for a specific purpose could work; it could be an excellent way to have students “turn in” their pronunciation assignments. Here we’re starting to see some real potential benefit to the internet as an alternative forum. I would think that Voicethread would still have to be relegated to one aspect of a multimedia course, however; the way it functions here is almost as an audio chat room. And I, too, would probably avoid walking by all those crocodiles if I could. I don’t even like driving near them unless there’s a glass wall between us, or if I know that they’ve recently eaten.