Voicethread's Nod to Education

I received the following newsletter in my email the other day:

Hello VoiceThreaders,

In this newsletter we've got a special offer, an article in Edutopia, and a look at the new export feature.

Get the summer free! If you're thinking about starting a class or school subscription on Ed.VoiceThread, our secure K-12 network, now is the time. Any class or school subscription that begins before June 30th will be extended through August 31st of 2009. That means the rest of this school year and the summer are free if you start now. Visit our K-12 pricing page for more info.

Edutopia

VoiceThread was recently featured on Edutopia.org. The article highlights what educators and students already love about VoiceThread - that student enthusiasm for the tool fosters more prolific and thoughtful participation in classroom discussions. Bill Ferriter, a North Carolina educator and blogger found that VoiceThread gives his 6th grade students new opportunities to engage with social studies curriculum, breaking learning barriers like timidity, boredom, or one way teacher-student communication. In a recent assignment on conflict in Darfur, Ferriter noticed, "Because it's so motivating to the kids already, they're willing to do those bits of writing I could probably never get them to do in class." Read more on Edutopia.

Archival Exports

You can now export VoiceThreads! Any class or student VoiceThread can be exported to a movie that can be burned onto a DVD or shared offline with parents. All educators can order archival exports at 50% off, $10 for 10 exports. All annual class subscriptions include 30 exports, while schools get one for each user account.

In other exciting news, VoiceThread was a winner on CNET's Webware 100 contest! We are quite sure it was because of our educators. We really appreciate the support you've given us and we plan to continue innovating based on your feedback. Thanks again!

Sincerely,

The VoiceThread Team

p.s. We've had some great feedback about VoiceThread being used by Special Education educators and have had requests by parents and educators for more information. If you have experience or advice that you think would be valuable to share, please tell us in this discussion in our forum. Thanks very much.

On re-reading the letter, I realize you have to purchase a classroom subscription for $60. Back in March I had written with hope that Voicethread would be able to provide educators with the ability to have free downloads of Voicethreads. 30 downloads are more than ample for the work I do with my students.

I still wish that the company would run a promotion to allow educators to sign up for a free for the year classroom account if you sign up for the account before June 30. But, now I know that I can have 30 downloads included in the price.