I was introduced to VoiceThread this winter in one of my previous courses. At first I did not enjoy it, but soon appreciated the ability to prerecord presentations and avoid all of the stress and anxiety that comes with presenting live. I hadn't thought of my students utilizing it in my classroom until this question was presented in class. I first searched for tutorial apps for early childhood students but knew I already had the idea of focusing on VoiceThread. I then switched my search to VoiceThread in early childhood education and stumbled on the blog of a kindergarten teacher who had successfully incorporated this into her classroom. I hope to teach second graders, so with the understanding that she could successfully utilize this program in her own kindergarten classroom, it gave me the confidence to know that I could utilize VoiceThread with second graders.
Students could collaborate with each other to create a story in as early as kindergarten. While it may not include as much collaboration, students could use the feature to record voice comments and discuss work with their peers. In second grade, I feel students could comfortably take photos and record over them, or record videos of each other. Students could work together to create presentations to share with the class or tutorials to be kept for students to access as needed.
Some students need more time to think, are shy or uncomfortable speaking in front of all of their peers, or may be ELL students who struggle to convey their thoughts as quickly as native speakers. In one of my previous classes, my parter had an accent and wished to use a VoiceThread for our presentation because she could rerecord herself and listen to her own responses to make sure they were easy to understand. She spoke slower and more clearly using VoiceThread and could rerecord herself as many times as necessary. I think this application could be a huge benefit for ELL students and could help them become comfortable sharing information with the class in their own way.
I would first show my students an example of a tutorial either I created or an example from a previous second grade class using VoiceThread. I would then give students access to the VoiceThread to view and explore on their own tablets. Students would then be encouraged to discuss the application and add comments. Students will be working in collaborative groups and will share what they find about the application with their peers. I would walk around guiding questions and discussions to help students further explore the features of the application. We would then work as a whole class to create a tutorial. It may be something as simple as a story or a collection of their poems. I would walk students through how to use the different features of VoiceThread as we collaborate. I would purposely make common mistakes and model how to work through these issues. Students would then work in groups to create a VoiceThread tutorial to share with the class. I would divide students into 4 groups. Each group would create a presentation on resources (natural resources, renewable resources, non-renewable resources, and human resources) to share with the class. Students would take turns recording each other, adding notes, and inserting photos. I would walk around answering questions, extending learning, and address issues that students cannot troubleshoot on their own as each group works independently. Students would share their presentations with the class and their peers could then comment on other presentations and ask questions to continue extending the learning.
What I enjoy about VoiceThread is that all VoiceThreads are accessible and stay accessible to your peers. I still have access to VoiceThreads from previous classes and could view tutorials on reading games at any time. Students could then access their own VoiceThreads along with those of their peers and even those of previous classes. 
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