Presentations with VoiceThread

This week, I worked with Angela Byrd and Abdullah Zorba to create a presentation on the rewards and challenges in distance education. We started communications over email then, followed that up with collaboration on a PowerPoint presentation using Google Docs. Google Docs was easy to work, though it did have its limitations. From my experience, the application does not have anywhere near the functionality of the full program. I understand why those limits are there, but a group would have to do some working around the application in order to truly use the power of PowerPoint. For example, on a more long-term project, I would do the collaboration using Google Docs and then, have one member of the group recreate the presentation in the stand alone application.
Next, we uploaded the presentation into VoiceThread. VoiceThread certainly made collaboration easy. We were able to upload two versions of the presentation, edit them both, and then, finalize the presentation by making choices as a group. Adding audio was very simple. My only complaint is the limited editing for audio. I much prefer using an audio editor and uploading the audio. Instead, you must start over with recording any audio that you do not like. For example, on one of the slides, I had to do six takes of the audio before being happy with it. Using an audio editor, I could have made one recording and edited out any mistakes in one attempt.
Going forward, I believe that VoiceThread could be a very useful tool in my professional life. Quite frequently, we have projects that require Marines from across the country to work together. This application would make that work much more concise and effective. By setting a work schedule and sticking to a timeline, this would eliminate the multitude of back and forth emails that must be sent and read during a planning session. Instead, we could upload the shell of our project into the application, add individual comments based on the timeline, and then get together again (virtually) to discuss modifications. While email would not be completed eliminated from the process, the reliance on it would be significantly reduced.