Voicethread vs Voxopop

I think that both of them are great tools in which we can interact with other people about different interesting topics.

The main aim in voxopop is to o bring people together in an on-line environment to make constructive discussions among the participants in which they just need to record a video about an interesting topic. So, in voxopop we use our voice instead of text, and in Voicethread we can do different things such as: upload an image, record our voice, a video, or we can write text messages, etc.

In my point of view, I prefer to use voicethread because It is easy to use and at the moment to write comments; we can choose either record a video, record our voice or write text messages.

So, voicethread has more flexibility because of that and in voxopop, we just have one alternative that is record a video if we want to comment someone else’s video. But both of them give us a chance to interact with others and to develop different skills such as: listening and speaking. And in voicethread we can also develop the writing and Reading skills. That is why, I like more voicethread because it is more interactive and we can develop different skills. 

The hardest skill to develop

I interviewed George and he said that the skill in which he had more problems to develop was the listening skill. He said that there are many factors that can affect at the moment to understand an audio. For example: If there is to much noise, it is hard for him to get concentrate. I think it is true, because the environmental noise can affect a lot at the moment to hear something. 

I also asked him what kind of things he has done in order to improve that skill. He said that he took advantage of the internet and started to look for websites which helped him a lot in the process. He also said podcasts are pretty nice since the variety of topics they offer makes it easy to look for something you are interesting in. 

The activities which he liked were the ones that revealed information on how to be an effective listener. For example, listen to a story and write down specific details such as: names, characters, objects, etc. Another activity, he considered really useful was to Draw a picture of what he was listening. Deliberate mistakes was also helpful for him; listening to information that was not right so that he had to notice it and at the same time, he was able to make a self correction.

I'm in agreement with him, I consider that to develop the listening skill is not easy because it requires a lot of practice in order to get familiar with different accents, expressions, and vocabulary. So, if you want to develop the listening skill you must practice as much as possible.