Yack Pack Begone! Voicethread, hello!

My inbox hosted a dastardly email this morning: Kim Cofino told me that Yack Pack has decided to go all capitalist on us and start charging for their service. Everyone has to eat, I guess. I was pretty bummed out, since a big part of one of my global collaborations projects was based upon the tool. But in the same day, I also learned from Kevin Jarrett that there's a new tool that could easily take its' place called VoiceThread. The demo is pretty exciting, but what's more exciting is that it's a lot like teaching class using a slide presentation. It integrates the sound and allows folks to comment on each page.
Imagine this: You post a slide presentation for the parents in your community about an Internet safety issue, like Facebook. You record your presentation material and parents can access it whenever they'd like. They may also post a comment or question for each slide and you can respond next time you log in. It's basically distance education. I like it. I like what it can do. I don't so much like that the world we live in requires/allows us to distance ourselves from one another. But I'll stop whining. This is GOOD NEWS.