If a school this size had to close for a week or two, what would need to be taken into consideration? I've given it some thought since this Coetail Course 3 started and during the coming days will detail some of the thoughts and concerns I've pondered during this course. I will start writing this as a series of questions I have been considering. I hope to respond to some of these questions if time permits.
What would need to be taken into consideration to optimize student learning?
If students learn in groups, how can stuff be shared by groups?
How would Face-to-Face (F2F) meetings occur?
How would group fora be conducted?
Blended classrooms – is this a skill all students should experience anyway?
Would the closure be complete or partial? Could the school be closed by division? Would the administration allow teachers to conduct courses from off-site, the Americas, Hua Hin, home, or a vacation spot and can instruction be effective from those locations?
How would teachers (and students) best communicate with each other?
Should teachers give students regualar, clearly-scheduled times when they will be available?
What would teacher of student (and supervisor of teacher) assessment look like?
Which applications would be most relevant for which courses (and communications)?
Podcast, embedded video, PantherNet chat, Wikispaces, Movie Maker, all the present applications on the PantherNet minimum list.
Would there be reliable service and access for all stakeholders?
Should teachers now be selecting units they lend themselves best to blended classroom instruction and shoule teachers be preparing for this instruction now?
Should we get the entire ISB community (students, teachers, admin, Ed Tech, Board, and parents) to buy into this concept now, so we are prepared when the day arrives? and Should we be trial running some aspects of this kind of education now?
If some teachers are not prepared to run such a class, would it jeopardize the tech savvy teachers from being able to continue with their classes?
What is the best use of time with both individual student issues and groups of students?
How can teachers protect themselves from being constantly "on call"? Would an eight-hour work day be respected by the community? Could teachers set schedules for the time they will maintain contact? Could students work on schedules from the other side of the globe?
Would it take so much time to prepare an online lesson, or gather and comment on students' submitted work, or dealing with individual commmunications that such a course would not be feasible? Would the demands on student time increase significantly?
What would be an effective activity for students to blog to the rest of the group? The assignment I gave today: Having students read three Research Questions we developed in class, individually write the dependent and independent variables, and as a group write the key and lesser controlled variables and how they would be measured and controlled, might work as an activity. Students certainly could learn from each other. But would the weaker students find this a way to lay low? And how could the teacher help these weaker students become activated to contribute *more* than they usually do? I normally would use classtime for them to share. Maybe some students would be rejuvenated to learn in this new environment.
All students are going to have to get over the concept of being right or wrong – all of us are learning. Maybe I need to break students in a bit with this learning online.
Friday, October 30, 2009
A storyboard with emotion, story, and cause
This clip is a series of short snapshots by the Greek Ministry of Culture and Hellenic Culture Organization annimations with gradual transitions shows the history of the Parthenon. The angles of view, color, music, and occasional dramatic demonstrations of destruction lull one into feeling for the "owners" of the Parthenon throughout its history. It draws one to feel for the "owners" as victims of the powerful countries who stole their cultural heritage through the years.
I like how the storyboard portrays various political and religious forces' impacts upon the Parthenon. The director, Costa Gavras, created some controversy by portraying these participants in sometimes unfavorable lights.
I like how the storyboard portrays various political and religious forces' impacts upon the Parthenon. The director, Costa Gavras, created some controversy by portraying these participants in sometimes unfavorable lights.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Putting it all together in a video
After class I decided to find a way to solidify my learning by putting it all together: sound, splitting, recording, muting, publishing, embedding into my blog, and titles on slides and over video, by making a digital gift for my daughter for her efforts in this season’s basketball. After learning the newer cameras take mp4 video, I got out an old camera with which I had taken some digital clips of her games.
I had trouble getting the product on YouTube because there is apparently an issue with downloading from Internet Explorer. I learned Movie Maker made my regular computer freeze up a lot. It eventually died in the class and I had to get another one for the weekend. I learned if I tried to do anything to the story line before I clicked “Done” for the last operation, Movie Maker and the new computer froze up. (This happened three times, before I figured it out.) Using the new computer I had to learn some basics of Word 2007, which is not on my old computer. But most of all I learned how to place the lines of a label over a video that still allowed the observer to see the video action where I wanted their attention drawn.
The next thing I had to learn was to make a YouTube account. It was good having a Gmail account, which made it easy. By publishing this video on YouTube, I can offer my mother an opportunity to see her granddaughter playing basketball. I would next like to try recording a lesson using the SmartBoard recorder then placing sound over it.
I had trouble getting the product on YouTube because there is apparently an issue with downloading from Internet Explorer. I learned Movie Maker made my regular computer freeze up a lot. It eventually died in the class and I had to get another one for the weekend. I learned if I tried to do anything to the story line before I clicked “Done” for the last operation, Movie Maker and the new computer froze up. (This happened three times, before I figured it out.) Using the new computer I had to learn some basics of Word 2007, which is not on my old computer. But most of all I learned how to place the lines of a label over a video that still allowed the observer to see the video action where I wanted their attention drawn.
The next thing I had to learn was to make a YouTube account. It was good having a Gmail account, which made it easy. By publishing this video on YouTube, I can offer my mother an opportunity to see her granddaughter playing basketball. I would next like to try recording a lesson using the SmartBoard recorder then placing sound over it.
A relevant lesson using video in science
Today’s short session on Movie Maker showed me how to import music, split a sound track, embed a message on an image or on a title sheet, how to “twiddle” the audio track, and some transitions. Other rules for using Movie Maker include: start by making a folder for the project, save often, that .mov and .mp4 are kind of Apple video formats while .avi and .wmv are PC video formats and are probably only compatible on their platform, it crashes a lot when a lot of memory (more than three minutes) is being used. iMove is easier to use, can handle bigger files, and can handle mp4.
After today’s discussions about effective use of video we were given an assignment to make a short presentation. Patience, Karen, and I thought it would be informative and fun to have a video showing students how to properly (and improperly) use a microscope. We selected three of the most important concepts, developed good and bad behaviors for those concepts, and planned our storyboard. Our plan included both still images (which our Flip video camera had to take as video) and action shots. We got all the pictures and recorded on shattering glass sound, then tried to import them into iMovie. This didn’t work so we simultaneously imported the clips into iPhoto on an Apple and tried to import the clips into Windows Movie Maker on a new PC. We struggled with this for 20 minutes and returned to class. Later, Patience finished the video:
In class we learned we had problems because the Flip camera takes images in mp4. Both our programs could not handle this. We still learned a lot about how we could effectively use video for teaching a lesson, especially if it is funny.
On a related note, You Tube is continually increasing its abundance of excellent video footage that is relevant in a science class. The link below is one I find noteworthy for the concepts of food chains, decomposition, productivity, and upwelling:
After today’s discussions about effective use of video we were given an assignment to make a short presentation. Patience, Karen, and I thought it would be informative and fun to have a video showing students how to properly (and improperly) use a microscope. We selected three of the most important concepts, developed good and bad behaviors for those concepts, and planned our storyboard. Our plan included both still images (which our Flip video camera had to take as video) and action shots. We got all the pictures and recorded on shattering glass sound, then tried to import them into iMovie. This didn’t work so we simultaneously imported the clips into iPhoto on an Apple and tried to import the clips into Windows Movie Maker on a new PC. We struggled with this for 20 minutes and returned to class. Later, Patience finished the video:
In class we learned we had problems because the Flip camera takes images in mp4. Both our programs could not handle this. We still learned a lot about how we could effectively use video for teaching a lesson, especially if it is funny.
On a related note, You Tube is continually increasing its abundance of excellent video footage that is relevant in a science class. The link below is one I find noteworthy for the concepts of food chains, decomposition, productivity, and upwelling:
Antique microscope images originally posted on Flickr by Jacopo Werther then posted on Wikimedia by Mike Towber.
Should we have students do science reports with videos?
Being a science teacher, one of the best parts of the course was observing, critiquing, and discussing the video report made of a respiration experiment in the face-to-face session on 10 October. This part of the course clearly emphasized how important it is to teach have students ( and ourselves) use the right digital tool for the purpose intended. In this video, students basically presented a lab report on an investigation they had conducted as a group. I then included images of the equipment, graph, and set up and moving pictures of students on treadmills and LoggerPro data being processed by a computer. Having not thought of video reporting like this before, it made me question the ways in which this would be preferred. I concluded this means of reporting would be worse for a number of reasons:
1) All the video technology, while cute and stimulating, could equally have been equally clearly communicated in still images. The motion of a person on a treadmill and the motion of a series of dots filling in on a graph are slow means of showing unimportant (and unnecessary) ideas.
2) The energy that went into the technology of the investigation was distracting from the valuable learning that students could have had by doing the investigation. A focus on what the control variables are and how they could be controlled would have been valuable.
3) The video product could have been done equally by all four students, but I doubt students with less digital literacy were the ones doing the final ‘writing’ or editing. Having students turn in individual reports engages students more in the product.
4) The teacher needs to spend more time assessing student work when much of it includes video of needless action. With the technologies we use today, the teacher would probably prepare a paper or computer-linked Word document to use as a rubric. Modifying or commenting directly on the students’ video would require much more teacher time and require students to use even more time to look through the video for the comments.
5) Video technology is usually not yet indexed like paper products are. To assess a video product, the teacher would need to repeatedly go back and forward on the video to link the variables, equipment, procedure, results, and evaluations. On a paper product this is quick and seamless.
6) The students needed two class periods to prepare the report after two class periods performing the investigation. The entire investigation could be completed in one session and reported on as homework.
7) Students needed specialized computer programs to do the video reporting. This restriction removes from the immediacy of the learning and reflecting.
A comment was made that students needed to be brave to put themselves out there with the mistakes they had made. In science, the hypotheses that are not supported and the mistakes and wrong assumptions are part of the process. Finding that the investigation does not support one’s believes often leads to further and deeper understanding of the process being investigated. It is not brave to state these, it is essential.
1) All the video technology, while cute and stimulating, could equally have been equally clearly communicated in still images. The motion of a person on a treadmill and the motion of a series of dots filling in on a graph are slow means of showing unimportant (and unnecessary) ideas.
2) The energy that went into the technology of the investigation was distracting from the valuable learning that students could have had by doing the investigation. A focus on what the control variables are and how they could be controlled would have been valuable.
3) The video product could have been done equally by all four students, but I doubt students with less digital literacy were the ones doing the final ‘writing’ or editing. Having students turn in individual reports engages students more in the product.
4) The teacher needs to spend more time assessing student work when much of it includes video of needless action. With the technologies we use today, the teacher would probably prepare a paper or computer-linked Word document to use as a rubric. Modifying or commenting directly on the students’ video would require much more teacher time and require students to use even more time to look through the video for the comments.
5) Video technology is usually not yet indexed like paper products are. To assess a video product, the teacher would need to repeatedly go back and forward on the video to link the variables, equipment, procedure, results, and evaluations. On a paper product this is quick and seamless.
6) The students needed two class periods to prepare the report after two class periods performing the investigation. The entire investigation could be completed in one session and reported on as homework.
7) Students needed specialized computer programs to do the video reporting. This restriction removes from the immediacy of the learning and reflecting.
A comment was made that students needed to be brave to put themselves out there with the mistakes they had made. In science, the hypotheses that are not supported and the mistakes and wrong assumptions are part of the process. Finding that the investigation does not support one’s believes often leads to further and deeper understanding of the process being investigated. It is not brave to state these, it is essential.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Using video to present Productivity
Once I had seen the process of story boarding and making a video story, I looked for a relevant reason to use it. My ESS students continued to have trouble with the concept of productivity, particularly with the story / math problems. I wanted to develop a tool that:
a) The students could use during my upcoming IB workshop absence
b) Would give them a review of the importance of productivity to food webs
c) Link productivity to the producers and show how energy is lost through food chains
d) Gave them numbers to work with
e) Could be stored in a way they could access it for review
f) Was in a format they could watch a segment over and over again to get a full understanding when the concept or process needed time to ‘ sink in ’.
My idea was that students could use the video as a stand-alone tutorial on productivity or use it in conjunction with a worksheet I would prepare that asked related questions about food webs, productivity, and energy flows in ecosystems. I started by finding two images that didn’t have too much information, showed food chains that students would clearly relate to and understand, and demonstrated the different pathways of energy flow in food chains. By referring repeatedly to modifications of these two images, I hoped students at all levels would gain a deeper understanding.
One might ask why I did not just record the entire series on the SmartBoard. I need to practice this new technology to help me feel comfortable enough with it so it can be part of my digital toolkit for developing future learning aids. I did use the smart board to make the images that I then transferred to PowerPoint slides to import into Movie Maker.
The most challenging step was to learn Movie Maker. I got some idea from Jeff about what it could do, but not how to stretch images, match images and voice recordings, and edit the product. The entire process of making the 8-minute project took me about six hours. Dennis helped me learn how to convert the project to a movie, store the movie on You Tube, and then embed the movie in my PantherNET course page so students could watch it there. Once I learned these, I improved and saved the movie, deleted the old movie from You Tube and PantherNet, and imported the newer one to both. This helped me solidify what I had learned so I could do it again on my own if I needed to.
This last step introduced an achievement I had not originally set out to do. The video is 8 minutes long. I intended my audience to be my students, but I developed the project because I found no good animation or video about productivity on the Internet. By placing this movie on You Tube, I was allowing other teachers to use it, come up with ideas they might try, or show to their classes. I had trouble the first couple times; Dennis suggested that Internet Explorer was not a good browser to use for loading to YouTube. I had better success with FireFox.
This also gave me an opportunity to track how this video impacts the world. Even though the video is lengthy, as of today, it has been viewed 35 times, ten of those from ISB and our community. I am very surprised with the frequency of views and number of countries of the viewers, given there is nothing catchy in the video to lure viewers (other than the topic). I will be curious to see how the statistics progress.
Next, Dennis suggested I place the video on PantherNet, so students could watch it directly and not have to go to another screen. My students claimed both the video and its presence on PantherNet helped them learn this material better.
a) The students could use during my upcoming IB workshop absence
b) Would give them a review of the importance of productivity to food webs
c) Link productivity to the producers and show how energy is lost through food chains
d) Gave them numbers to work with
e) Could be stored in a way they could access it for review
f) Was in a format they could watch a segment over and over again to get a full understanding when the concept or process needed time to ‘ sink in ’.
My idea was that students could use the video as a stand-alone tutorial on productivity or use it in conjunction with a worksheet I would prepare that asked related questions about food webs, productivity, and energy flows in ecosystems. I started by finding two images that didn’t have too much information, showed food chains that students would clearly relate to and understand, and demonstrated the different pathways of energy flow in food chains. By referring repeatedly to modifications of these two images, I hoped students at all levels would gain a deeper understanding.
One might ask why I did not just record the entire series on the SmartBoard. I need to practice this new technology to help me feel comfortable enough with it so it can be part of my digital toolkit for developing future learning aids. I did use the smart board to make the images that I then transferred to PowerPoint slides to import into Movie Maker.
The most challenging step was to learn Movie Maker. I got some idea from Jeff about what it could do, but not how to stretch images, match images and voice recordings, and edit the product. The entire process of making the 8-minute project took me about six hours. Dennis helped me learn how to convert the project to a movie, store the movie on You Tube, and then embed the movie in my PantherNET course page so students could watch it there. Once I learned these, I improved and saved the movie, deleted the old movie from You Tube and PantherNet, and imported the newer one to both. This helped me solidify what I had learned so I could do it again on my own if I needed to.
This last step introduced an achievement I had not originally set out to do. The video is 8 minutes long. I intended my audience to be my students, but I developed the project because I found no good animation or video about productivity on the Internet. By placing this movie on You Tube, I was allowing other teachers to use it, come up with ideas they might try, or show to their classes. I had trouble the first couple times; Dennis suggested that Internet Explorer was not a good browser to use for loading to YouTube. I had better success with FireFox.
This also gave me an opportunity to track how this video impacts the world. Even though the video is lengthy, as of today, it has been viewed 35 times, ten of those from ISB and our community. I am very surprised with the frequency of views and number of countries of the viewers, given there is nothing catchy in the video to lure viewers (other than the topic). I will be curious to see how the statistics progress.
Next, Dennis suggested I place the video on PantherNet, so students could watch it directly and not have to go to another screen. My students claimed both the video and its presence on PantherNet helped them learn this material better.
Making of a StoryBoard
I have long been envious of people who were able to take the pictures in their cameras and put them into an electronic album, indexed and organized in a way that they could find them. Far more impressive were those who had their videos organized and archived. “Someday I hope to get all my [digital image] stuff in order”.
The next step, actually creating a product that organizes these videos in a coherent flow was beyond what I hoped I would do in this class. Being exposed to the movie makers, shown what they can do, and working with other teachers who showed me the process in action helped me realize it was within my reach. Once exposed to this technology I was quick to see relevant products that could be useful in helping students and family understand a message I was trying to communicate.
The project of creating a story board in a group was an excellent place to begin. Fortunately, John came up with a story by Utah Phillips that already existed in digital form, so our team could focus on collecting and organizing images. I had heard iMovie was good for making videos, so I was happy we were working in that program—it should be easy. Patience an expert, so our team had the support to answer any questions and offer supplemental ideas to enrich the experience. I had worked with them and Jonathan before, so we were quick to divide up the tasks and get on with accumulating the resources.
In previous Coetail courses I had learned about getting images from Creative Commons, now I was learning about “importing” images, changing the lengths of time images were shown, and linking these video images with sound. I was amazed at how quickly the process could occur once the story was developed and the importance of having the story in place from the beginning.
The next step, actually creating a product that organizes these videos in a coherent flow was beyond what I hoped I would do in this class. Being exposed to the movie makers, shown what they can do, and working with other teachers who showed me the process in action helped me realize it was within my reach. Once exposed to this technology I was quick to see relevant products that could be useful in helping students and family understand a message I was trying to communicate.
The project of creating a story board in a group was an excellent place to begin. Fortunately, John came up with a story by Utah Phillips that already existed in digital form, so our team could focus on collecting and organizing images. I had heard iMovie was good for making videos, so I was happy we were working in that program—it should be easy. Patience an expert, so our team had the support to answer any questions and offer supplemental ideas to enrich the experience. I had worked with them and Jonathan before, so we were quick to divide up the tasks and get on with accumulating the resources.
In previous Coetail courses I had learned about getting images from Creative Commons, now I was learning about “importing” images, changing the lengths of time images were shown, and linking these video images with sound. I was amazed at how quickly the process could occur once the story was developed and the importance of having the story in place from the beginning.
Reflection on readings 1
By the end of this course, we should be:
1) learning the basics of how to use a digital still camera;
2) downloading your pictures to a computer; and
3) using ImageBlender software to create more advanced imaging techniques and integrate those images in the curriculum.
As a teacher it doesn't matter if I am a beginner or a novice, my goal is to create a collection of images that will optimize learning and visual literacy with my students.
A visually literate person should be able to
• Interpret, understand and appreciate the meaning of visual messages;
• Communicate more effectively by applying the basic principles and concepts of visual design;
• Produce visual messages using computers and other technologies; and
• Use visual thinking to conceptualize solutions to problems
With visual images helping students learn, a parallel could be drawn to action learning. Having students get up our of their chair and move their body to represent a process may be considered more important learning than memorizing a definition of a word.
The research in the ten Brain rules suggest making our students regularly have physical exercise could increase the oxygen to their brains and therefore help them learn.
1) learning the basics of how to use a digital still camera;
2) downloading your pictures to a computer; and
3) using ImageBlender software to create more advanced imaging techniques and integrate those images in the curriculum.
As a teacher it doesn't matter if I am a beginner or a novice, my goal is to create a collection of images that will optimize learning and visual literacy with my students.
A visually literate person should be able to
• Interpret, understand and appreciate the meaning of visual messages;
• Communicate more effectively by applying the basic principles and concepts of visual design;
• Produce visual messages using computers and other technologies; and
• Use visual thinking to conceptualize solutions to problems
With visual images helping students learn, a parallel could be drawn to action learning. Having students get up our of their chair and move their body to represent a process may be considered more important learning than memorizing a definition of a word.
The research in the ten Brain rules suggest making our students regularly have physical exercise could increase the oxygen to their brains and therefore help them learn.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)