Adventures in Teaching and Learning

Get a Voki now!

The new TTP group meet on Tuesday; I have the privilege of hosting a session on Web 2.0, involving pedagogy and practical application. So today I have been trying to think of uses for a variety of Web 2.0 applications, hence the large number of posts! I think it’s about time to pull some of those ideas together.

Voki
I enjoy adding vokis onto my blogs to liven them up a bit and add sound. It’s a humorous way of engaging the students as well, and for students who find reading a bit more difficult, then Voki instructions may be a bit easier to follow. If students have access to computers, then I think Vokis work well especially in MFL, where students can record short paragraphs in the target language: this could then be used for peer and self assessment purposes. The main difficulty I have with Voki is that they are not downloadable, so they can only be shown when hosted on a browser somewhere and cannot be inserted into powerpoint presentations. (If they can, and I’m missing something, please let me know!) Of course, CrazyTalk can be used to similar effect, but with a little more effort.

If you have used Voki successfully as a teaching and learning tool, please drop me a line to let me know!

VoiceThread
This seems like a good way to encourage students to listen to one another and to respond to one another. A VoiceThread can be used to gather a variety of opinions and ideas, which can be shared or kept private (In this case, you would need to make accounts for all students, and add them all as your friends on the VoiceThread that you wanted them to watch/listen/comment on. They can also be moderated.) I have seen some good examples, eg “This picture makes me think …”, Students reading out poems that they have written in response to a visual stimulus, students using the doodle tool to demonstrate what they think will happen next in an experiment (actually, I haven’t seen that, but I think it could be a good idea … if you moderate the comments, then keep them all hidden until you have received everyone’s comments) … I’m sure there are many more.

What ideas do you have for how you could use VoiceThread in your subject? If you have already used it, could you add a link in the comments box so we can see it and be inspired?

Slideshare
An easy way to share presentations. I have made a very basic one with the most basic key points for my GCSE students to support their last minute revision, and another one with pictures to illustrate Pentecost, which I will use in my lessons next week. The other side, of course, is that there are many interesting presentations out there, that can either inform us as educators, or can be used by us in the classroom.

Have you a favourite presentation that you found on SlideShare? Or have you uploaded a presentation made by your students that could inspire us?

YouTube, TeacherTube, GodTube, TED, GoogleVideo, Teachers’ TV
I am sure there are other video sharing websites out there, these are just some of the most common, or ones that I have found recently. Videos can be a great starter for lessons, and there are some great educational clips out there, as well as lots of funny clips that can begin discussion. Just be careful though – I showed a clip of Mel Brookes as Moses, dropping one of the tablets on which were written the Fifteen – well, now Ten – Commandments in order to start thinking about the Decalogue with my class, and quite a few of them assumed that there really were originally fifteen … ! I have also used the Honda Cogs clip to illustrate the concept of causation. Of course, the next stage is then making your own videos to upload and share with others. For a trial, I made a video using OneTrueMedia, and uploaded that to YouTube. It’s not great, but at least it shows it can be done! I am also a member of the RE Group on YouTube.

How have you used YouTube or another video site during a lesson? Why do you think showing short video clips can be such a good learning tool?

Well, there are hundreds of other sites, and it’s getting late and I have other things to do, so that will have to do for now. I do hope that some of you who read this will leave a comment suggesting ways in which these, and other Web 2.0 applications, can be used effectively in the classroom to enhance teaching and learning.

Not just for those in Haringey of course! But I think over the next few weeks we’ll be seeing some interesting work being shared on some of the following sites. (Some were begun a year ago and have not been updated recently – hopefully that will change, and it would be great if you add your comments!)

National Year of Reading 2008 – A blog where pupils will be able to send their book reviews.

Education ideas for using CrazyTalk – A blog where you can share your good ideas about using CrazyTalk in teaching. There are already links to examples here, and links to sites where you can create interesting characters, eg make your own Mr Potato Head.

AppleMacs in Education

Assessment for Learning and Blogging

DigiMemo Blog

Judy, if I am missing any, it would be great if you could let me know so I can add them here!

I’ve been surfing around, discovering some interesting blogs. For example, I found the International Edubloggers’ Directory via Joe Dale’s blog. Through this, I’ve been browsing Mrs Cooch’s school blog, which has some good use of CrazyTalk. Joe also features a VoiceThread entitled “What does the network mean to you?“, which I look forward to listening to more fully when I get my headphones out!

What a wonderful example of using Vokis to support pupil voice – Nodehill’s French Department blog, Two Stars and a Wish. In turn, Mrs Bushell’s blog directed me towards some RE games.

How exciting the internet is!

Very exciting news to share with you all – Teachers’ TV has been in touch and are wanting to record a programme featuring one of my classes and the Transformation Teachers’ Programme! I do now feel as if I have to start updating my blog again a bit more!

How is everyone else getting on? I think I better go visiting and leave a few messages!

That reminds me – Claire did an excellent piece of work on Holst’s Planet Suite using CrazyTalk and MovieMaker – hopefully she’ll put a review of how it went down with her class on her blog.

(I’m glad the blog is back up and running again!)

Last lesson of the last day before half term. How might you imagine that?

Well, yes, it was a bit hectic at times, and I’m sure anyone walking past would have wondered what was going on. However, at the end of the day I was able to sit down and show our Head of Year, and another form tutor, some quite moving and honest work, one piece the result of two boys whom you would not necessarily imagine working together. I’m hoping to get their permission to show you the resulting CrazyTalk animation.

The other group worked on another roleplay, which I look forward to editing later. I’d really like them to edit it, but it is hard trying to give everyone an opportunity to use the computer.

It was also good to have the TA again in the lesson. He was able to work with the group recording inside while I supervised the actors outside. It was also an advantage having another beautiful sunny day!

I’m trying to think of what I can do with that group after the holidays. I think we ought to have another project, but I’m not sure what. I wonder if there is a computer room free now that the Year 11s have left? Maybe I could trial my blogging research?!

A couple of Year 8s came at lunch today to draw on the DigiMemo, and to see it being animated. Unfortunately I couldn’t manage to record on CrazyTalk, but I’ll figure that out when I’ve got a moment. They plan on colouring in the figure using PhotoShop Elements, then animating that cartoon figure. I look forward to seeing the end product … the important thing now is to transfer the “fun” part of playing around into a “serious” and educational end result. Wonder what will happen on Friday … I continue to invite other teachers to that class!

It’s great, having a variety of pieces of equipment nearby. My last lesson of the week was with a Year 8 class that I only see once a week. Unfortunately, the ICT rooms are all full that period, and I don’t want them to miss out. Fortunately, they seem to be quite a nice group. So, I made sure I was teaching them in a room with an IWB, prepared a short ppt presentation with lots of big images of well known “modern prophets” (at least I thought they were well known … MLK is recognised immediately, Nelson Mandela is vaguely recognised but his name does not come to the lips quickly, they had no idea who Bono and Bob Geldof were, nor had they heard of Live Aid, although a couple knew the song “Feed the World” and most had heard, vaguely, of the “Make Poverty History” campaign … Mother Theresa was “that woman who helps people” (one knew she lived in India), someone thought they recognised Oscar Romero, no one knew Gustavo Guterriez (which is not surprising, since I only heard of him for the first time last week, and he’s a really important theologian!) and no one recognised Rev Les Isaacs, whom I had located on the internet last night with a search on “gun culture London”, but one girl could describe what Street Pastors do.

Having identified some “prophets”, and worked out some of their “messages”, we set about planning what the message might be for the world today. One group decided to work on “cutting down trees” and another on “stop the shooting”. We then took some photos, and a bit of video, which the pupils can work on next week. I’d quite like to give one group the opportunity to edit their video, and perhaps the other group could use ComicLife or CrazyTalk … but I’ve only one computer and one pair of eyes! This is where having an editing suite might come in useful … Wonder if I could develop it some more? A very nice lesson, anyway – my favourite and best of the week!

I’ve made another iMovie. This one includes transitions, which I’ve managed to work out how to do, a couple of CrazyTalk videos (Mary Magdalene and Susanna), some images, Bible texts (Jesus calls his first four disciples … the Resurrection) and some music downloaded from a free download site that Judy directed me to in one of her comments below … I am trying to prepare a short introduction to an ICT task for my Year 7 class. They would have to choose a disciple and plan a short presentation on that disciple. I still don’t know if we have CrazyTalk, or can get it. However, we could use drama, video, powerpoints etc. Perhaps there’s an equivalent of iMovie on the PC side? Something as easy to use?

(Video to follow once it’s finished downloading … )

I had a revision session today, so I decided to try a few things out back at school. Unfortunately Flickr is still not allowed, neither are other blog sites, including my school blog, although edublogs are allowed. My classroom computer is presently not attached to the internet, for some annoying reason.

I took some photos and videos of me teaching, pupils working, and them giving me evaluative feedback. It’s all confidential, for my Masters research, so no one will be able to see it, but I am planning on transcribing some of the comments so it’s been really useful having the video on the camera.

When my AS students arrived, they were suitably impressed by my iMovie, and all wanted a copy. So I learnt how to bluetooth from my computer, with help from my students! Unfortunately they couldn’t watch it straight away, because “it’s saved for iTunes”, but they were non-plussed by that and said they’d bluetooth it to their computers and upload it (or something!) onto iTunes in order to watch it. I hope it works! We also then had an interesting Utilitarianism-based discussion on the usefulness of bringing mobile phones into schools … which option would bring the greatest amount of pleasure to the greatest number of people? Allowing mobiles or not allowing them? My pupils felt that there might be an abuse, with more pupils using their phones in class, but I still feel that if pupils were “trained” in how to use their mobiles sensibly and politely, then it shouldn’t cause too many more difficulties than they do now.

The mature students that my AS class are, felt that perhaps CrazyTalk would be too “fun” for my Year 7s … I don’t think they were too convinced that fun could be educational, too! However, they were interested in the idea of the DigiMemos, although they wanted to know if everyone would get one.

One final point … when I attached my MacBook to the IWB, the image (screen size? resolution?) changed … when I tried changing it to make it look more “normal”, the image disappeared from the IWB. Can anyone tell me what resolution/screen size I should choose on the Display option? Thanks.

Hmm. I am wanting to embed a swf file … I have had fun experimenting with CrazyTalk this evening. I now have three talking philosophers. However, I want to include them in a Keynote presentation, and therein lies the problem (or two). The CrazyTalk video seems to be far too big (it’s in GB rather than MB …) to move easily from computer to computer attached to internet, and I feel that downloading something this big could prove problematic. Secondly, I am trying to add a GarageBand audio that I’ve recorded, and even though I am following the instructions (ie drag the file into the slide that you want it to play over), nothing is happening. I don’t think the slide is recognising the file, even though I have saved it as an iLife project, and it has a little guitar logo. Can anybody help?! Thanks.