Adventures in Teaching and Learning

This post will hopefully cover straightforward video sites as well as more interactive audiovisual sites. Once again, I have asked my PLN (Personal Learning Network) of other “educationalists” and “edtech” folk at Twitter to share their favourite sites, which I will hopefully share with you here. I’ll start with a few of my own:

YouTube – Probably one of the most well known Web 2.0 sites. There is a lot of inappropriate content, as there is anywhere, but don’t be put off – there is a vast amount of fantastic content as well. If you are an RE teacher, then from my skattp profile, you can find links to a group for RE teachers and to some other accounts that I find helpful. I am sure there are similar groups for other subjects.

TrueTube – There some excellent (British based) videos on here that would make great debate starters. TrueTube hopes that young people will make more equally provoking videos and share them on the site. I have written about TrueTube before, here.

Teachers’ TV – An excellent resource for CPD; the site also contains videos that can be used in class. There are also groups and forums that you can take part in.

TeacherTube – Videos by and for teachers.

Animoto – Upload photos, choose from a selection of Creative Commons music, and Animoto will produce an audiovisual presentation for you.

Xtranormal – If you can type, you can make movies. An easy way for a teacher to make a starter video, or for a student to produce an ICT-based piece of homework.

VoiceThread – You could add this as a way to introduce a topic, by uploading a picture or video, then recording a commentary while using pens to highlight key points. Or, you could upload students’ work, and other students can then comment on each others’ work, as a form of peer assessment.

GoAnimate – A fairly easy way to produce short animations. These can then be hosted on a video site, such as YouTube or TeacherTube.

Voki – This is an easy way for you, or a student, to animate a message without having to record your face as well as your voice. You normally need a blog to host it on.

Audacity – An excellent tool that can be downloaded for free. Easy to use to record and to transform voices as well. The voice can then be added to vokis or other videos.

There are some good primary examples on this Demo Primary School site, based in Falkirk. Thanks to @mvass for producing it, and to @johnmclear for drawing it to my attention!

I will add more later, as I receive more suggestions!

I have been using Twitter to try to find some new resources that could help my students revise. I’ll need to make a revision post on my school blog later, but let’s concentrate here first!

First of all, I could make – or ask my students to make – a video … perhaps a conversation between two people with different points of view discussing one of the evaluation statements that crop up all the time in their exam papers? But, videos so often seem to take so much time … Well, fear not, because my good friend Victoria on Geogtastic has pointed me in the direction of Xtranormal. Their tagline – if you can type, you can make movies. And it’s true. Check it out. (Although I have had some difficulties recently making movies. Not sure if it’s them or me. Hope it fixes itself soon. It is in Beta, so maybe I ought to drop them a line.)

On the other hand, some of our students really like revision cards, and some enjoy trading cards. So how about they make their own trading revision cards? BigHugeLabs have such a trading card maker. And results can then be shared on Flickr, or elsewhere, or printed out to be used as revision cards.

Finally, for now, a new YouTube type site, where you can make your own school based site. The privacy levels on Fliggo can, I think, be made stronger than those on YouTube – for example, you can moderate comments before they are posted. You can visit my new STM RE Fliggo site here. I presume I can upload any relevant video here, not only my own? Would be a good place to store all the useful and relevant videos I find in such places as TrueTube and GodTube. I think. If that’s allowed. Any advice?

And now, over to you. What one piece of advice would you give a GCSE student that would help them with their revision? Thank you!

Emmm … not long left of January! It’s not that nothing has happened this month, more that I have been too busy to blog! However, it’s good to be back!

My main exciting event this year so far was the birth of my nephew, Leo, on 14 January. I have been back up once to Scotland to visit him – thanks Megabus for providing a cheap and cheerful way to travel north suddenly! – and I look forward the next visit. His mum (my sister) is also a teacher, but I’ve not managed to get her blogging yet. Shame; that could be an interesting comparison. Life as a music teacher in Tayside as opposed to an RE teacher in London. Anyway. She has other things on her mind now, and I’m guessing not too much time on her hands!

I have just come across an interesting post using Wordle, to add to my previous explorations in that area. Miles Berry and Terry Freedman recently completed some research into how children use technology at home, and the Wordles make very interesting viewing. A really nice way to summarise research findings as well. Wish I’d known about them when I was writing up my Masters! (Now, there’s an interesting challenge … what would my literature review or findings look like as a Wordle? A task for another day, perhaps!) I found these posts through a link from htjoshua (Jocelyn Chappell) on Twitter …

Other than that, I would like to say a huge THANK YOU to RE Today which has given me some great ideas for lessons recently. First of all, the last edition of the magazine came with a free CD ROM on the Jewish Way of Life, which has proved invaluable in teaching my Year 7s about Shabbat and being a young Jewish person as part of our reading of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas in our Integrated Curriculum course. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND it to all RE teachers! There is so much information on the CD ROM and the pupils found it engaging; they also enjoyed some of the interactive tasks, and it provided an excellent stimulus for questions. I learnt loads too, and will definitely be using it lots in the future!

Secondly, there was a very interesting article about a lesson on Transubstantiation and the Eucharist, which suggested videos to watch and a song to teach the students, set to the tune of My Girl by the Temptations. I therefore had a couple of fun lessons with my Year 10s this week, who enjoyed watching the Prince of Egypt and (I think!) watching me singing about transubstantiation, -ation, -ation while dancing in an embarrassing way. At least one pupil said “Thanks for the lesson, Miss!”, which was nice as well!

Lovely to have used new technologies in such straightforward and helpful ways this week.

Strange, the YouTube “post to blog” option doesn’t seem to be working, so here is my “More Clouds” video! This time, I took photos at (fairly random) intervals throughout the day, using (of course!) my tripod, then put them altogether using iMovie (8, I think), with some freeplaymusic that I quite like.

I’ve uploaded it to Google Video … hope it all works okay!

Wetpaint Wikis in Plain English

Here’s another example specifically for Wetpaint. Wetpaint wikis are really easy to use.

Wikis in Plain English

Also thought that this gives a clear introduction to wikis! Saves me doing that …!

An advert for teaching in Saipan; I laughed listening to the song, and decided to share it with you!

Also, I saw the “Extremes” TDA advert tonight on TV. A teacher uses a mobile as a link to a lesson on human rights, then uses images (gleaned from Google or Flickr, perhaps) to engage the students in discussion – what’s going on? How might they feel? etc. A good example of using Web 2.0 to support 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.

Found this link on Joe Dale’s site, where he has it in a variety of different languages. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NC1qkLn6IRI

Another case of digital breadcrumbs … I was browsing Twitter when I came across a link to Ewan McIntosh’s blog which looked interesting. From there, I followed a link to MediaSnackers, which is where I found this video. I thought it was a good concise description of many young people today.