One of the goals I established for myself last week was to utilize Flip Video technology so that I can record clips of my lessons. I have made quite a bit of progress in this area. Using one of the school’s new flip cameras, I recorded clips of a lesson where I had students utilizing the Mimio. I chose to record portions of this lesson so that I can demonstrate my ability to engage students through the use of technology. I tried to upload the clips onto my school laptop and found that I was unable to do so without administrative rights. The IT department will be installing the software onto my laptop. Until it is installed onto my computer, I have uploaded the clips to my personal computer. My next step is to edit the clips into a movie so that I can include it with my portfolio. A lot of staff development time in my school has been spent considering the level that we are engaging the students in. Because of this, I have decided to primarily record my students in action. I think that this best demonstrates the kind of work that I am asking the students to do. I was asked last week if I would share my lessons on the Internet. After considering this, I do not believe that I will as the videos will contain shots of my students. It would be a great deal of work to have each student complete a consent form so that I could upload the files to the Internet. This is a step that I am not willing to take on at this point. Therefore, I will collect the clips and compile them onto a DVD. I may use the clips to demonstrate to other faculty how I use various types of technology. They could also be shared with administration during the evaluation process. Most importantly, I will use them to evaluate my teaching practice.
The progress that I have made in regards to my goal of incorporating a class blog and individual blogs for students is much slower. There is great potential to improve collaboration and communication among students through the effective use of a blog. Asynchronous discussion allows students who may hesitate to participate in class discussion more time to formulate their thoughts (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2010). I have spoken with my IT department about implementing blogs. They informed me that next year each teacher will be provided with a blog site through the school’s server. I will continue to pursue creating my own blog site so that I can better communicate with students and parents and then transition to the school’s blog as it becomes available. I am interested in having my students create their own blogs and I would love any guidance people could give me on this as it is out of my comfort zone. Is it necessary to have students creating their own blog sites as I could post questions to begin the reflection process on mine and then just have them contribute their? (It seems like this would promote discussion with me and not with the other students.) Does anyone have any sites to recommend? Are there sites that you can control who can view the blogs? Does it defeat the purpose of blogging if they cannot be viewed by outside sources? There are many areas of this that I need to research. The use of blogs has been very limited at my school so I hope that some of you can provide me with some guidance.
Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2010). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning
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Jenny,
ReplyDeleteYou have made amazing strides since last week. How did you like using the Flip camera? I see them being advertised on t.v. all of the time. How did the students respond to you wanting to record them in the classroom? I know the purpose is to evaluate your lessons, but I have a lot of students who would object to having the back of their heads recorded.
I know schools have teachers' computers on lock-down and for reasons I will never understand, but did your school unlock your computer so that you are able to upload your own videos in the future?
I've also seen the Flip Camera and it seems like it has great potential. My school just ordered one for me so I am excited to use it. I teach physical education so sometimes it can be difficult to show evidence of learning because almost everything is demonstrated by student movement and not using a paper and pencil assessment. Do you like using the Flip camera? Any tips or suggestions?
ReplyDeleteWow! You have accomplished a lot this past week. I can help you alittle with the Blog idea because I have already used one in my class in the past and plan to do so again this year. I just have to set it up. I use edublogs. The plus side is it is easy to use and free for students, unless you want to also have access then there is a small subscription fee, I don't remember what it is offhand, but I paid it last year for my own peace of mind. I like to be the main one in control. To set up the accounts, I used my own gmail account. The edublogs website instructs you how you can use that one account to set up all of your blogs. It was actually really easy. This worked well since I would not have to set students up with e-mail accounts, a practice not really encouraged at my school. Students did not have access to the e-mail account, just their blogs. Edublogs also allows you to set the blog to only be accessible by people with the address. That way you do not have to worry about that risk, either. You can get more information at the edublogs website, and I know it is accessible at my school. I hope this helps!
ReplyDeleteJenny,
ReplyDeleteThe flip video cameras are great and they make it much easier for teachers and students to quickly take video footage and transfer it to a computer and/or website. Unfortunately, I have experienced the same issues as you with administrative rights and because I work for the Department of Defense there are absolutely no exceptions. Right now we are under a software moratorium so it may be awhile before we can actually use our cameras on school computers. In the interim, I am using my personal computer to download and edit the videos and then transferring them to our Intranet using a data stick. It’s amazing how counterproductive IT can be even though they are supposed to provide a supportive role for education.
The issue you bring up about posting pictures of students online is valid. In my district, students sign a release at the beginning of the school year for this sort of thing. Despite that, we are not allowed to post student names on a publically available website. This is why I want to establish a password protected Extranet site so that parents could have access to school and classroom related material without all the restrictions. Unfortunately, this has not been approved yet but I keep trying. I think parents would love to see and hear examples of the educational activities their children are engaged in.
In terms of blogs, I agree with Krystin and would suggest www.edublogs.org as a good place to start. You can use the privacy setting to determine who has the ability to see and post comments and you can choose to moderate comments (check them before they are posted).
Kevin
Thanks everyone for your comments. I have only recorded clips of one lesson and my students were a little weirded out by the whole thing. I wanted to focus on the kinds of activities I was having students do so most of the clips are of them working. When I would get near them to record they would sit up a little straighter and were obviously distracted that I was recording them. I think this will become more comfortable for everyone as I use the cameras more.
ReplyDeleteI do not have administrative rights on my school computer so the next step is to have the IT department load the softwared that comes on the camera onto my computer. I do have y own personal Flip camera with the software already on my home computer. I think I will need to edit my clips at home and then bring them to school like Kevin mentioned he does.
Thanks for the advice on using edublogs. I would like to be able to have the kind of control that you mentioned edublogs allows. It would be nice not to have to set every student up with an email account as Krystin mentioned. I have become fairly comfortable with blogger. Does anyone know if those kinds of options are available through blogger? I think that getting students set up with their own blogs may be more than I can handle this semester. I think that I will focus on creating my own blog as a means to communicate with parents and students about what we are doing in class and continue to research the other or until it is set up through the school.
Thanks,
Jenny
I don't know what a flip camera is, so I'll have to do some research and find out! I see presentations in which teachers show video, photos,etc of their students, but like you, I am not sure I am ready to do all the paperwork to inform parents, get permission, etc. I think I need to plan for that for next year, find out what is involved and take care of that at the very beginning of the school year. With all that the students do to interact with their peers through technology, I don't really think we are
ReplyDeleteadding any risk, but parent perception is of paramount importance. Cathy
Hello Jenny,
ReplyDeleteI would love to learn more about flip video technology. I am not sure what that is but it sounds like a great resource that can be used with a lesson. I will ask my media resource specialist about flip video and see if we have it at my school. If we do not have it then I will see what we can do to get it there. I am trying to find ways to incorporate multi media tools into my lessons where the students will be engaged in the lesson. I also want my students to be able to operate different digital and multi media tools in order to complete their assignments.