I used a glogster rubric I created to give to my students to help them create the glogs they will be doing for a major geography project. I evaluated the first glog I made, "The Rock Cycle." My rating scale is: Unsatisfactory Approaching Proficient Exemplary
I gave myself the following scores for the following evaluated elements:
"REQUIRED ELEMENTS" - Exemplary There are several video clips; only one required
"CONTENT" - Proficient
"GRAPHICS" - Proficient
"APPEARANCE" - Approaching The glog is crowded and might be distracting for some; text is
very small and difficult to read
WOW! I DID it! I built my own website, and I am BEYOND excited! Okay...it's a little basic, and a little hokey, but it's a start, and I made sure I hit "save" and got a URL before the whole thing disappeared in front of me. I absolutely intend to revisit and "upgrade," but there is a time-and-a-place to "stick a fork" in an assignment and move on.
Being a digital immigrant, the words "self-promotion" have historically been preceded by the word "shameless," so I initially planned to start a wiki and just add my digital projects to each page...short, sweet, basic. But, times have changed, and "self-promotion" has really become a survival skill. A friend and I have cautiously launched a tutoring venture...I need to promote that. An acquaintance conveniently locked-in two of my summer vacation days getting free out-right instruction on putting together a Buck Institute-style project, AND digital tools training. I'm thinking: I don't even really know this person...she should be paying me for this...not a lot, perhaps, but SOMETHING.
I also think that, when this degree is said-and-done, I could possibly market myself as a consultant for professional development. As a digital immigrant teacher who is FAR FROM RETIREMENT, thank you very much, I might be useful to an administrator who would like to encourage veteran teachers to acquire and use some of these digital skills. I've never met a vet teacher who DIDN'T WANT to be on board...it's just that, as immigrants, we think differently about things, and I'm wondering if there isn't a niche market for a non-whippersnapper techie?
I'm rambling...Basically, what this means is that I didn't, obviously, just populate a wiki. I built a website that, while rudimentary, sets the foundation for recording what I've already done (and I'm pretty happy with my accomplishments, four classes into this program), and serves to help organize my thinking around my own professional development over the course of the NEXT SIX classes. I'm not in the market for a job right now...I'm CRAZY about my job. But I do intend to put this degree to work for me when I'm done, and I think I've laid that groundwork. No one can count on school districts to advance us anymore...we've got to put our embarrassment away and self-promote.
One would think that, as much "fun" as I didn't have with the webinar, or with transferring data from an old cell phone to a new computer, I would have shied away from the word "beta." Oh, no...some of us take more beating than others...WIX is a really neat site, and I would recommend it to people. You can definitely see the "beta" in it, though...It is hard to accept that the solution to so many problems is: turn the machine off and let it rest. It is (both hard to accept AND the solution). I had to do it a couple of times...amazing disappearing text boxes...wouldn't upload video...In the end, it got DONE, and that is what counts. My next step is to add an "About Me" page...I could have thrown something together, but I've already used a lot of creative brain cells, and I'm going to save that for another day.
There really is a better video reflection at: http://youtu.be/1fhPB45cp4c, but this blog site is not accepting any uploads or imports for some reason.
I really enjoyed creating the digital story about my life as a teacher-in-denial. It was fun to collect the photos, and think about a story line that would string them together. I used an old camera phone for some of the pictures, but I really didn't like the quality, and my bluetooth connections were unreliable...it is funny how you get accustomed to seeing beautiful, popping, living color, and instant technology success and response. I have been thinking about getting an iPhone, so I asked my sister if I could borrow hers for awhile. She was very generous and actually let me use it for a couple of days. I played with putting the photos into iMovie and working with that...no big deal there, and I didn't feel like I was gaining any particular new skills doing that, so I went with VoiceThread.
VoiceThread is a lot of fun, and I think the kids would really enjoy it. It might even be worth the subscription cost...it is that easy to use. Phoning in the audio LOOKED easy, and was, but the VT tutorial showed it being done with a landline. When I pressed my cellphone buttons to "advance" the slide, nothing happened...consistently. Could it be that a cell phone won't work for that particular operation? At any rate, you only get three minutes of free audio time on VT. Once your three minutes are up, they charge you $10 for an hour more. I came THIS CLOSE to just doing that, but I wasn't convinced that time was going to fix the problem, so I went ahead and did the remaining slides with the Voice Thread audio. It was fun to do the call-in thing, and I could see kids enjoying that, too...it could just add that little extra dimension or interest to creating the story. In all actuality, though, I would use the VoiceThread audio because it is so amazingly simple. It does all the timing and synchronization for you.
I really like the whole cell-phone digital story idea. The portability makes a story possible at any moment...that's a great writing/creativity ethic to instill in kids, and what a great way to do it! As third graders, my kids don't really have a lot of phones, and we could do the same type of thing with iPads. I like iPads a lot, but I just went camping, thinking I could take my iPad and do what I did with my sister's phone, and the relative size of the iPad made me change my mind...it just didn't seem like it would quite as much fun. Waaaaaaah...middle class American whiner...
The portability of the cell phone makes it fun to "play journalist"...uh oh...I just got a project-based-learning idea..."As a photojournalist working in...how can I tell the story of ..."
I'm going to sign-off now and see which one of our projects I can weave that into...
I am extremely lucky to work in a technology-rich school, and I have five colleagues I was able to interview for this project. Four are intermediate teachers, and one is a second grade teacher.
Because we are an elementary school, cell phones are not as “ubiquitous” as they are at the secondary level, and their use is mostly by choice, with some on-line options thrown-in so that all students included in the “cell-phone activity” have an opportunity to participate either through their phones or through a social media program such as Edmodo.
All of the interviewees are subject to the same school policy which states that technology is to be used for legitimate academic purposes and student activities are to be reasonably monitored to ensure student safety within the activity. We are EXPECTED to use technology to engage students and enrich their learning experiences.
Parent support within our school community is extremely strong, and feedback from them is almost always positive. A few noted that their child felt “left out” because they did not have a cell phone, and the family did not wish for their child to have one at a very young age. In response to that input from parents, the Edmodo options were put in place.
The first teacher I interviewed was Kelly R., second grade teacher. She uses technology EXTENSIVELY with her second graders, piloting a 1:1 iPad classroom last year. She has used “Poll Everywhere” as a way to involve her students in current events...particularly those that cover a controversial topic kids can relate to. An example she provided was a recent story about a small Oregon logging town. The kids got into cooperative groups and discussed a “to cut or not to cut” type of question, then expressed their opinion via cell phone. Then, they studied logging (at second grade level) and its economic importance and environmental impacts. They re-voted. Several students had changed their minds, and gave short explanations of the critical thinking they did to arrive at their new opinion.
Fourth grade teacher, Amy B., used the same program, “Poll Everywhere” as a behavioral award for her kids. Once the class met a particular behavioral goal, they celebrated with “electronics day” and the kids brought in cell phones and iPods. To put the phones to good use, Amy introduced them to the “Poll” technology by setting-up easy and fun familiarization-type questions. “Poll” was a key part of her informal assessment program until she acquired a classroom set of Dymo Mimio “clickers,” a kind of classroom response system. This year, her class will be participating in the “Journey North” which includes an iPhone app with which students from all over North America record and track the movements of dozens of migratory animals. Amy says the key to being successful with Poll Everywhere is: “Let the kids play with it using simple questions like ‘which animal do you like best...penguins, lions, or tigers?’ Try a few of those. They love them and they catch on really easily. After they’ve got the procedure, THEN go for the content stuff.”
Another fourth grade teacher, Carolynn B., is a science maniac. Our school is situated along a scrub oak open-space and she likes to take her students out for regular nature walks. The students are encouraged to bring cell phones or iPads along on the hikes to record interesting nature tidbits, using the photos to spark writing ideas once they are back in the classroom. “Having a camera with them makes the kids look closer at nature. They don’t just walk by it like it’s no big deal,” Carolynn explained.
Alysha K., another third grade teacher, sometimes uses cell phones as a kind of “literature blog.” Her kids usually use Edmodo to blog back-and-forth about a piece of literature they are jointly reading, but she has allowed students who have cell phones to text each other on a couple of occasions. Not many of her third graders have phones, and she has only done this a couple of times.
Sixth grade teacher, Mandy H., states that she uses cell phones in the same ways listed by proponents of cell phone use in schools in the articles we read. Her students use them to download and use apps, do research...basically, the same types of things they could use computers and iPads for...they are a great force multiplier. As I look back over these interviews, I think it is predictable that the older the kids, the more likely they are to have cell phones in school, and the more adept they are at using them for authentic socio-academic purpose.
As I interviewed my colleagues, I confirmed some things I already knew...primarily that, statistics aside, our students don’t carry that many cell phones to school...and they aren’t (like my own 8th grade son) particularly attached or “identified” with them. They enjoy using them...they are a great motivational tool. All of the teachers I interviewed use technology much more than I do, and I thought perhaps their responses to the interview would be longer and more involved. We have so many laptops, desktops, and iPads at our disposal, I think our focus has been on those. We are looking for ways to fully utilize THOSE resources, and do not need to find ways to make cell phones “fill in technology gaps.” Good problem to have. We also live in a very traditionally-minded community. I imagine parents are circumspect about sending a relatively expensive piece of equipment into school in the backpack of a kiddo who is highly likely to forget it or lose it. In addition, because we have youngsters, we do have an out-of-sight-and-off policy for cell phones...with the exception for legitimate academic use.
My first foray into webcasting was an amazing example of the thing I tell my kids every single day: “You almost always learn more by making mistakes than by accidentally getting something right.”
Well...I am here to bear witness to that fact. I don’t know if there will EVER be an embed code for the class I wrote, rehearsed, and delivered on WizIQ on the evening of July 29, 2012. There was a vexing program glitch and some user-based-errors that I will address later, but suffice it to say that when I reviewed the recorded webcast, I was a little bit disappointed in how it turned out. More importantly, however, I am excited to do it again, the next time better, and to explore the different ways I could use video to enhance communication with my students and families. It was EASY to see what I needed to do differently. It was FUN. And right now I am very sad (mostly because I just told Mr. Singh to call me at 0700 tomorrow: “I’m six hours behind GMT,” I told him, feeling oh-so-global at that moment and wanting to regain SOME sense of technical dignity). Given that, I should be in bed right now. But, honestly, I learned SO MUCH, that reflecting NOW is just the redemption I need.
Just a note: I was not able to find a way to actually pre-record a webcast as a part of the preparation for the WizIQ program. I did rehearse, rehearse, and rehearse some more...but the actual live webcast was the “first take.” Not being able to give recording a whirl wouldn’t have been that big of a deal...but, it did eventually lead to my using up a great deal of time with connecting the audience, etc....predictable, for sure, but I was so darned nervous about the whole thing that I daftly scheduled it for 30 minutes instead of 60 (presumably, I thought there would be some “penalty” for not using all my minutes?). At the end of 30 minutes, the program politely asked me if I would like to “extend.” I THOUGHT I took it up on the offer, but apparently I didn’t, and it cut me off in the middle of the webcast....WHICH WAS A GOOD THING...because I had spoken for WAY TOO LONG!
The PROCESS:
I did not know where to begin. I had serious doubts about the value of ME doing ANYTHING “on camera.” I’ve been a public speaker for about 30 years now...face-to-face intelligence briefings to the Secretary of the Air Force...that kind of thing. This assignment blew my mind. Perhaps it is the permanence of video. Face-to-face lessons are ephemeral...the mistakes disappear into the air as the presentation goes on. Good, bad, or otherwise, a live speaker walks away from the presentation and doesn’t have to give it a second thought. This one I would have to look at. And, IRONICALLY, that turned-out to be the POSITIVE part. When I went back to review the webcast, I saw myself in a whole new light...and it was a very positive light. I have a very pleasant, fun, approachable affect (not to wax Sally Fields here). I really SHOULD do more video, because I think parents WOULD connect with me in a very good way. I think kids WOULD get something from webcasts I provided. I put many, many fears about my basic professional competence away that night. That was NOT on my “things to learn from suffering through a webcast” list. Not even on my radar screen.
Worrying as I did about my personal contribution to something as weighty as a webcast, I struggled mightily with content. I have so MANY things I would like to webcast...mini math lessons, project guidelines and expectations...weekly newsletters...student-created video newsletters. For some reason (writer’s block), none of those seemed appropriate for this assignment. Still, I had to come up with something, so I decided to just teach. Just teach. I took the project-based learning “driving question” approach and applied it to myself: “How can I as a mentor teacher (which I’m not), help a brand new teacher solve the problem of flat and lifeless narrative writing?” Once I had that “mission,” the actual presentation came together pretty easily. I liked what I put together...I had some engaging photographs and videos of preying mantids eating crickets...I was REALLY fond of a video I found of a wildebeest that actually escaped the crocodile jaws that were clamped around one of his forelegs. It was a GREAT writing lesson...
....but it was a lousy video. What I didn’t know about video until giving it a whirl, was that it really is fast-paced and snappy. That’s probably why we love it so much...we get loads of information in very little time, and we get to move on to the next infobite...very quickly...very efficiently. My webcast (had it recorded completely)...probably would have been 30 minutes...and that would have been okay in a classroom face-to-face, switching back and forth between watching videos and practice writing, responding and reacting to kids. But in the video...it was interminable. As I discovered, I’m not personally a boring speaker, and this particular content has always been highly engaging for my students (my audience said they loved it), but the video seemed to plod. (Because at this point it seems highly unlikely that you’ll be able to see the webcast, the writing lesson focuses on writing from the point of view of the prey...the last three seconds of its life before it disappears into the mouth of a predator. It sounds awful, but the kids are crazy about it.) If I were to actually use a webcast like this to teach, I would have short bursts of video, followed by some action-item for the kids. There is no way I would sit down and record a 30 minute video of me yacking on and on, no matter how enthusiastic I think I sound.
The realization that video has to be fast-paced to be effective supports my thinking about kids making videos to support content knowledge. As project planners, we seem to reflexively default to “students will make a video demonstrating...”. As I was revising a project of this sort a couple of weeks ago, it occurred to me that “on-camera personality” is a communication skill all its own, and it has to be specifically modeled, taught, and practiced. We frequently put a video camera in kids’ hands assuming we are being very 21st century...only to get a final product that is flat, lifeless, and not the reflection of content mastery that we were hoping for. Being on camera, for whatever purpose, is role playing, and we need to load kids up with video communication skills just as we load them up with written communication skills. My own webinar speaks to that...video is a format that has a set of “rules” just like paragraph writing does, and we need to address those if we expect kids to produce high-quality products of their own. And I do expect that. Now I have to explicitly teach it. How fun will it be for them...I access this webinar and show them how I tried something new, and didn’t do so great...how could they help me? Hmmm...maybe I’m just a little happy this didn’t go so well...
Heeding your admonishment to reflect richly, I kept copious notes as this project went along. As I go back and look, I read that I was “not crazy” about WizIQ. I chose it because I could use what skills I already had to put together a presentation...namely slides and videos with a talking head. Now that I’ve done this, and no one got hurt, I feel confident about working with other platforms, and I have assigned that to myself as my “professional next step.”
WizIQ itself was really pretty simple to use as I intended for this project. I ended up making “scripted” slides, which isn’t really what I wanted to do. I like a more spontaneous, organic approach to creating and annotating slides, but the “pen” function was delayed and rough, and really detracted from the overall quality of the presentation, so I scrapped it. A “natural appearing” pen function is my top priority in exploring other webcasting platforms. I suspect that what I really want requires the addition of some specific hardware, but I will find out, and perhaps my school will purchase something along these lines (and I can check off “technology leadership” on my evaluation). The ability to pre-record and review was not on my mind as I struggled to develop content and gain confidence...I assumed that I could do that, and in the end, couldn’t. I also do not like WizIQ because you cannot go back and re-do a class without rebuilding it from the ground up. When I got the hook at the 30 minute point, I thought, “No big deal...I’ll go back, change the duration setting, and do this again.” My audience was game...it seemed like a no brainer, but it was not to be. It is not really in me to knowingly turn-in something that doesn’t reflect my best effort...so I guess I’ll have to accept that this is my “best effort” for this project.
The TAKEAWAYS:
I am not a lousy teacher
Video needs to be fast and snappy to be effective
“On camera” presence and communication are specific skills that need to be modeled, taught, and practiced just like written communication and face-to-face communication skills are taught and practiced. I will stop using the term “news bunnies.”
Desirable attributes of webcasting platforms include:
natural pen function
pre-record and preview function
re-record function
simple sharing
responsive on-line assistance (WizIQ definitely has this, and I used it extensively. I included a screen shot of one of my on-line troubleshooting chats. My most recent troubleshooting session [getting the embed code] introduced me to TeamViewer. I watched dumbfounded as Mr. Singh hijacked my entire computer from 10,000 miles away...I didn’t get a screen shot...I didn’t even have control of my cursor.)
free or inexpensive subscription rate
adequate creative functions at low subscription rates
minimal add-on hardware or software
intuitive interface
5) Videocasting is fun, and even old people can do it.
I have included screen shots of my class so you can see that I actually did build slides, and I actually did conduct a webinar. Maybe at 0700, Mr. Singh and I will get a realistic embed code posted, but I’m not holding my breath.
Speaking of flat and lifeless affect...I guess, if your whole face is bone,
you don't have a lot to work with in the expressiveness department. Also...I was lost in the accent and didn't hear the expletive at the end...very subtle. Well, SOMEONE had to say it!
Credits
Still photography:
Lam, Charles (2008). Preying mantis head. Wikipedia commons. Retrieved from: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Close-up_of_preying_mantis_head.jpgmoreguefile. (2008 and 2009). Boy writing; girl writing; Retrieved from: morguefile.com
