Assessment task 1- Week 4- Review Group 2 technologies: Images, Podcasts and Video

                                  Group 2 technology review

Multimodal learning…. sitting at my computer with my iPhone beside me answering private messages on Facebook about my friends surprise party and reading the text about pedagogic potentials of multimodal Literacy. I am not young, well young at heart, but this is the style of learning I have observed from the adult learners in my class.  As I explore more multi media ways of learning I feel more at ease as to how this generation of learners really learn. I am a hands on kinaesthetic, visual learner and I feel technology is really accommodating to my style of learning, less the tactile sensory experiences of course.

The literacy experiences the student participate in to navigate all these forms of multimedia is outstanding. I have observed my own children come ahead in leaps and bounds and I know it had a lot to do with accessing the iPad and comprehending instructions to understand how to play the games.

"Placestories" has really helped develop my skills for this week review. I created my own movies and used the voice over in moviemaker to record my voice and tell stories for the students. I uploaded these movies through 'Vimeo". I placed an image and use the podcast to pose a question of where the students thought we might be and what we might be learning about today.
Please take a look at my timeline to demonstrate the tools that are available within this site.

When I think about the pedagogical knowledge for this weeks tools it really stems from all of the learning theories, but the one that stands out for me is connectivism. According to Skinner (2005), learning can reside outside ourselves and is focused on connecting specialised information sets, that allow students to learn more about the 21st century that we live in.

How the weather and the seasons link to our local environment:
placestories.com/story/142613

Images

I would introduce images as hook, to get my class thinking about the topic we might be learning about, this will assist teachers in understanding the groups prior knowledge, experience and skills. Introducing the topic through a picture allows the students to perceive what we might be learning about and could also take us on a journey the teacher didn't think was possible or hadn't thought of.

I have resized some images using "picresize", this program was free and would be easy for year 5 onwards to utilise without too much trouble. The safety of students identity would be an issue using the program to safely upload images. This is not a password sight and I am unsure if the images disappear once you shut down the sight, for this reason I would not encourage students to upload their own image to this site.

http://www.picresize.com/results

                                     Engagement activity resizing and uploading digital photos

75 % smaller and in tray scale

25% smaller and in oil pastel

http://www.st-cleres.thurrock.sch.uk/the-curriculum/subjects/geography-2/

25% smaller with a border

http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-images-education-books-pedagogy-
image6701889

Please view my place stories project to demonstrate how I would engage students to think about what we might be learning about in the introduction. I use a voice thread to ask the students to take a walk with me and use their imaginations to think about where we might be as they look at the image and listen to the sounds around them.

How the weather and the seasons link to our local environment:
placestories.com/story/142613

SWOT analysis (pic resize.com)

Strengths- What actions does it do well?

• Sharing images
• Learn how to resize images to make them easily accessible to others, including quicker download time.
• Free

Weaknesses- What could improve?

• If students did access at home they may not use the privacy settings and this could become an issue if they put up personal photos without privacy.

Opportunities- What real opportunities are present in our contemporary society?

• Share images with fellow classmates, could be used to prompt students to speak in front of groups.
• Students will achieve using this program, beginning to upload just photos without text.
• If embedding images into a blog, students may feel confident to comment in this situation.

Threats- What are the negative tendencies or obstacles?

• The only threat I can see is if students do not have the privacy component saved and upload images onto the web.

Podcasts

I have learnt that podcasts are a web 2.0 technology that enables a wide variety of modes to be used when producing multi media experiences for students.  I have created a short introduction using a voki and see the note above about place stories, this demonstrates how I would engage students using a voice thread.

The term podcasting can be thought of as combining an iPod and broadcasting a type of media.

I was asked by a year one special needs support teacher to read a range of children's story books and record my voice on my phone using "voice memos". She then used my voice as she signed the words of the story for children with hearing needs.

I explored the Audacity resources to create a podcast discussing the benefits for both students and teachers- see Wiki.

I have embedded the wiki link to view my podcast examples, please see Podcast examples week 4.

http://managingelearningjodyrichter.wikispaces.com

SWOT analysis podcasts in the classroom

Strengths- What actions does it do well?

• Sharing information with others
• Learn how to make movies and how to make them easily accessible to others.
• How to utilise voice threads to add sound to the movie
• Free
• Ease of accessibility- students can access information anytime they want.
• Download the information to the device of their choice.
• Requires basic technical knowledge and skills.
• Teachers can archive students podcasts and retrieve when they need them.
• Teachers can put lessons online if they are away for the day.
• Students can keep up to date with information.

Weaknesses- What could improve?

• If students did access at home they may not use the privacy settings and this could become an issue if they put up personal photos without privacy.

Opportunities- What real opportunities are present in our contemporary society?

• Share videos with fellow classmates, could be used to prompt students to speak in front of groups.
• Students will achieve using this program, beginning to upload movies to the web/ safe access for whole class.
• If embedding videos into a blog, students may feel confident to comment in this situation.

Threats- What are the negative tendencies or obstacles?

• The only threat I can see is if students do not have the privacy component saved and upload videos, onto the web. Teachers role to communicate the students knowledge with families and ensure safe practices are met at home and at school.

Further information for staff development:

12teacherstaffdevelopment.com/tlb/what-are-the-benefits-of-podcasting-in-the-classroom/

How to create a podcast

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hrBbczS9I0

This week I have chosen to analyse the video for my focus tool

Video 

Students of the 21st Century have easy access to digital devices to allow them to create digital videos. I created the place story movies using my iPhone and then uploaded it to movie maker to add the voice thread and then uploaded it to vimeo. This process was timely but allowed me to edit and add the voice that I couldn't while recording, due to my children exploring and talking about the environment….

When planning for any digital experience as teachers we need to think about it's purpose and pose questions to yourself:

• link to curriculum requirements?
• facilitate higher order thinking?
• support students needs?
• is it relevant to their background?
• is it supportive of the students development?

I feel the creation of a video using all the tools we have explored this week would allow students to suit their individual levels of skills and knowledge. Students who are not so confident can explore and build on their current knowledge and skills.

The learning outcomes the students would engage in would be the following:

• Learning how to use a digital device including iPads, iPods, phones and digital cameras or video recorders.
• upload the video into moviemaker or iMovie.
• upload completed movie to youtube or vimeo to name a few.

I have stored the place story movies on vimeo.

https://vimeo.com/home/myvideos

Creating movies in the classroom caters for all learning styles, students who are creative can extend on their knowledge and skills, utilising the resources available, students who bare hands on learners can explore with their senses in their environment to create a film.

Engagement task 7- See "placestories" page: How the weather and the seasons link to our local environment:
placestories.com/story/142613

SWOT analysis videos in the classroom

Strengths- What actions does it do well?

• Sharing information with others
• Learn how to make movies and how to make them easily accessible to others.
• How to utilise voice threads to add sound to the movie
• Free

Weaknesses- What could improve?

• If students did access at home they may not use the privacy settings and this could become an issue if they put up personal photos without privacy.

Opportunities- What real opportunities are present in our contemporary society?

• Share videos with fellow classmates, could be used to prompt students to speak in front of groups.
• Students will achieve using this program, beginning to upload movies to the web/ safe access for whole class.
• If embedding videos into a blog, students may feel confident to comment in this situation.

Threats- What are the negative tendencies or obstacles?

• The only threat I can see is if students do not have the privacy component saved and upload videos, onto the web. Teachers role to communicate the students knowledge with families and ensure safe practices are met at home and at school.

                                                  SAMR model for videos in the classroom

SAMR Model	How can it be used in the classroom
Redefinition- Technology allows for the creation of new tasks, previously inconceivable. Students at this transformative level and are exploring 3D and 2D forms of technology to reach a wide audience, using ICT activities such as podcasting,multimedia presentations,animating, storytelling, TV or radio events, the possibilities are endless. Students creating movies will need to present their movie to a high level making use of the editing resources on the chosesn site for example, iMovie, movie makers etc	iMovie, voice thread, Garageband and interview assistant to name a few. These would assist the students develop the following skills, transformation, design, originating new ideas and skills. http://www.youtube.com/videos http://www.wondershare.net/ad/video-editor-win/?gclid=CPG5ifq0-bkCFcJopAodri0Auw https://vimeo.com
Modification- Technology allows for significant task redesign. Visualisation tools are required at this level including looking at the frequent words using video's to modify or redesign different ways to view.	Students using digital devices to design and to record their movie, this could include, iPads, iPods, digital cameras, video recorders and phones. The students will analyse which digital device would be the best, thinking about the weather, time of day.
Augmentation- Technology acts as a direct tool substitute with functional improvement. This is the lower level of the SAMR model which prepares the student to think at a higher level.	Quick voice, google docs and Explain everything would be a fantastic selection of apps to begin the students transformation. Explain everything app: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b00ZeszvjP4 The students would gain the ability to understand how a movie is made and what web links they may need to begin creating their movie.

Substitution- Technology acts as a direct substitute with no                              functional improvement. This is the enhancement level similar to exploring information                                                                                    through library                                                                                                                                                                                          books.

Notebooks, videos, links to websites, using google search, iThoughts, Blogs. Students will gain knowledge and skills in the following areas: describing, summarising, retrieving,explaining, locating, and interpreting what they have found. https://www.google.com.au http://www.ithoughts.co.uk/Start/ Welcome.html

The potential drawbacks to using digital devices to create movies to upload to the world wide web is the legal and ethical guidelines. Teachers would need to ensure privacy icons are utilised by all students and that they understand the importance of only placing movies that do not contain students faces, the safety aspects and reasons why will need to be enforced. We also have a responsibility to ensure students understand the copyright laws and teach this to the students from a young age.

Overall I would be happy to include this form of multimedia in my classroom and allow the students to be creative as they develop their own movie.