Skoolz Out!

Richard Lambert and I recently presented at the VITTA 2009 ‘Slide to Open’ conference held at Flemington Racecourse. The session we took was focusing on ‘Digital Storytelling’ in the everyday classroom. We enjoyed sharing our past experiences working together on our ‘Movie Magic’ unit, but also had the opportunity to reflect on our own journey’s in 2009, as we are both now at different schools.

While there are always going to be different approaches and outcomes in different environments, there is no denying the power of storytelling and its effect on humanity. Throughout history, man has created new ways to share stories, and now in this digital age, storytelling has a new medium that is faster and greater reaching than ever before.

The presentation is very visual and relied upon our verbal cues, but you still get the idea and key points of our session. Thankyou to everyone who attended for your positive and enthusiastic reception to our work.

VITTA 2009 – Digital Storytelling

I am a lover of all things visual. The more clearly my information is presented, the easier it is for me, my students and colleagues in making sense of the world.

When trying to motivate teachers to start using technology in the classroom as a part of their everyday practice, it is vital that we make it as easy as possible. There needs to be a need, a clear purpose for introducing a new tool, that improves the way it may already have been done in the classroom. If it is not quicker, easier, and does not enhance the learning process, teachers will quite understandably avoid it.

In my last post, I highlighted the power of ‘SimplyBox’ as a way of storing and sharing resources over the Internet. Its visual nature makes it easy to quickly locate what you are looking for, rather than the hit and miss method of clicking on text links. Teachers and students love how easy it is to find the important information they want, store it and retrieve it when needed. After all, isn’t this one of the key strategies and skills we should be encouraging our students to have for their futures?

Another fantastic tool is ‘Shelfari.’ This amazing program allows you to create a virtual bookshelf of books you have read, or plan on reading. It also allows you to share the books you have read and share them with your friends. While you cannot read or download the actual book, it provides you with the opportunity to review wht you have read, keep a record of books and enter discussions about books with people from all over the world. For bloggers, it even allows you to create you own ‘shelf’ and add it to your blog – as you can see on my site here. There is even the ability to add your own books to the library.

This picture is a preview of all of the books I have added, reviewed and rated to my personal page. Imagine the power of this in the classroom? Students rating, reviewing, discussing, recommending, cataloging and searching for new books, all in a visual manner.

I am not an avid reader, but strangely enough enjoyed adding some of the books I have read, rating them, and searching for new titles I may like to read next. For the reluctant reader, I see this as a fantastic way to search for a topic I am interested in using the ‘tags’ facility, and then getting some honest reviews from other people who did and did not enjoy the book.

The biggest challenge for educators would be access to the site, depending on whether the filters at your school block it out. Check out the program, my ‘shelf’ and start exploring!

Over the last weeks, my school has been fortunate enough to gain funding which we have put towards getting interactive whiteboards installed throughout the whole school. However, since the beginning of the year, we have been heavily focusing on the needs of today’s students, and how we need to be making their learning relevant to their lives, and the world they are going to inherit.

It has been pleasing to see the positive approach the staff have taken. They have been playing with the software and becoming more aware of various Web 2.0 applications to suit their classrooms. Now that we have the boards, coupled with a new learning management system ‘Studywiz’ about to be introduced, the need to have organised and visual resources to support the staff is vital to their success.

This has been a massive challenge for me for quite a while – how can I create a digital resources library that is going to make it easy for teachers to not only access, but even contribute to, without me having to spend hours creating images and hyperlinking? Photos and even videos will be linked via the learning management system, but I needed something that could gather all the web based resources and links I have collected over the years.

Bookmarking sites like Diigo are excellent, but they were still not exactly what I was after. I want a visual interface where I can see what the bookmark is, making it easy for the teachers and students to quickly acces what they need.

Enter ‘SimplyBox.’ I absolutely love everything about this program. The ability to capture a snapshot of a page, drag into my box and then share it as a webpage has answered all of my needs. By sharing the page publicly, other people can now contribute to the page as well.

I have now set up a page within Studywiz which links to the relevant ‘box’ of visual resources. When the class clicks on the link, they are then presented with a visual library of resources – it is so simple and easy to find what they are after. After all, we are more likely to rememeber a visual cue than a bunch of text, aren’t we?

So a massive pat on the back to the guys at ‘SimplyBox.’ You have created an amazing product that is practical and easy to use. It also looks like the guys are keen to keep improving the product, as demonstrated by their integration with other sites such as ‘Twitter.’

Check out the introduction, and get ready to be ‘Simply’ Amazed!

As stated in my earlier post ‘iMovie 09 – Digital Storytelling Specialist Session’ I indicated that I would show you an example of the quality work the students produced. Below is just one example from the iSchool.net.au website where our students showcase their work. The following example was made in iMovie 09 by a Year 5 student. This was his first time on this product and in less than two hours, created a moving tribute that tells a story without the need for spoken word and minimal text. I hope you enjoy it and are also amazed at what our students can achieve when we promote creative storytelling through the use of technology.

The following collection of tutorials is aimed at supporting an ‘iLife 09 – Fundamentals’ session running at Apple’s ITSC conference. I have broken down some of the key topics I will be covering in the double session, some with links to external tutorials on the web. This package will not be followed explicitly, but acts more as a revision tool for the attendees, or anyone interested in the iLife 09 package. While there are a number of links to the Apple site, there are also some excellent tutorials and discussions from Mac enthusiasts out there.

Project focus

While creating this tutorial collection, I reflected on a number of key aspects relating to teaching our students;

• We need to provide support materials, websites, wikis that students can access for ongoing support and/or guidance. Learning is ongoing and will take many mistakes and ongoing support before we can grasp a concept.
• That teacher and student presentations should not always be linear, that is, progress from one slide to the next in a set order. This slideshow demonstrates a nonlinear approach, where the viewer has the ability to jump from section to section as needed. This is reflected in most webpages, yet is often still ignored when presenting slideshows. This also resulted in a frustration when trying to upload to ‘Slideshare’ – the linear nature did not allow the presentation to work properly!)

iLife 09 Tutorial Collection

Just a quick post to share an ‘awesome’ day. One of those days when you really appreciate your craft and the impact it can have on the children.

Today was the first of 2 ‘Specialist Training’ sessions as a part of our Year 5/6 Digital Storytelling/Movie Magic course. In these sessions, each student group splits into training classes where they will become the expert in an area, which they will ultimately share with the group when they commence working on their own film. These sessions are divided into such areas as scriptwriting, camera work, music, sound FX, etc.

My session focus was on creating a basic Digital Story with the children using some Creative Commons ANZAC images. We were also introduced to the new iMovie 09 package from Apple. My main concerns for the day were;

1. How would they approach the limitations placed on them with only using still images

2. How would they take to the new package, as some were quite familiar with the iMovie 06 version.

This session, and the products produced, far outweighed my initial expectations. The students took to iMovie 09 like ducks to water. They loved the fact that they could in no way ‘destroy’ the initial clips, the variety of new themes and transitions, and the fact they no longer had to wait for the ‘little red line’ to update their changes.

While the technology was a big focus, there were a number of 21st century skills that I explicitly focused on with the children that I feel improved their understanding and overall products.

• Organising their resources – importing photos from the server, creating folders and labeling them in iPhoto. Setting up their workspace to suit them in ‘iMovie.’
• Less is more – a discussion about minimal movement with the ‘Ken Burns’ effect, transitions that do not detract from the presentation or make the viewer notice them, timing photos to match and reflect the passage of music.
• What are we trying do? What is the message? – These continual reminders are vital. Why are the clips sequenced in this way? Why are you using that transition in that spot? What part of the image is the viewer being drawn to look at? Why are you focusing on that part of the photo? Can you create a story without relying on a sub-title to explain it to the viewer?

The focus, collaboration and engagement was sensational. There were a number of students that produced some amazing ‘stories’ which I will share with you in the next few days when they are finished and exported.

You may also be interested in joining the ‘Digital Storytelling – Action Stations’ group where we will be collaborating, supporting and offering new ideas in making Digital Storytelling a success in the classroom. Click on the ‘badge’ on this blog to join the conversation.

I have just finished reading a very interesting article by Dr Michael Nagel on the impact technology is having on the brain and our behaviour. If you think back 5 years ago, how much has technology changed, and how much of an impact has this had on your life? With the advent of such technology such as the iphone, you can now be checking emails, twittering, checking a website, updating your blog, posting a photo to the net and accepting telephone calls at any moment of the day – and sometimes all at the same time!

Ponder for a moment what this means for the students of today. In my day (gee, I am officially old!), I would have the music going and usually be distracted by the electric guitar calling my name in the corner of the room as I tried to study. Today, it would not be uncommon for a regular homework session to include iTunes pumping through the speakers or their iPod, texting on the mobile, twittering, updating their MySPace or Facebook pages while they chat on MSN or play an online MMORPG such as Runescape. PHEW! Is there any wonder that maybe nothing gets done at all.

Surely there must be some impact all of this technology is having on our brains and behaviours as even mere males become more competent at multi-tasking their technological devices.

ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) & ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder)

While they have been diagnosed as some sort of behavioural disorder since the 1970s, there is no doubt there has been an increase in the number of children with these disorders as they became more widely understood and accepted. While inheriting these disorders is present in some cases, there has been a link associated with the person’s environment. The constant changing of focus and concentration as we shuffle through such a wide variety of technologies being used for communication must be impacting on the brain’s function and our ability to focus for sustained periods. If so, this could mean some massive changes in the social and emotional behaviours of our children.

Here & Now

Today, we expect things to happen instantly. We wait for immediate responses to text messages on our phones and through social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and MSN. When we are not replied to immediately, or we are unable to make contact, we become impatient and even agitated. How is this change in our expectations impacting upon our behaviour? Students expect their questions to be answered immediately, if not by the teacher then usually the first hit that Google delivers. Sit in any discussion with teachers and at some point the topic about of how children of today are not as resilient and persistent as in previous generations, and how do we combat this, will normally be raised.

Ramifications for the classroom.

So what does all of this mean for the everyday teacher? These points have reminded me that we need to explicitly expose students to the enormous wealth of information on the Internet, but also teach how to be critical and intelligent consumers of it.

We need to consistently provide learning opportunities that promote the development of basic skills such as;

• Collaboration – the ability to work in teams, discuss, justify, explore, share knowledge and understandings. These skills become even more important when using new technology. Each student sitting at a computer working individually and silently is not always best practice. Providing opportunities for both styles when utilising technology is vital.

• Search Engines – how to use a search engine properly, its advanced features, how to analyse and interpret the search results. While this may have been a big focus when the Internet exploded in education, we cannot assume that the students are equipped with these skills, even though they are confident users of the technology. To most people reading this blog, you are probably already doing a number of these things in your classrooms, but what about the large number of our colleagues who are not?

• Time management – asking students to focus on one activity for sustained periods when they may not be capable of doing this. Teachers still using the same old techniques are probably finding many of their students are becoming disengaged. The usual barrier for teachers is to resort to – what is wrong with them? They cannot listen, concentrate, etc. These behaviours are all by-products of a society that is now demanding that everything is done instantly, visually and interactively. These skills need to be taught.

• Downtime – teaching students and providing time for the brain to ‘log off’ or ‘refresh’ is often seen as wasted time. The quality of our work will ultimately disintegrate the longer we try to remain focussed. As the pace of life continues to increase, can you say that you are effectively modeling this for your students? Every chance we get, we seem to be completing some form of administrative task. Where is our world heading as we continue to create more hardware and software that makes us so easily accessible 24/7?

Teachers should be aware and providing a healthy mix of a wide range of approaches, with an importance on social activities that require collaboration, discussion, justification. We need to explicitly teach these skills that we take for granted, and that our students possibly have not developed as efficiently as we would expect, as we work through our lesson focus. It is just another reminder that the technology is a tool, or medium for the learning, not the sole focus.

The recent holiday break has reminded me of a number of things – how organised I am at work and with all things digital, yet my working space at home, personal calendars, and resources are completely disorganised – much to the frustration of my wife and friends who tolerate this. The recent ‘family clean up’ of these spaces (which continues) reminded me of a number of things I have been trying to do in my new role as a technology facilitator at a primary school.

This year, I have the unique role where I am supporting teachers in the classroom to develop effective technology skills throughout the entire curriculum. These may be individual ‘tutorials’, small group or team teaching projects. 

No matter which class or year level I am in, it is obvious that all teachers need to be organised. We thrive on it. Some of us will spend hours developing one lesson, while others will know where a specific pen will be at any stage in their classroom. 

So why are teachers so disorganised when it comes digital resources? What impact does this have for our students?

This became one of the most important aspects to my role this year – organisation of resources. If teachers are having trouble finding or sharng their work, then it simply won’t happen. As we are focusing heavily on incorporating Interactive Whiteboards as a tool into our teaching, it has become vital that teachers need to have a common location where they can search for resources and save their own creations.

In doing this we are promoting a number of things – 21st Century technology skills, accessing more interactive and visual resources into our lessons, and promoting collaboration between the staff. 

Although my role is technology, there is still plenty to learn about – as there always is. As I have been researching and reading more about the variety of tools available, I have realised that simply loading the resources into folders on a server is not adequate.

The variety of open source software available to create searchable libraries is substantial. These libraries can create visuals of your resources, allow teachers to easily search them and house them all in the one place. One of the most important skills it will promote to the teachers, and skills they should be sharing with their students is uploading resources, and ‘tagging,’ ‘categorising’ and adding ‘favourites’ for future use. 

These features are key components of all types of Web 2.0 software such as blogs, flickr, YouTube, etc, and even in the last few updates of the Apple iLife software. In an age where we are bombarded with information and resources, we need to teach our students how to manage them efficiently, as well as be productive contributors.

Some of the software I have found so far that seems to cater for these needs include; Razuna, ccHost, and Huddle.

If you have any experience or knowledge in this area, I would love to hear from you.

After the overwhelming success of the ‘Skoolz Out’ project outlined in the previous post, the plan was to see if we could run with another Inquiry Based Learning program (IBL) which would incorporate an even more expansive set of skills. From our previous experience, we learned a number of vital lessons in running an IBL classroom and discovered the importance of;

• a functional working space – open/shared classrooms with access to smaller working spaces. The key was visibility for the teacher at all times.
• planning – a thorough understanding of the knowledge and skills associated with the topic is vital for the teacher. It was also vital to present a variety of skills and methods for the students, before training them in an area of expertise that they would ultimately share with one another.
• producing a quality product – If we allow our students to produce garbage, they will! We all enjoy a shortcut, and the IBL classroom is no different. While it will promote creativity, engagement and powerful learning opportunities, there still needs to be clear goals and targets for the students to achieve. It is OK to say ‘That is not good enough’ as long as we are able to promote ways of improving the product.
• informal and formal sharing of expertise – planned lessons, inquiry and reflection.
• having the appropriate tools available at all times – this is where the technology proved so important. Students have regular access to the technology, when they need it. A big challenge for all schools.

Attached here are some pictures for you to use in making your own demo iMovie. 

Click on the image to be taken to the full size picture.

Hold down CTRL and click on the picture. 

Select ‘Add Image To iPhoto Library’

You can now access these shots from the iPhoto window in iMovie.

Enjoy

AB