I wanted to try to make my own video and learn how to put it onto my blog.
I created the video with my webcam on my laptop. Then I editted it using Acer Arcade Deluxe to create an mpg3 file (if you use MovieMaker you would have made a .wmv file (Windows Media Video)).
Then I had to find somewhere to store the video and was recommended Blip TV by Matthew Kearney. You sign up and then bliptv will store your videos for you, just upload them (free).
Then I copied the embedded code and pasted it here…
The content is not to do with technology – I made a Maths Resource with cardboard and a set-square, a ruler and string – but it was an interesting process to create a video to be used for demonstration (”instructionist” use of technology to be used to inspire construction) and learn how to share it.
So this is not a mathcast (see Madhu’s blog post and my prior post) as it does not involve an interactive whiteboard but does it classify as a Vodcast? It is “video on demand”.
When I was on Prac, my school gave lessons via SmartBoard and emailed marked up copies of the lesson to any students who were away. They were not mathcasts as they were not videos of the interactive lesson but were SmartBoard files that the student could read. Mathcasts sound like a useful tool if there is no teacher available.
I found out about Geocaching in an article called Geocaching for Fun and Learning by Mary Alice Anderson (a US media specialist and online educator) in Multimedia & Internet Schools magazine Vol 15(2) 2008.
Geocaching.com and other geocache websites enable people around the world to participate in VERY active learning. A Geocache can come in many forms – it may be:
a hidden box containing a log book (that you sign when you find it) and a trinket (that you may keep and replace with another)
a virtual cache – a real place, landmark or just a plaque of historical or other interest,
a microcache – tiny the size of a film cannister
a multicache – where one has clues to find the next
It can be a learning exercise to find a cache and there may be an exercise contained in the cache. This could be used in any KLA. You can create geocaches yourself and register them.
Just enter your postcode on the website to find geocaches near you. At Geocaching.com I can see one in the next suburb to where I live. The cache has details like how much time you need to spend at the site. You put the cache’s co-ordinates into a GPS unit and hone in. This is the only hitch – a GPS unit is a requirement.
Teachers could set up a multicache for an excursion that included learning about your KLA and have some rewards hidden in them. For Maths, students will learn about map skills, topography and longitude and latitude.
You could even set up a quest for geocaches involving a few local schools just to add some interest.
I followed Chris Betcher’s blog (address is on the UTS Online Digital Learning Staff bubble) and got to Danny Nicholson’s blog.
I have attached a slideshow about Blogging in Schools – he has some very valid points about using blogging with your classes. There are some guidelines about not displaying any personal information, using first names only, etc. and examples for blog use eg. Journals, school trip logs.
I just read Margaret’s comments on Truly, Madly, Deeply Engaged. This article references the “My Media” generation. “My Media” meaning that this generation tailor what media they receive including what advertisements. Some of us are doing this already – tailoring our view of the internet and subscribing to blog updates that are pertinent to our interests.
Margaret is concerned that it is difficult to keep tabs of what our 13-year olds are exposed to if advertising targets personalised media devices such as PDAs and mobile phones. I agree but was encouraged to see that research (page 26) has shown that the “youth in mature online markets” are the ones least to want to receive advertising on personal devices such as PDAs, mobile phones and MP3 players. This particularly applies to the youth in US and China, whereas other countries, such as India, where personal media is newer, are less critical about the value of advertisements on their personal media.
The other encouraging thing is that you can now avoid advertising if you want. TiVo can record movies and remove all advertisements but apparently Australia is disabling this feature!
I know that children find advertisments entertaining and useful in showing them what is newly available. My son loves the Jumping Jax advertisement.
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The Media Revolution showing us becoming “prosumers” (producers and consumers of information). This is an interesting prediction about the future of media from now to 2051! Have a look!
“age is less important than exposure to technology”.
I agree (coming from a computing career to teaching)! However I don’t quite classify myself as a digital native in all aspects – I don’t do IM and I … don’t have an iPod (partly money priorities, partly time reasons).
The Oblingers recommend to ask yourself questions, like:
Are you more comfortable composing documents online than longhand? YES!
Have you turned your “remembering” (phone numbers, meetings, and so on) over to a technology device? YES!
Do you go to meetings with your laptop or PDA? Sometimes!
Are you constantly connected? Is the Internet always on whether you are at home or work? Is your cell phone always with you? YES!
How many different activities can you effectively engage in at one time? LOADS! as long as one is not an essay!
Do you play video or computer games? Well….
So maybe we are allowed to be considered as “part Net Gen”.
I don’t know if I believe Net Gen’s brain structures have changed. Does evolution work that fast? I am one of the first ones to start researching a project via Google or UTS Online Library – it’s easier!!! As Tania says don’t carbon date digital natives. Surely we all use technology when given the time, opportunity and motivation to do so…
… once we’ve picked the Net Gen 1 up from swim training, dropped Net Gen 2 off to Soccer Practice, packed Net Gen 3’s bag for Year 5 camp tomorrow, shopped, washed, cooked dinner …
In their future careers, will the Net Gen’s be glad we have taught them via IM and blogging and reinforced their ‘distractability’ or is it lack of attention span. Depends on their career choice – journalist or IT Professional – probably not, surgeon – hmm?
As one experienced teacher said “they either love you during the year and hate you after the exams, or hate you during the year and love you after the exams”. Once curriculum is not pressured by external exams and we can follow student-directed learning and interests then this will be a lot easier to do. But when you have your department head’s plan for the term with Lesson 1 Place Value, Lesson 2 Comparing Decimals, Lesson 3 Adding and Subtracting Decimals, Lesson 4 Multiplying and Dividing by powers of 10, Lesson 5 Multiplying by Whole Numbers and Decimals,…. What about rural schools vs wealthy city-based schools? I agree with Tracey’s posting on this one – the widening social divide.
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