Yum! Projects!

Delicious cell project created by a 7th grade science student.

My son's The Scarlet Letter Project. It was all I could do to keep him from making an F on this one because it looked and smelled so good. 

As yummy as both projects look do they really teach others about cells or Nathaniel Hawthorne's literary masterpiece?

It is getting close to the end of the term and that usually means project time. This morning the 7th grade students from one team were bringing in all kinds of ways to show parts of cells for their science class. There were models, poster boards, and even some delicious looking cells (see the photo above).

This brought me back to something I have been thinking of over the past few week, should students create computer programs for projects? One group of students are creating an interactive cell using Scratch for their final project in my class. The thought first occurred to me when I observed students doing their Scratch during the semester. Last week I mentioned to a science teacher that one group of students was creating an interactive cell program and her eyes grew big. It seems to me that teachers would like to see something new. Not only that but something that would actually be useful in teaching something to other students.

Lately I have been requiring my students show value in what their projects can offer. Part of this would mean creating projects that may do more than demonstrate what the creator knows about the topic. What can that project offer to other people to increase their knowledge of that topic. Is that not what the creation and distribution of information is all about? When my 6th grade students started creating video commercials for library books I told them they would be used by our media specialist during the morning school news show. The students thought I was joking until they started seeing what their classmates had turned in on the Promethean boards of their first period classes. This realization motivated those who had not finished their videos to start taking their work more seriously. 

If students realize that what they do will actually be used by teachers or other school personnel for a purpose they will work harder to make sure their work is correct. For now on I can tell students that any project they complete may show up in places they have never dreamed of before.

Here is an example of a Scratch program that teaches about cells that was created by a team from my Computer Technology 7 class. Not bad for four days of work.

Woody Rant: Phone Mounts

Okay, I can't take it anymore. One of the things pundits, "experts", and even my own friends said when Cisco decided to kill my beloved Flip camera line was "people are starting to use their phones to create video." I can understand that logic up to a point. Even I reach for my phone more often than not to take pictures or videos. Television shows show people grabbing their phones to record some fight or other altercation. The video camera on my Motorola Atrix is better than my Flip camcorder because the Atrix can shoot in HD. Big woop! I sometimes shooting HD at the consumer/amateur level is overblown anyway. Do you all want all of your flaws shown in glorious color? Didn't think so. A television news reporter I know almost broke into tears when I announced I could now see her show in 42 inches of High Definition glory and she preps for looking good on television everyday.

Alright, if phones are the new recorders of our lives then where are the accessories that help do the job? Mainly tripod mounts. The pickings are pretty slim. Amazon has a few that supposedly fit the iPhone 3GS or iPhone 4. That's it. David Warlick once observed that in the future, people will think we only have one arm because the other one is working the phone/camera. I say another question future historians pouring over Facebook pages will have is did these people never have any fun? They are never in the pictures uploaded on the ancient social network site. On second thought this might be a good thing depending on what is going on.

If phones are supposed to function as cameras then they need the accessories to help with the task. I tried to interview someone with my phone once and it was not a pleasant experience. My arms ached because I had to hold them still for so long. Naturally, the video was jerky because I could not hold the camera still. A tripod is designed to cure that. So all I am asking for is a decent tripod mount so I can shoot some decent 720p HD video with my phone. Hey people is that so hard!?

Kirk schools Khan

Something I always wanted to do is teach a lesson on a new concept to students via video while I had to be away from school. I wanted to see how well this could work in delivering instruction and avoid giving make-work to students to keep them occupied. While creating how-to videos are nothing new to me, I had usually given instruction and used the videos as a supplement for teachers and students to use for review if I was not available for questions. However, I have never created a video that would replace me as an instructor. There were some questions about this always running through my mind. Would students totally understand it? Would they be totally lost? Would I do such a good job that I might actually produce my way out of a job?

The perfect opportunity to test my theory came last week when I had to miss two classes. I needed to teach a lesson on blogging I could no longer put off. Again, I did not want to create another make-work assignment of having students read a cybersafety or technology article online then answer some questions in Edmodo or the technological worksheet. I started putting together my video plan two days before I was to be absent. First, I wanted to outline what needed to be taught which turned into six individual lessons. Next, I used Jing to get the screen shots and screen captures of the blogging tool we were going to use. To create the edited video I used Microsoft Live Movie Maker (educator's guide)because I was doing this at school and I needed the practice since I was teaching it later. Finally, I created the blogging assignment the students would do while working with the videos and uploaded it all to Edmodo. I was amazed Edmodo was able to digest a blogging assignment, six video lessons, and a link to Kidblog.org. Later these videos were uploaded to YouTube so students could access them from home easily. When the day came, fortune smiled on me because the substitute who took my classes was a retired teacher I had worked with in the pass and greatly respected for her professionalism. I could have no better person to try this stunt with because she would keep the students on task.

Today was the first day back with the students I used with my little video experiment. I posted a poll in Edmodo to see what they thought of the video experience. The question was "How well did the video lessons on blogging work for you when I was out?" Forty-two students responded to my poll. 30.95% of the respondents said they "Understood everything about blogging now. 40.48% said they understood some of what the videos showed but still needed me to answer some questions. 14.29% said they still wanted me to teach them in class but the videos could be helpful later if they got stuck on something. Another 14.29% said the videos were not helpful at all and they needed the teacher to teach them. What I gathered from this small, unscientific sampling is while video instruction can be helpful but a teacher is still needed to guide and help the students totally understand a lesson.

Teachers can easily create their own lessons using screen shots, screen capture, Livescribe pencasts, and other recording methods. The biggest investment is the time it takes to create these lessons. Also, as one teacher friend who I helped in a similar project said, "It is disconcerting to be teaching to an empty classroom." He could never do a recording when students were around because he had to edit out so much. The Khan Academy and it's wealth of videos on a variety of math, science, economic, and other subject areas is another great resource. While there are some misguided people who think videotaping "great" teachers teaching and showing them to all students will help solve education's problems, it will be the best teachers who will use videos as one more tool in their toolbox of learning to reach all students.

Teacher Bytes Episode 15

This is the first attempt at video blogging. The Flip Video camcorder was used to create this posting. I have also used this camcorder to record some video around school with success. I will post more about the Flip in a later blog post. I also discuss how video did liven a class up I was working with today.

Gotta Look Good on TV

In the movie Back to the Future there was a scene when Dr. Brown realized why Ronald Reagan became president. He was looking at a video camera and says, "No wonder your president has to be an actor, he's gotta look good on TV." After using WIZiQ for two staff development projects, teaching our Smart Board teachers how to record Smart Board use, Animoto for some slide shows, Voice Thread (thanks Cathy Nelson for this tip) for annotated slide shows. and observing uStream.tv, I realize teachers of the future will not only have to look good on video, they will have to become producers, directors, videographers, editors, set designers, and anything else needed to produce a video. Maybe it is time education schools start looking into introducing media creation skills into education curriculum.

Video Killed the Podcasting Star?

Yahoo will be shutting down Yahoo Podcasts on October 31st after two years. According to a Yahoo News story from Associated Press, the move is part of the company's cost cutting program to make the company more profitable. Other podcast listing services are also hurting as interest is shifting to online video according to a Tech Crunch article.

Most people, including myself , who jumped on the podcasting bandwagon are finding that keeping a sustained podcast going is a difficult task or they get bored and move on to other things such as video. Another thing is most commercially successful podcasts are done by those with broadcasting experience and better equipment which will attract and keep audiences. Finally, like all hot trends, the market gets saturated and cannot sustain 100 podcasts on a particular topic.

This does not mean podcasting is no longer useful in education. While sustaining a podcast on one topic can be tough, schools can always come up with fresh material as different students use their talents and personality in a podcast. Schools and teachers that use podcasts to showcase their school and its students will always fill a niche that no one else can fill. It still is a good exercise for students to open up or do something new to do for projects. It still opens the door for those outside of school to see what is going on. This audience can be from grandparents living miles away or local community members who want to know what their schools, for which they pay hard-earned tax dollars to support, are doing. Video production may be increasing but nothing beats podcasting for being a cheap, easy, and quick media for education.