How has the explosion of web based video changed the teaching and learning landscape?

We had two links to explore for this question.  The first, an article in the NY Times Magazine by Kevin Kelly, Becoming Screen Literate.  He states

Screens are everywhere …………… These ever-present screens have created an audience for very short moving pictures, as brief as three minutes, while cheap digital creation tools have empowered a new generation of filmmakers, who are rapidly filling up those screens.

When technology shifts, it bends the culture. Once, long ago, culture revolved around the spoken word.

This would have to be the single most astounding effect the explosion of web-based video has had on the teaching and learning landscape.  No longer are we bound by textbooks and studio-produced video tapes.  No longer are we limited in our resources to help our students learn.  No longer are we “just the teachers” and students “just the learners”.

The explosion of web-based video has provided us with more opportunities to help students understand concepts and practise skills.  As Kelly so eloquently points out, cheap digital creation tools have empowered our students to take control of their own learning and the learning of others in a way never experienced in schools before.

Of course, not all of the effects of this explosion are positive.  Our rapidly filling pile of web-based videos contain a mass of “rubbish” not suitable, nor appropriate, nor substantial enough for education.  One might ask “Doesn’t this make more work for the teaching and learning landscape as you sift through the ever-growing pile of video now available on the web?  Kelly thought of this also.

The holy grail of visuality is to search the library of all movies the way Google can search the Web. Everyone is waiting for a tool that would allow them to type key terms, say “bicycle + dog,” which would retrieve scenes in any film featuring a dog and a bicycle.

It is a formidable task, but in the past decade computers have gotten much better at recognizing objects in a picture than most people realize.

So we may conclude that this will not be a problem forever.

We are teaching and learning in the 21st century.  There are certain skills that we as teachers and as learners need to acquire.  Web-based video is one of those tools that allow us to connect, communicate and collaborate easily with others around the world.  Jamie McKenzie’s article Questioning Video, Film, Advertising & Propaganda: Deconstructing Media Messages gives us a good overview of those visual literacy skills we need to be exposing our learners to in the 21st Century.  What was once “literary devices” in an English Class are now “film devices” in our literacy classes.

One of the effects of the web-based video explosion would then also include the necessity of ensuring that learners possess the skills of critical thinking and as McKenzie states:

the importance of being able to understand information when presented through through a variety of media.

McKenzie pointed out in his article that there is little explicit clear commitment to the critical analysis and debunking of film, media, advertising and propaganda.  These are the skills that we must therefore including in our teaching and learning environment in reaction to the explosion of web-based video.  We must make sure that we engage students in careful, critical analysis.

It’s been a couple of years since I last made a screencast.  I find them incredibly useful for tutorials – especially to help students complete tasks at home or during their “downtime” in the classroom.

We have a variety of free tools at our finger tips for recording screencasts – which are essentially  “just in time” screen-capture movies of your desktop with audio.

Back in the ol’ days when I worked at a PC school, I used CamStudio – a delightful, easy to use free download software but it was for PC’s only (I hear there is a paid version for the mac now).

Screencasts mean that Students can watch a tutorial over and over again, in their own time, stopping and starting them as they desire.  What I like the most about screencasts is the potential for use in the classroom and the fact that it’s just not the teacher that has to create them!  We’re going to be using screencasts to show our mathematical thinking when we multiply and divide – explaining to others in the classroom (and world as we’ll put them on our own blogs!) how our favourite strategy works.  Here’s just a few other ideas for screencasting:-

• Tutorials for web2.0 tools
• Tutorials for specific lessons in different curriculum areas
• Tutorials for “How to’s”
• Catch up tutorials for students absent from class
• Teacher absent? – Screencast for those important points that you really want students to know!

Screencasts are so good for those learners that just need a visual as well as an aural explanation as well as the opportunity to watch something again, in their own time, and without having to feel like they’re not smart just because they benefit from hearing/seeing something many times.

Since there’s no CamStudio for the mac (well not a free version anyway), we still have a few free options.  There’s Jing (personally I find it a bit clunky, limiting and I don’t like the file extension it uses) and then there’s the SMARTrecorder.  (both Mac & PC)

Of course if I were rich …………… my ultimate choice of screencasting software would, without a doubt, be ScreenFlow.

Below is a quick little Screencast that I made with the SMARTrecorder in 5 minutes to demonstrate to my class how to sign onto VoiceThread and leave a comment.
It was super easy to use, and being able to chose the screen capture area (default capture is the whole desktop) was a bonus!  The only thing I didn’t like about SMARTrecorder was that you can’t see the mouse!!  I’m going to ask my students tomorrow if this is a real hinderance or if they understand the tutorial just the same.  I think it’s a little confusing in some parts, not to see exactly where I’m clicking!  What do you think?

I use blip.tv for storing my movie files – it’s free, you get lots of storage space, multiple uploading feature and the rendering of your video is pretty quick.  On the odd occassion, I might use TeacherTube or YouTube.

Our CoETaIL leaders (aka: Kim Cofino & Jeff Utecht) have asked us to reflect on a presentation we have created in the past looking at how we would implement new visual presentations techniques to better communicate your message to your audience.

One of the best books I bought over the “Summer” break was Garr Reynolds‘ book,  presentationzen Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery. It’s an informative read and is full of ideas, reasons and ways to ensure that you’re not contributing scores of to the “Death by Powerpoint” group!  My favourite new term is slideument – a cross between a slide and a document.  I know I’ve been guilty of a few “slideuments” in my time!!

Marketing guru and presenter extraordinaire, Seth Godin, contributes to presentationzen with the idea that

communication is the transfer of emotion

He says you can improve your presentation immediately by:

Making slides that reinforce your words, not repeat them.  These slides should demonstrate, with emotional proof, that what you’re saying is true not just accurate.  No more than six words on a slide. EVER.

Don’t use cheesy images. Use professional stock photo images.

No dissolves, spins or other transitions. Keep it simple.

Create a written document. A leave-behind.  Put in as many footnotes as you like. Tell the audience that you’re going to five them all the details of your presentation after it’s over, & they don’t have to write down everything you say. DON’T hand out printouts of your slides.  They don’t work without you there.

I’ve been trying to use presentationzen during the writer’s workshop mini-lesson for my Grade 5 students.  I’m hoping that the visual images will help to stimulate creativity and emotion.  I did think that my slides were presentationzen – after reading the above message from Seth Godin, I’ve discovered that they’re weren’t quite there yet.  I had transitions still, the slides repeated my words, not reinforced them and some had more than six words!

I’ve come to the realisation that the words are on the slides for me, rather than the students, and this is a direct reflection of how much I am still not comfortable with the writing workshop mini-lessons from Lucy Calkins.  I’m using her words, her ideas and I haven’t yet managed to formulate my own words and ideas about teaching writing workshop style mini-lessons.  (but now I digress ……).  Below is a sample of a “before” page and then an “after” page.  Apart from the last suggestion from Seth Godin about creating a writing document (which I guess we do in a way when we hang reminder charts everywhere in the classroom for writing and reading) – I think I’ll definitely stick to the other suggestions.

Before …….

After …….

Garr Reynolds believes

One of the most important things you can do in the initial stage of preparing for your presentation is to get away from your computer.

My planning has always taken place at the computer, so I’m willing to give this a go to see if it helps me be more true to the presentationzen ideal.

I’ll also be asking myself his two questions as I prepare my next presentations:

What’s your point? Why does it matter?