Well, maybe Sketchcast might work for you. Not only that, you can embed Sketchcast castings(?) into your subject pages – even encourage students to present their ideas using sketchcast – the possiblities are only limited by your imagination!
After following Bee’s blog post about u-learning and watching to Scoble video, I skipped over to YouTube and picked up the designing learning spaces (or more accurately, the ‘antinormalizer’) video Bee refers to, about re-scripting spaces in which we learn (blog post is here).
Take a look – it’s left-field and will no doubt get you thinking about how learning spaces can change as we engage more and more with ubiquitous technologies like mobile phones. It certainly got me thinking about how we use spaces (think of how often you go to a shopping centre these days and what it’s actually made up of!). Perhaps we’re underusing our spaces, or perhaps we could reconfigure our spaces for multiple uses more?
Likewise, if you want to find out more about m-learning and mobile phones in learning, you might want to get over to CIT Reid campus in Canberra where Alex Hayes is presenting – quick, he’s already started!
This is a resource to inspire and support you to take the e-learning path in your teaching practice. We present six excellent case studies for you to read. They are all examples of trade teachers from the building trades currently using e-learning tools to improve the flexibility and the impact of their teaching. In all cases, they have found that their students’ motivation and enjoyment in learning has significantly improved. We also provide a model that will guide you through your e-learning journey. This model is built on discussions with trade teachers who have already gone down this path.
The project promotes a Do-It-Yourself model of e-learning for trade-based industries, which shows the practicalities of delivering training in the trades. I’d encourage reading the model overview PDF. It elaborates on the model itself and presents a strategic approach to e-learning in an accessible way, not only for the trades but for any teacher or learner in VET! If you’re familair with action learning, this model presents itself in a similar way to an action learning cycle.
Oh, and if you just want to get in there and DO something, there’s plenty of neat tools available!
Karl Fisch and Co have done a great job in capturing the thoughts of their students on blogging, as they’ve used it in their learning over the past year or so.
Here’s a quick list of points the students reflect on in the video…
it’s like an extension of the physical classroom
able to continue the discussion online
see what other’s are thinking
expand your ideas
see and add to multiple (and mature) points of view
use “scribe blogging” – like taking minutes of the session (good for those who are absent, or who need some review)
“live/fishbowl” blogging together (in realtime)
are accountable for own (public) comments and discussions
allows quieter students to have a ‘voice’ beyond the classroom
can make so many connections (between subjects studied)
can look back on discussions later
professional development blogging (for teachers) – clarify thinking/language, teacher as learner, diminish distance, extend professional network, maintain relationships (beyond getting a grade)
feel more informed and connected
changing the way we think, faster and more efficiently
connecting us beyond our school – part of the worldwide “human network”
there’s a community feeling (strange as it via a computer)
Who: 16 teachers from the Language Centre, FOCCUS (requested by Margot McKenna)
What: Using ImageMixer software to capture, edit and output video from Language Centre camcorders.
While I would normally not focus on a specific piece of video software in a workshop like this, ImageMixer is necessary with the Language Center camcorders if teachers wish to connect them to their computers via USB. They are able to use other software if connecting with a DV/Firewire cable however most CIT computers don’t have Firewire ports.
That said, in the process of using the ImageMixer software, I found it quite userfriendly and a handy tool for beginners with video.
This workshop went pretty well and in the course of two hours we were able to cover a lot of ground – ranging from video capture to editing and outputting video files to add to the CIT streaming server and then on to WebCT.
Feedback was universally positive and there is a lot of interest in follow up workshops.
The plan at this stage is for teachers to spend some time with the language center camcorders and the ImageMixer software and come back in a few weeks with questions that we can use to build a further workshop on.
