Category Archives: Digital Video

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Why Go To NECC When You Can Just Skype It!?

OK so nothing is like really being there … but this was pretty good. Wes Fryer set up an international Skypecast to share what was learned at NECC 2006 – thanks for laying the groundwork Wes!

Here’s a link to his podcast of our Skypecast.


So what is a Skypecast? A free (as the old saying goes, “Free is a good price!”) conference call basically … only better. When I saw Wes’s request for participants I went to Skype’s web site and downloaded the free software … which was a breeze by the way, then answered a few questions like login name and password and maybe 1 or 2 others – 5 minutes tops and probably less than that. Wes had a link on his blog to the exact Skypecast, when you get there it tells you the name of the Skypecast and what time it is scheduled for. At the correct time I opened Skype, went to Wes’s Skype page, clicked on the link that said something like “Join This Skypecast” and I could hear voices. A window opens that shows the screen names of everyone attending and that was that.

We had a great conversation that lasted for over 2 hours. And get this … not one of us had attended NECC 2006 – but we had all participated virtually through all the various blog entries, podcasts, vidcasts, and so on offered by the convention and individuals. So we disussed an event none of us physically attended but still participated in at a certain level and shared our thinking about it. One of the coolest things was that several people joined in the Skypecast that were not teachers or edtech people and they added seamlessly to the conversation and had great insights because they weren’t educators or edtech people. Some of us stayed until the end and others came and went. A few popped up and listened in, decided this was not for them and went away. Imagine using this to connect teachers, students, experts …. you get the picture.

One way this is different than a phone call is that because you are already using your computer to make the connection, your computer is right there to make notes on, look up web pages that others are discussing, Wes even downloaded software to record the conversation during the Skypecast, left for about 2 minutes to install it, came back on and recorded the rest for his podcast – but I should not steal Wes’s thunder – you can hear it all for yourself, Wes has notes and links for you, but most important I encourage you to join in on future Skypecasts and keep the conversation going!

Learning is messy!

Update: David Warlick just posted about reveling in the conversations at NECC 2006, but also lamenting those that he missed. Dave this post is about a way to help keep those conversations going and maybe even having those that you missed!

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Your Child’s Dream Best School Day – What Does It Look Like? What Should It Be?

There is much rumination in the edblogosphere about what education and schools should look like in this way or that. Kids should be blogging, using web 2.0 applications (Wikis, podcasts, Flickr, the flavor-of-the-week app), in conjuction with project-based, problem-based learning. The reality in the elementary classroom however is not a blank slate that you can manipulate any way you want.

But let’s say it was a blank slate – and not only is it a blank slate, but YOUR child is in this class. What would you want your child to be doing in this classroom? They can’t just sit and blog all day. This is an elementary school classroom – what things would you want to hear your child saying they were doing in that classroom? Remember, there are usually mandatory minutes that must be spent on reading, language and math (and yes the other subjects too, but take my word, somehow the minutes of science, social studies, art, PE, etc. are not watched over in quite the same way).

So, what’s your child’s (or grandcild’s) ultimate learning day look like? I’d love to hear your ideas. If you are reading this you probably have some opinions, probably strong opinions about this, but have you ever thought about or planned a whole “typical” day? Here’s your challenge. Take your thoughts and biases and ideas and opinions and learning and experience and conversations and put them all together. Make it a comment here, or make it a post on your blog.

Don’t make this a minute by minute, long, drawn out thing (unless you want to), just a rough outline of what a great learning day would include.

I think this would help many people get a handle on what is being advocated on ed blogs, and give us all a chance to put our plan where our advocacy is. Any takers?
Learning is messy!

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Messy Learning Examples

I mentioned in an earlier post that some of the most important learning that happens isn’t part of your lesson plan because you can’t account for everything that MIGHT happen during a project. Here are some recent examples from our most recent video project.

One group needed some pictures of what living stickleback fish look like (the fossils we found were of extinct fish). The group searched the net and found some good examples and were just going to use them. From that a copyright discussion ensued – so we ended up emailing photographers to get permission. Since the pictures the students wanted to use were all from university web sites that got the professors interested in what the students were doing and they want copies of the video.

At one point the transition scenes with titles had no sound associated with them, and the students felt that was fine. They thought it was fine until about the third time they watched it – then it was boring and they decided they needed to do voiceovers on at least some of them – so we did.

Of course in their excitement to have a video on the internet each group wanted their scene to be as long as possible – but 5 out of 7 groups ended up deciding to edit their scenes considerably to make them more understandable and less boring.

Students were very reluctant to do the voiceover work (with a few exceptions, there are hams in every group) it was embarrassing or scary… and you might make a mistake… oh my gosh! After a few brave souls did theirs … and made mistakes … and they weren’t laughing stocks, it became more and more acceptable. In fact my students with the least English experience were some of the most likely to “volunteer” from their group. This is great because then the whole group gets involved helping them learn to pronounce the words correctly and clearly.

One of the “messy” learning pieces that came out was students wanting to re-write script pieces because “the wording is so important.” They would come to this on their own, especially when they would do final practicing before doing a voiceover. Is it OK if we re-write this part Mr. Crosby, we think we can make it better.” Great stuff! Like you’re going to say “No guys – don’t want you to think about improving your work on your own – let’s just use it as is.”

Learning is messy!

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Some of the Messy Parts of learning – Or What We Did After Testing

ground.bmp Diatoms, 3500x magnification, taken with scanning electron microscope, University of Nevada, Reno – by John Kevin McCormack

When I was first exposed to the idea of having students do project work, I remember the presenters saying that it was the process that was important, not the product. I agree, the process is huge to what students get from learning through doing. It’s so huge that your plan for the project can’t hold, can’t hope to preconceive all the kinds of learning that will happen. In fact when you get to the end of a project the more learning that happened in ways you didn’t expect the more jazzed and fulfilled the students and you are. I call it “The Glow.” When you step back from doing or making something that comes out particularly well and you are beaming and can feel your face kind of heat up – that’s “The Glow.”

I’ve found that educators that embrace project-based, problem-based learning the first time they see it – get it because they see the learning and the implications for learning right away. Those that have to be sold repeatedly on its merits don’t see all the pieces without a guide.

To make our recent science video (Stickleback Fossils) there were many, many pieces.

How much background information about fossils do you teach directly, and how much do you leave for discovery? I would much rather students discover, but discovery often takes more time, and time was not what we had. It took seven months to make our video according to the calendar, but that was because we were “On-hold” much of the time to do the “mandatory” pieces we are required to do. Thankfully we do seem to be moving away slightly from the reading groups and math groups all-the-time approach, so next year I’m hoping to get to project work on a more consistent basis. So we did some intense book learning for several days about the “Who, what, where, when, and why,” of fossils.

Next we brainstormed and discussed what the important parts that should be in our video if the goal was that it teach others about fossils, but also specifically about the fossils we found. After that we broke down our thinking into 7 scenes that needed to be produced, and brainstormed ideas as individuals, groups and whole class on what each scene could look like – I do this because students seem to buy into the project better if they have a “feel” for how the whole thing will look AND it exposes them to thinking about what they are supposed to be learning about in one more way – and it gives you another chance as a teacher to observe and fill-in, correct and expand on student thinking and understanding of the content.

I randomly assigned each group of students in class a scene and gave them the class brainstorm on chart paper. They can choose to use one of the ideas the class came up with or come up with a new idea if they’d like to – what I find is they usually use one of the ideas or tweak one of the ideas already generated. Now they do the research, storyboarding, script writing, prop gathering and making, location scouting and everything else required for their scene. While this is happening I wander around the room observing and listening and answering questions and clarifying and keeping a few on track. In a case like this where we had to fast-track things a bit I did jump in more than I like to and helped some groups pick suitable materials for making something instead of having them do the trial and error part – which is too bad – that’s one of the great messy parts of this kind of learning.

Now I want to come back to my first sentence about the process being important and not the product. I’m going to disagree with that statement. The process is very important and can be worthwhile learning on its own. But to me the quality of the final product, the polish, the struggle to get the product as close to its highest potential as possible is also very important. What message are we giving to students if their process is great but we always walk away with an attitude that teaches that the product would have been great, but we don’t have the time to get it there. I disagree – lots of times getting there finds the problems and is the greatest challenge to overcome. The sound on our video is sub-par. We knew it and I would have loved to have the students help figure out how to get it more consistent. We tweaked it well enough in the short time we had (we recorded over half the voiceovers the last three days of school). The transitions between scenes aren’t terrible, but they could be better. If my students were back this week we would be looking at those things and figuring them out. Isn’t that “Real World” production? That’s polish and making something as good as it can be, or as good as it can be with your current resources and knowledge and it’s a step I believe we too often leave out.

In the end though I believe the students met their major goal of producing a video that would become a resource for them and others around the world to learn about fossils and geologic processes. Watch it and let me know what you think.

Learning is messy!

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So As Parents and Educators We Monitor and Teach Ethical, Appropriate, Safe Use

The following was written in response to Will Richardson’s request for a message to parents about safe and appropriate technology use:

Paper and pencils can be used to draw inappropriate, hate filled, pictures messages and ideas – and you could poke someone’s eye out. They could even be used to lure your child into a dangerous situation. Should we (and could we if we tried?) cut off access to keep our children safe? No, because they are everywhere and too valuable in so many ways, so as parents and educators we monitor and teach ethical, appropriate, safe use.

Over 200,000 children are injured using playground equipment each year, some are killed. Should we (and could we if we tried?) cut access to playground equipment to keep our children safe? No, because they’re eventually going to find play equipment and playing is too valuable an experience, so as parents and educators we monitor and teach ethical, appropriate, safe use.

50,000 people die or are injured in swimming accidents each year. Should we (and could we if we tried?) cut access to swimming to keep our children safe? No, because pools and lakes and ponds are everywhere and it would be dangerous if they fell in and it is too valuable and healthy a skill, so as parents and educators we monitor and teach ethical, appropriate, safe use.

30,000 people are killed and thousands more injured in auto crashes each year. Should we (and could we if we tried?) cut access to cars and driving to keep our children safe? No, cars are everywhere and driving is too valuable, so as parents and educators we monitor and teach ethical, appropriate, safe use.

Phones are used for criminal activities, even luring kids away from home. Should we (and could we if we tried?) cut off access to phones to keep our children safe? No, phones are everywhere and they are too valuable, so as parents and educators we monitor and teach ethical, appropriate, safe use.

There are some churches and religions out there that don’t have the same beliefs as yours – and some even preach ideas that you would consider blasphemous and hateful. Should we (and could we if we tried?) cut off access to religion to keep our children safe? No, religion is everywhere and it is too valuable, so as parents and educators we monitor and teach ethical, appropriate, safe use.

There are applications of technology that can expose your child to inappropriate, hate filled, pictures, messages and ideas. Technology and the internet are everywhere. Do we cut off access? (and could we if we tried?) Or are these applications too valuable? As parents and educators maybe it would be better if we monitor and teach ethical, appropriate, safe use.

Otherwise who will teach them about these things and where will they learn about them?

Learning is messy!

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Stickleback Fossil Video

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My class finished our latest video project on the last day of school (Wednesday). We were under such a time crunch that groups were literally doing voiceover work the last day as we also moved my stuff to the room I’ll be in next year. We started the project in November, so I guess you could say it took seven months to do – but actual class time was probably 3 weeks of 1 to 2 hours each day.

I like the entire class to be involved in projects like this and one way to do that is to divide the video up into the different scenes that are required and then assign each group in your class a different scene they are responsible for – like doing a “jigsaw” activity. This way each group “specializes” in their scene, but when the whole thing comes together everyone learns from everyone else’s pieces. We all see each others’ parts many times to critique or check for word pronouciation (over half my students speak another language so word pronounciation is difficult and practiced a ton)  so we really learn the content material well.

A little background information:

The stickleback fish fossils we found are 9 to 15 million years old – we took 90 students on the trip and every student found multiple fossils (some students had 15 or 20 and we only “fished” for the fossils for a little over an hour). We researched on the net and asked questions and got permission to use photos from experts at Stanford, the Universities of Wisconsin – Whitewater and Nevada – Reno. Watch for the cool props students made from plaster, clay, fish bones and other materials.

I’ll discuss the “Messy” and not so messy parts of this project in future posts and why this is important work for students to be involved in. They worked hard and were really impressed that their work won’t just be thrown away or sit in a drawer somewhere, but will be available for people all over the world to see and learn from. What an exciting time we live in.

Learning is messy!

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An Education Summit Meeting For Change!!!

Possibly the most recurring theme that makes the rounds of the edbloggosphere is why the nation, states, school districts, schools and teachers have not been more open to change. Change in how schools do school, embrace technology and project-based, problem-based learning among other possibilities. Is it because things are going so well?

Doug over at Borderland picked up on a post by Clarence Fisher about a “grid” that would apply to classroom change. I threw in my response and Doug replied, but the gem is Marco Polo’s reply. I think he frames the issue magnificently:

a) you have to get agreement or consensus from so many different people, and b) so many of those people never meet or talk to each other.

And

The changes suggested may make perfect pedagogic and psychological sense, but be rejected because parents, teachers and other stakeholders are concerned that the changes may make the school appear “wacky”, and therefore seriously impact the employment chances of students who attend.

I know business people that feel things need to change – as well as some parents, administrators, teachers and obviously the edtech “gurus” who are also spreading that notion ad naseum, – but when does that diverse group ever get together and hash this out? We should probably add some enlightened politicos (is that an oxymoron?) in the mix too. Did I leave an important group out? Students – DUH! Anyone else?

So we’re talking about an Education Summit Meeting for Change! Any ideas? How do we pull this off? I might even talk my wife into letting me pay my way to something like this!

OK – so who’s going to organize and invite and make this happen? I would … but … umm … my plate is full this summer. But I’ll be there, promise! (Was that too obvious a dodge?)

Learning, AND CHANGE, are messy! Too messy?

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Being Different Is A Solution, Not A Problem!

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Another example of our “Messy” learning. Being Different Is A Solution, Not A Problem! is a 60 second Public Service Announcement we made for our local PBS station KNPB.

Each group of four students designed a scene in the video after we brainstormed ideas as a class. The ending scene we designed as a whole class. We had Being Different Isn’t A Problem! as our working title, but several students voiced an opinion that it “didn’t sound right.” We spent almost 45 minutes haggling over ideas until one student … a usually quiet, shy student raised their hand and suggested the title we used. It was an amazing moment. He gave his suggestion, I wrote it on the board, the class read and re-read it to themselves and the haggling was over.

5 minutes later I was climbing a ladder onto the roof as they wrote the title in colored chalk on the playground. They love that down angle shot – they put it in every video they design (see the Don’t Laugh At Me video) – I think they also like seeing me struggle with the ladder and climb up there (since they’re not allowed to climb on the roof). 3 takes later we were ready to edit our final draft.

Learning is Messy!

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Working, Breathing, Reproducible, Intriguing Models

Students blogging, creating content, manipulating text, graphics and video, designing and producing projects and all that technology and Web 2.0 has to offer – Wow! It’s so obvious what dynamic, mind stretching and engaging platforms technology, problem-based and project-based learning are!!! Or is it so obvious?

Who gets the most excited and visionary about this stuff? – Probably anyone that might actually be reading this post. I’ll bet few if anyone that isn’t already doing “Messy” learning is checking out this or any other blogs that teach, preach or discuss it. We hear about “The New Story,” or “The Read/Write Web in the Classroom,” but who else but the choir reads, hears or cares about any of it?

The gurus trip around the country and the world physically and virtually to spread the word, but who goes to these conferences or subscribes to these podcasts (or even knows what a podcast is?)? The masses of teachers and administrators looking to be enlightened? No! (well maybe a few, but VERY few) The early adopters that see and saw the implications straightforward are the few and the brave. So the questions have been asked and numerous and various answers have been proposed about how to change how school is done and how using these “New Tools” fit into that scheme and how do we get the message out?

Do the gurus continue to guru? (How do you guru? – don’t ask just try to follow along) Yes, that is certainly part of the equation. Do we continue to blog about it? Absolutely! The conversation is the point! What is missing are the models – the working, breathing, reproducible, intriguing models. We need ongoing models of all the power of what this looks like or we get nowhere.

Yeah I know there are examples out there – but my staff and my administrators and my congressman and senator and school board probably aren’t jetting out to Maine to observe Bob Sprankle’s class or any other of the teachers and students doing this kind of school.

YOU IDIOT!!! – You’re thinking or maybe yelling at your monitor – you and your staff can go to Bob Sprankle’s class or any of a list of teachers using blogs and video and web 2.0 applications – via the web!!!! Yes, yes I know… cool down … I know that. I can pull up one of Bob’s productions – for example his class made a recent vodcast about how they produce their podcasts – way cool – I GET IT!

BUT – (notice I made it a big but) I GET IT! I could run around my school and district showing teachers and administrators Bob’s kids’ vodcast and I might even get a few people excited – but most WON”T GET IT! You can’t just show most people – you have to show them and explain it to them and then answer their questions and then show it to them again and then explain it to them again and then show them how this relates to things they already do – takes the place of this and makes it even better and does this and this and this! I’m telling you they will think the vodcast was kinda cool… would be an interesting thing for their kids to do once if they had the equipment and the time and someone to show them how to do it. But they won’t get it until they experience you doing it and getting them to do it…several times … and talk about it and have them notice their students’ reaction and learning and how they talk about it and how excited their parents get about it. Wes Fryer talks about Face 2 Face – that’s it… that’s what I’m talking about.

So where is everyone that does this? Are there whole schools that do this? Districts? Where’s the list? – we should all post it and send it around – where will people see this that is as easy and as accessible as possible? Is there DATA that goes with any of these teachers or schools or districts that do this? (yeah, I don’t need the DATA but some will require the DATA). Maybe there’s downloadable video of some of this – I know where some is… where’s a lot more? Better yet, are their teachers – “Old School” teachers that have come to this that can speak about what their experience has taught them? I think that would be a powerful “New Story.”

We need working, breathing, reproducible, intriguing models available in many places for many to see and experience to leverage the gurus and the online examples. Should we build the clearinghouse – any volunteers?
Learning is messy!

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Marsopolis – Design A creature to live on Mars

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View the video of our Mars Creatures discussed below.

After going over some of the basics on space travel, facts about the solar system, and some lessons on the unimaginable distances in space – one of the first activities I have students do is designing a creature to live on Mars. Students learned about Mars’s weather, composition and we saw downloadable video from NASA on the conditions on Mars. One video even shows the dust devils on Mars – unlike Earth’s dust devils, Mars’s can get miles high and 200 yards wide.

Next I lead them in a brainstorming session on what and how a creature could eat and drink on Mars, how would a creature move around on Mars (all the time having them think about creatures on Earth and how they do that), survive the cold temperatures, winds, thin air made of carbon dioxide, and so on.

Then students get a sheet of drawing paper and draw different mouths, legs, arms, eyes, noses…whatever their creature will need. Students pick the parts that fit conditions on Mars the best and then make a rough draft drawing of their creature. When done they get larger pieces of paper to draw their final draft and include the background that fits where their creature lives on Mars. They visited many of the plethora of Mars web sites available in cycer-space while they drew and picked backgrounds.

To design their creatures students have to think about feet that may have to hold on in high winds, eyes that may have to see in the dark (nocturnal Mars creatures were designed by several students), mouths that crunch solid rock or ice, or vacuum up dust – fur or blubber or feathers or ??? to stay warm – you get the idea. They have to think about the conditions and resources in a new way – think out of the box. Note that they are fairly early on in the whole Marsopolis process – I wish we had time, I’d love to redo this activity at the end as part of their assessment to see what they have learned.

I shot some video of them in action available on the “Learning is Messy” web site – I got examples of most of the steps – I may add shots of their finished creatures this week. Next step is more research, communicating with their team members at other schools and initial design of the systems they need to survive on Mars.

Learning is Messy!