Can You Hear Me Now?
I really enjoyed the content of this session. This particular session focused on video tools and how they are revolutioinizing the classroom. I think Khan Academy has done a lot for the respectability of online video learning and I know that the "flipped classroom" is a major idea that is taking hold across education.
In our discussions we shared ideas and feelings about the flipped classroom and I am honestly more excited about this idea than anything else going on in education. This is what I posted in the forums for this session:
"I do believe that the future of education is the flipped classroom model. I know this model will not work for every student but in the rooms I have seen it in play the level of achievement is certainly higher. The role of the teacher in a flipped classroom changes from the "Sage on the Stage" who is teaching up front and lecturing to the "Guide on the Side" who is using class time to guide discussion and practice into deeper levels of cognitive thought.
To me, the major advantage a learner receives from virtual video and audio instruction is that that student can differentiate the instruction to their own needs. The student gets to create their own environment for learning. The student can slow down, pause, rewind and replay the lesson as many times as needed without being worried about annoying other classmates or the teacher. Additionally, this allows high achieving students, who may quickly grasp a concept and not need reteaching to move on to future lesson and/or dig deeper into the content on their own.
I use Screencast-O-Matic as my tool of choice but I started with Jing and think it is an easy tool to grasp. It can be confusing at first on a Mac as (at least on my iMac) Jing is always open at the top of my screen and can be difficult to find. However, it's very easy to use once you begin. Just choose the window you want to record and then choose the option at the bottom of that window as to what you want to do. Students can definitely use this tool to demonstrate learning and show their thinking visibly by taking you on a virtual trip through sites dedicated to their subject or even by creating their own content on a personal website and then narrating the page in a video through Jing. They can do the same to create tutorial videos for their group or classmates to help everyone out. It's very easy!"
We also were tasked with creating a short video tutorial on a Web 2.0 resource, so I chose Smore. You can view the page I trained in the video on my site under "Trainings and Resources" or you can view the actual video tutorial here as well.
Our last assignment was to record a Hangout through Google Hangouts. Below is the video of the Hangout that my cadremates Katelyn, Myrna, Mirasol, Elizabeth and I made of our first attempt together at Hangout On Air streamed live over YouTube and recorded:
