Well, we had our four-hour in-service today to show off our Tablet PC pilot and to talk about our vision for technology. It was, I think, as good as it could of been in terms of trying to get 250 or so teachers on the same page about totally changing our classroom model for technology. We had four teachers, young and old, get up on stage in front of the group and showcase their use of the tablets, and by any measure it was an inspiring show. The Spanish teacher who I have written about here before really wowed them some of the ways he integrates inking into his PowerPoints and even video. (You have to see it to believe it…) So far in our follow up survey, 94% of the teachers of over 200 respondents said they wanted a tablet next year. It is a very powerful technology.
Because we ran a bit long, I never did get to do my new tech show and tell, but I did quickly show what I think is one of the most powerful potentials of the tablet. Imagine a digitally submitted student essay or story which you’re able to annotate with ink AND record a voice narration at the same time and send back to the student. Then imagine being able to organize all of those files on your own computer, and being able to publish them to a student’s Weblog where he or she can have them as a resource or where parents and peers can also get a broader understanding of what a reader’s experience is on any piece of writing.
That’s what I’ve tried to show here. It’s a 4:30 Flash movie captured using Camtasia which, in it’s most recent version, is an amazingly powerful tool with tons of potential for educators. What I’m trying to imagine is a paperless classroom where students and teachers can annotate their work in both ink and voice and archive all of it for reflection and publication at some point. It’s such a neat tool, and I’m wondering what other people think after watching it. Let me know…
Beyond using traditional(critical)comments to rework an essay, this tool has possibilities for adding depth and richness by referring to precise examples, links and tools that “build up” a student’s effort. I love, love, love that increased student dialogue is inherently required. Video commentary would be useful for so many subject area lessons, but to follow the essay example: Not only do students write, they are engaged in learning how to talk and think about the craft…working from the inside out. Students could demo and comment on their revisions; incorporating teacher input with other influences.
I definitely see the need to be able to move between specific points in the video during playback. The video needs to be on a side window surrounded by tool trays, so students are able to freeze frame at a specific suggestion and pull up suggested aid. Blend Camtesia and a9.com?
Also, video commentary provides additional ways to document,track and evaluate teachers’ commentary; to discern specific best practices.
That’s a great point, and one that has me thinking about how we could really start modeling practice using the screencast. And to have students do reflective screencasts about their own work…how cool would that be? And in terms of being able to stop and start the video, Camtasia allows for outputting files into Windows Media, Quick Time, avi and flash formats. And it would be cool as a supervisor to use this to review a teacher’s practices. So many cool applications, but I wonder if people will think it worth the time expense to use. (From a learning curve standpoint, however, this is about as low as it gets…)
Will,
Why can’t you do the same thing using features in Microsoft Word which most educators already know and use? You can input audio and text using the insert comments feature.
My experience as a trainer for educators is that many teachers feel overwhelmed as it is and to continue to show them new technology negates it’s effectiveness. Plus, in our area of the country (north of Boston) there isn’t enough money for major large additional technology purchases. At my own kids high school open house this past week, the English department and the Social Studies departments didn’t even have computers in the classrooms!!!
It’s important that we teach teachers to use what is readily available and easy to use if it accomplishes what we want. Your flash movie was impressive but without any additional costs, features in Word accomplish almost exactly what you are doing.
I disagree with Karen. The movie adds a layer that commenting in Word can’t quite capture — the visuals of you interacting with the document as you spoke. That’s an important process for our students to see — it’s a really great think aloud strategy.
However, as you mention, the time factor would probably keep me from doing this with every paper — I’d rather conference in real time with the kids.
But – -this did get me thinking about how I could use screencasting as a kind of sub plan. Imagine what the lesson would look like if, instead of typing it up for a stranger, I were screencasting to my class.
A screencast like yours might be useful, too, as a way to engage students while you’ve got a real-time activity that demands your attention — taking attendance, a hastily called parent-teacher conference, etc.
Will, I think that is a very useful tool. My school has just installed a number of ActivBoards and they have the ability to record annotations as they happen over a piece of work. I still haven’t worked out if that can be exported to a stand alone file but I think the other great application for a screencast could be for parents to see when viewing their child’ work and they can see what the teacher is getting at in terms of explanation and purpose. Your Tablet PC pilot keeps reminding me of our rollout here of these ActivBoards – you are looking for the same evidence of good use I am hoping to see here in Adelaide. Hey, I even got the teachers to sign up for a group blog to map their progress (unfortunately, I am the only sgnificant contributor thus far) however your other great point from the podcast was the ability to give teachers time to adopt and adapt new technologies for teaching. Unfortunately here in the Australian education system, time is money and schools have to fork out for their release time – the system isn’t going to give to us.
I really like showing the process of reviewing. It has a significant advantage over simply providing annotations as Karen suggested.
The reason is that we want students to improve their writing by reviewing and editing it themselves, not simply responding to an editor’s comments.
The screencast provides a “worked example” of the process of editing. Worked examples are critical for beginners in any domain of ill-structured problems. I don’t think you’d really need to do it for each assignment or each student. A few examples that “cover the waterfront” of the kinds of problems you encounter while reviewing would suffice.
A significant downside – at $300 a copy, Camtasia isn’t exactly cheap.
I agree, Corrie. This isn’t something to do every time. And I think it would be even more interesting to have students screencast their own reflections on pieces they’ve written. What a valuable insight for the teacher.
And remember, all of this can be done with Windows Media Encoder for FREE. The reason I used Camtasia in this instance was to make a Flash movie, certainly not necessary as Karen points out.