Using Video in the Classroom

I do like to use videos in the classroom, sometimes it helps break up the class, get students re-focused, and there are so many out there that we can use to help engage our students. Videos can help us reach our more visual learners. One of Youtube channels that I have used in the classroom, and I enjoy watching myself is Crash Course. There are so many videos in lots of different subject areas. The videos are easy to understand and presented in a fun way.
I have used the below video during a lesson about the war of 1812. Crash Course is American, but it was still a useful video, and it gave the students a different perspective.

Many of the videos are taught by author John Green, if you haven't read any of his books, I would highly recommend them.  The other videos I have looked at are the literature courses. I would suggest checking the video "How and Why We Read"

Creating videos are fun way for students to be creative and show their learning. I also feel that because people will be seeing their work that they may put in a little extra effort. Below is a video from one of my student teaching placements, the students were doing common craft book reviews of the books they had finished reading. I posted all of their videos to my youtube channel, and we took one class to have a viewing party.

Podcasts

I am on this zombie kick right now as a result of watching a lot of the Walking Dead, so I was excited when I found this podcast called "We're Alive - A "Zombie" Story of Survival." I also enjoy listening to audio books so this is something new I am excited to get into. I feel like a story like this is also something that I would be willing to use in the classroom similarly to how I have used audio books. This is a great tool for struggling or resistant readers to get into a story. Also creating a podcast is a great way for students to create their own stories.

If you want to check it out follow this link on itunes: We're Alive - A "Zombie" Story of Survival

 Steven and I were searching together and we found a few more podcasts that we liked on Ted Talks as well as Ted Talks Education. Most of the talks we listened to on Ted Talks Education were directed at teachers. They are all free downloads so you can listen to as many as you like. A couple of the talks that we listened to included "The technology of Story Telling" and "The Child-Driven Education." In the regular Ted Talks I listened to "Adventures in Twitter Fiction" which is something you could use in an ELA classroom, this is a great way to get students to use a social media tool in a new way by getting students to read and write their own twitter fiction.
Along with listening to podcasts, getting students to create their own podcast is something that you could do in any subject area. It is a interesting way to get students engaged and another way for students to show their learning.

Follow the links to check out these podcasts:

Ted Talks

Ted Talks Education

Organizing Myself Online

There are going to be a lot of blog posts going up in the next little while, the pile up of tech tasks has just recently dawned on me. With classes ending and all of the final projects and tests piling up, I can feel my stress level increasing. Getting myself organized helps me clear my head and make sense of what my next step is.

I like to find new ways to help me get organized online. I have enjoyed using Feedly to organized the blogs that I am reading.

Some of the other ways that organize myself are online are;

1. Goolge Chrome Bookmarks
2. Pinterest
3. Wunderlist
4. Evernote
5. The Pocket

I haven't been able to get into Symbaloo, however it seem like something people like to use so maybe I need to give it another try.

PLN

PLN (Personal Learning Network)

"A personal learning network is an informal learning network that consists of the people a learner interacts with and derives knowledge from in a personal learning environment. In a PLN, a person makes a connection with another person with the specific intent that some type of learning will occur because of that connection."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_learning_network

A personal learning network connects us to people and knowledge through different technological mediums. I think that this network also includes the devises and programs that we use and interact with. As I was creating a mind map on Mindmeister, I realized how extensive my PLN already is, and it continues to grow as a finish university and move into a career.

Below is my representation of the PLN of the 21st century connected student. creating this mind map I realized how different the PLN of students are than when I graduated in 2003. There are so many more resources available for students to grow their PLN. I feel that in the classroom we should be pulling from these resources to support the learning and engagement of our students.

There are a few different applications available to create mind maps such as these, using Mindmeister was really easy, and I like the clean look of their designs. I find that creating these mind maps is a simple way to visually organize information, and is another tool that can be used in the classroom.

Infographs

Infographs are a fun visual way to organize and represent information on any topic. This is a great way for students to show their learning. I like to have things visually organized, using colour and images as a result my paper notes books are littered with drawings and other visual cues that help me organize my thoughts. This is a tool that you could use in any subject area, and students could also share their learning by posting their infograph online or in the classroom.

Here are a couple of infographs I found online that you could use in a ELA classroom. 

Click for link to source

Click for link to source

It is easy to get started, and students should be able to learn quickly with some instruction and playing around. To create my first infograph I used Piktochart, you can create your own, or use one of their templates to get started.

Web based learning

This past week we had a presentation from Sophia Palahicky on Web Based Course Delivery in Manitoba. I have never taken a course online, however it is something I find interesting. The sense I got from everyone in class, is a general hesitation about the idea. It seems as though many people have had a bad experience with them in the past. I am sure that there have been improvements, and I feel like I can see the value in them, but I also feel that they can not completely replace the physical classroom.
As we have talked about before students are different and the way that we teach needs to be different, I feel like there may be a place for web based classes, my hesitation would be more so to commit to a completely virtual school. Web based classes would be useful for students such as athletes who need to travel often, students who want to accelerate their education, and students who need more time or need to re-do a course. 
This is still something I feel that I don't know much about, it makes me somewhat nervous to think that I may teach a web based course, but it is good to know that there are resources available for me to find out more information.

Sophia shared this video of the active learner to emphasis the how learning has changed.

Twitter

I have had a personal account on twitter for a while, which I do not use much, I follow friends and a few other people, but I do not tweet much. I have just started my own professional account where I follower other teachers, my classmates and other education related accounts. So far I have found that it is a great way to connect with other educators. Using twitter is still something I am learning about and getting into, but I can see myself continuing to use it in the future.

Using Twitter in creative ways in the classroom is also a way to get students to use a social media tool that most of them already use in an educational way.

For some reason I like adding videos to my blog posts, so here is an interesting video showing a year on twitter in 2013.

Check out my twitter account: @Ms_Check00