iMovie Challenge

Getting started:

The work for today:

Either individually, or with a group of your choosing (approx. 3 people per group) create an iMovie using your iphone, or an ipad that you have signed out from the Learning Commons

You could:

• Create a book trailer
• Demonstrate a skill for PE
• Recreate a historic speech, biography of someone famous or moment in history
• Create a hype video for a school event or extra-curricular activity
• Create an expectations or safety video

OR….a creation of your own choosing (just check with me first :)

By the end of the lesson you should:

• Be comfortable with the use of imovie
• demonstrate your learning by presenting your imovie

Work on it:

Watch an iMovie tutorial on youtube
For example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVjXyT8tXH4

Choose a theme for your imovie and film using the criteria listed below:

Show it:

Basic

• Pick a topic or theme for your project
• Use google images to save pictures to the camera roll
• Use the iPad camera to take pictures and videos
• Play with the iMovie app and import pictures and video

Intermediate

• Meet all basic requirements and…create an iMovie project with titles, music and transitions
• Save your project to your camera roll

Advanced

• Meet all basic and intermediate requirements and…include a voice-over or spliced audio
• Try uploading to google drive

*** When you finish with your project…. Please ensure you delete all of your content and be sure to sign-out of any accounts

SIDES wrap-up and review

What elements of SIDES’ courses struck you as most valuable in supporting student learning?

The overall pedagogical theme of "get started, Work on it, Show it" is great. I also, as I have mentioned in a previous post, really found the “lesson objectives” very helpful. I am not sure how much a middle school student would get out of it, but I imagine that it would be helpful for myself, as the instructor to keep the assessment of the lessons on point.

What are the most important takeaways for you?

When I started this course, I thought that the biggest challenge would be in building a “voice” in the digital classroom. However, after speaking with David Evans, and others, it seems that one of the most difficult aspects of distance education is the asynchronous entry of its participants, and the struggles to help students in various different lessons across subjects and even grade levels.

What features would you most want to highlight if you were creating a course?

I think that I would want to highlight the “lesson objectives” and the “work on it” sections. I have felt, from taking this course, that lessons that don't require me to produce anything tangible were given less focus than those that asked me to hand something in. While I understand that learning is it's own reward, I think that students need something to do to cement their knowledge.

Descriptive feedback: Beyond "good job"

If there is one area of my teaching practice that I would like to improve on the most, it would be descriptive feedback. I just have a hard time with it. It seems to me that one of two things happen; either I spend a long time on each assignment carefully crafting a comment, only to find it later in the trash, or I give it the old "good job" and I find it later in the trash.
Clearly, the assignment has little value for my students if they feel they can simply dispose of it once they have their "grade". It also seems clear to me that even if I try to provide some good feeedback, it is not enough to add value for the student. Is it a failure of the material assigned, the project that was assigned, or the feedback?
Regardless, I want to get better at descriptive feedback, but where to start? I have looked at several examples online, and they all seem to lack meaning as well. In other words, they say the same thing as a "good job", but in a more complicated way, not necessarily adding much to the understanding of the student.
How can I use descriptive feedback to increase meaning for students? How can I do this quickly, not spending hours and hours marking assignments? How can I increase student engagement so that I find fewer assignments in the trash?

In charge and Online

Grade/subject area: Grade 6/7 Math

Description of concept: This is a mini lesson on dividing decimals. This concept is difficult for many students because the addition of decimals to a concept that students often struggle with like dividing, makes an already tricky subject that much more difficult. If I were to do this again, I would try to slow down a bit and explain the steps to solving the two questions a bit more fully. I would also get a more reliable camera-person that would stand behind me so that the video didn't seem like it was upside down.



Hi Steve, I heard you were having a few issues with dividing decimals. Dividing decimals can be tricky if you get confused by the steps, but once you know what the steps are, and the order to do them in, it's not any more difficult than regular division.
I have made a quick video of myself completing two different dividing decimals questions, one with a whole number divisor, and a slightly more difficult question with a decimal divisor. You can watch the video here:

I have also emailed you some notes that show the steps so that you can use these to follow along.


Hope this helps, but please feel free to email me again if you are still stuck and we can arrange a face to face.

Part 1: Explanation of core competency

In the above excerpt I am trying to implement "Strategy 5: Design lessons to focus on One aspect of Quality at a time". I want to make sure that my fictitious student has developed a reasonable competency and confidence with dividing decimals before he tries to tackle anything more challenging. from the lesson, "You can then offer feedback focused on the component you just taught, which narrows the volume of feedback students need to act on at a given time and raises their chances of success in doing so, again, especially for the struggling learners. This is a time saver for you, and more instructionally powerful for students."

Part 2: How would issues such as distance and asynchronous learning play into your practice?

I think that distance and asynchronicity would not be particularly challenging to my math program, because it is already designed to allow students to work at their own pace, challenging themselves at three different levels. However, some of the assessment for learning techniques could be better built in to increase student engagement. As Ceara Mullin wrote I could, "build activities into the course that require regular checks of understanding or competence. These could be for the student to see only, such as check your understanding questions with answer keys, or short automatically marked quizzes with the opportunity to see mistakes and correct them."

Social Media and the classroom

I have wrestled with the use of social media since my early days as a student-teacher on my first practicum. One of the kids in my class asked me my first name. I didn’t think too much of it, and, in fact, I thought that he was just trying to be disrespectful, so I told him to get back to work, and didn’t think too much about it after that. However, my full name was on the school website, and in due course, I had my own link on ratemyteacher.com and was getting friend requests from my students on my Facebook account.
Why did they want to know me? What did they think they were going to find? My Facebook account is full of pictures of my bees, and my dog, and my wife, and my truck, and a million other banal details that make up a life. There are no pictures of me getting wasted, or shirtless, or groping others, so who cares?
I still do not allow students to have access to my Facebook page, being a younger male teacher; it just does not seem worth it to me. However, I have softened on the first name thing. I still require my students to call me Mr. Cooper as a sign of respect, but I tell them my full name and try to share my beekeeping hobby as well as other small details about my life to show them that I am a still a person despite being a teacher. My students seem to be happy about this détente. I explain to them that, yes, I have Facebook and twitter accounts, but no, I don’t add, or follow, students. I tell them that it is a personal choice, and they seem to be happy to accept that answer.

I recently read a book Michael Harris entitled, “The End of Absence”, which may sum up my feelings about social media in my life both personal and professional. In his book, Harris writes about his generation, of which I am a part, being the last to know what it is like to grow up without the internet, and, by extension, social media.
I am on the cusp of this generation. I am a digital immigrant. When I was around ten years old I had my first experience with dial-up internet, which means that most of my foundational years was spent without YouTube, vine, snapchat, Instagram, ask.fm, Facebook, and twitter. I had periods of boredom. I occasionally gazed at my navel. I don’t do that anymore, nor does anyone else it would seem. The pith of Harris’ argument is that absence no longer exists. Social media is everywhere, and always on, always ready to fill any blank space with its particular brand of noisy entertainment. Students, and their teachers, do not have empty time anymore. Bored? Better check the phone.
I think the reason I don’t want to fully embrace social media in the classroom, is that I don’t really want my class to slip into my pocket and follow me home. I have a hard enough time separating my work time from my down time. Case in point, I am writing this blog post on a Sunday morning for an instructional course on distance education.
Maybe that why students so readily accept my refusal to accept them as Facebook friends. Perhaps they don’t really want to know about my every comings and goings, it’s just the only way they know how to say “I like and respect you”. Perhaps it’s better to have a little absence.

Interview questions, answers, analysis, and more questions

Curiosity questions:

What was the biggest hurdle in transitioning from a Traditional model to a Distributed Learning model?

The biggest hurdles in transitioning from a Traditional classroom environment are the organizational challenges that are created with the flexibility that SIDES provides. Most SIDES programs have students working at different places in different courses and at different rates. Keeping track of everyone and addressing concerns when they arise is one of the most challenging aspects of the DL model.

What changes / challenges have you faced in respect to your pedagogical practice in the last few years with the implementation of Bill 36 and BC’s new learning plan?

Despite my initial reaction to be skeptical the current government's policies in regards to education, I do believe that more flexibility in the education field is positive. This bill includes many sections, but the idea that students and families can create educational plans that work best for them is difficult to argue with.

What advice would you give to someone who wants to teach Distributed Learning?

The physical disconnect between teachers and students can sometimes be a difficult barrier to overcome - connect with students often, and use whichever medium you can: phone, email, text, vclass, grandparents!

Big ideas questions:

Could you see SIDES teachers becoming re-integrated into more traditional school settings, like another type of integrated support teacher?

Instead of the DL model of education being 're-integrated' into the traditional approach, I already see evidence of the traditional model evolving to look more like DL.

How do you think DL instruction could work for a Middle School student? For an elementary student?

DL programs for younger students require a responsible home-facilitator to be most effective.

Do you think BC’s current funding model, allowing students to pick and choose which courses to take online, is helpful or hurtful to DL practice?

I think the most important factor to consider when evaluating BC's current funding model is whether is is helpful or hurtful to students and their learning. I have witnessed students flourish in the DL environment and believe that it can be an ideal way to learn for some students. Traditional models of education provide ideal ways to learn for some students. It seems reasonable to have a funding system that allows for students to customize their learning path and create a flexible plan that works for them.

Initially, I thought that the biggest challenge in moving from a traditional model to a Dl model would be the lack of presence within a physical classroom, or, to put it another way, not being “in touch” with your students. I relish hearing students laugh at my jokes, or seeing them really “get it”, or not, in which case, I know instantly that I need to explain it another way.
However, I also understand the point of view of Salman Khan, who said that [people], “prefer the digital version of me to the real me”. His students can fast forward, or re-watch his video if they need to without having to feel embarrassed, self-conscious, or feel like they are slowing the rest of the class down.
It is within this mindset that I approach David Evans’ responses to my DL questionnaire. When asked what the biggest hurdle in moving from a traditional to a DL approach, I was quite surprised that David didn’t mention a lack of presence at all, rather, he felt that it was the organizational challenge of helping students that are each at a different spot to the other.
I must admit that this challenge had not even crossed my mind. How would I be able to help one student with, for example, Algebra, and the next with fractions, and the next with Canadian Government, and the next with…. It would be challenging indeed!

I suppose the other surprising answer that I receive was how often Dl instructors have mentioned the phone as a method of communication. To be honest, when I have to phone a parent about a student I usually break into a cold sweat. Well, not really, but it is not exactly one of my favorite things.
It is curious, once again, that both David Evans, and Jennifer, our instructor, have mentioned that the phone is a preferred mention of communication. I actually thought of it as a bit too antiquated for or so called digital age.

I get the impression that David really believes in what he does, as a method of providing choice in a student’s educational path, which is refreshing. I wonder if it is the future though, I wonder how many would actually choose Dl over brick and mortar. What is lost in this method of education? What is gained?

Skills and challenges of an online instructor

What Skills and qualities do I have that I believe will be transferable to me being an online teacher?

One of the things that I pride myself on as a teacher, is my organizational skills, and my calm nature. I am not the teacher that you might see in the photocopy room five minutes before the bell frantically pawing away at the machine because it isn’t working and their class is starting, and their car wouldn’t start, etc etc. While I am occasionally caught out by a smart board that isn’t too smart, I make sure to get in to work early so that I am ready to go when the kids come in.
I suppose in a DL course, that would mean having all the assignments, and criteria made ready well in advance just in case I had a student who works at blazing speed. Given the “day in the life” of a DL instructor write up, it looks like there may be a lot of meeting times, so I would probably be early for those too.

The ability to take risks on new technology is something that I always enjoy. As an example, our school was given 10 iPads to use in the library, and I was the first teacher through the door to get the tutorial with my class. They loved working with what they would consider current technology, and I got to learn how to use the newest iMovie app.

I feel that I am a life-long learner, and that that would benefit me as an online instructor. I try to push my comfort zones in terms of both what I teach (Drama and Foods anyone? How about Dance?) and also how I teach (Taking this course, for a start)

What challenges can I see for myself as an online teacher?

Looking back over the lesson, I can see that the kind of student may be quite different than those that I am used to in my brick and mortar school. I don’t have any personal experience with DL classes, but it seems that there might be less of an “average” student population than in a non-DL classroom. I think that would pose a challenge to generating discussion forums, and other instructional strategies.

I also really value my face to face interactions with students. I try to make my lessons funny and engaging, and I am not sure how to translate that into an online format.