screencasting/podcasting

Still doing lots of screen and pod castings. I can see that it would be a great idea to have a web site that has podcasts of the powerpoints I present to class. By using video to capture the stories and drawing that I do based on questions the students ask, those that missed class will have a much better feeling for what they missed when compared to just going through a powerpoint. I've also found that in making short podcast of vocabulary for our ELL students, it has helped me come up with additional examples that should help all my students. I'd like to try to use them for quizzes by doing a demo which would then be consistent for each class. I have to say having a little Flip video camera has been great! It is so easy to quickly grab it and shoot some video the just plug it in to the computer for editing. I plan on shooting a lot of video this summer and getting things ready for next year.

Action Research

Well I went to the class last night to learn how to do the action research paper. Sara was there so we got a few things set up since we are going to try and cooperate on this project. Yes, we know we have to have two separate papers but the idea that we can use both our classes and maybe even add another teacher to the mix is great. I think we will be able to collect all the data we need this school year and if everything goes well we might even get a chance to do the paper before the deadline, but it is nice to know that you have a year to get the paper done. This is the first one I've done for the district so I'm sure it will take some time to figure out just what they want. Not real clear yet about when we need to have the video done so I've got some checking to do to find out. Gil was talking about after our next class, I'll have to find out for sure so I've got it done and ready to show.

screencasting

I've been working on doing some on-line course development for the district for a class for next year. They want a lot of podcast and/or screencast so I've been making a number of screencast lately. It is a lot harder than I thought it would be. It is very different being in front of a class and teaching something using a screencast than relying on just the screencast to get your message across. Doing the screencast and talking while your doing it was a challenge at times. I kept thinking of other ways I could say things and then would get off track a little and have to start all over. You can't preview with the software I'm using but you know when things aren't the way you'd like them to be when you get done. I can see that this could be very helpful for those students that miss my class and can watch these at home to get ready for when they do come back to class.