Screencasting with Screenr

Happy New Year! Anyone know what happened to January? Seems to have disappeared before my eyes. And I'm ready for a holiday again...

So this one is a real computer teacher one, but I love it so much... I'm sure others might be able to use it as well.

Screenr (www.screenr.com) is a screencasting online app. This means you can capture your screen to make your own tutorials or to record your students demonstrating their work. It requires nothing to be installed (you must have up to date Java) and will record directly from a browser. On the free version you get a max of 5 minutes of recording, which it turns out is the perfect amount of time to explain a single concept. Screenr records whatever is on your screen and your voice, all in one go.

The recording is recorded onto the Screenr webservers (you don't need to take up space on your school server or computer). You then have the option of sharing the link to your recording or even downloading your screencast as an MP4.

Use it in your classroom to:

• Make 'how to' tutorials for using software installed on the computers or a Web 2.0 application. (Computing teacher HEAVEN)
• If you have your webcam turned on you could record yourself talking on the webcam and make a little 'message from your teacher' moment in your website/class blog/VLE.
• Have students record themselves with a webcam explaining their understanding of a concept.
• I'll be using it to get my students to explain their websites they have created as their practical project.
• Get students to make tutorials for other students on how to use a particular piece of software or talk about an aspect of their work, maybe analyse a piece of poetry or a piece of art which is on the screen.

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Podcasting with AudioBoo

Most of us educators are of a generation which still remembers the radio. Lying awake on a Sunday night to catch the Top 40 countdown, or making sure you were at the radio just in time for your favourite drama series or comedy.

A few years back, when Apple brought out the first iPod, 'podcasting' became briefly popular as a way to broadcast audio content. Hundreds of people recorded pointless nonsense and posted it on servers for others to download and listen to. Hidden away amongst the rubbish were a few gems, no doubt, but the novelty soon wore off it would seem.

These days radio is perhaps not that familiar a medium for our learners and even podcasts are something which they just don't 'do'. I recently suggested that my students downloaded and listened to the BBC World radio programme 'Click'. Firstly they argued with me about even having a podcast client on their iPhones and iPads (I know it's there because I use it all the time!) and then when I played them a podcast in class their eyes glazed over and they started to moan about the lack of visuals. What I did realise is how little of the audio they are likely processing when watching video, and left me wondering how much of my explanations in class just go over their heads.

So the challenge is: how to use audio recordings / podcasts in a useful and successful way within classes.

One solution seems to be Audioboo. Listen up all ye language teachers, here is a great tool for you (and the rest of us). Audioboo provides a way for us to record audio and share it with students. It is also a way for our students to record themselves and share and publish them online, easily and quickly.

So here is how to get started:

• Go to audioboo.fm
• Now register (it is really quick, easy and free but you can only record 3 mins at a time).
• Hit the "Record/ upload boo" button at the top right-hand corner and hey presto, you're in business.

They have a mobile app which you can use on your phone so that makes it easier to record on the move. Or students could record with other apps and sent the files for you to upload.

Now you can set up 'boards' for various topics. For example a Year 7 board or a board for a specific project.

You have various options for sharing your boo.

Use the EMBED feature to embed a player right into Moodle! It will look something like this...

listen to ‘test’ on Audioboo

• You will need to insert a LABEL into your Moodle course and then change to the HTML editor.
• Simply copy and paste the embed codes into the HTML code space.
• Give it a few minutes to sort itself out, it doesn't appear immediately.

You can also share the link to your Audioboo account or even let students subscribe to your channel with RSS feeds. You can listen to your Audioboos in iTunes. Or how about printing the QR code and letting students paste that into their books and then at home they can scan the code with their smart phones and listen to your instructions online... brilliant!

Ideas for using the tool

• Use it to explain a task to students in your own voice. 
• I am thinking that this would be brilliant for language teachers to embed the proper pronunciation of words and phrases into their courses.
• One teacher I know of sums up the week's work (including interviewing his students) with an Audioboo which is shared with the class and other teachers as a method of CPD.
• Get your students to create an audio project instead of a written one.
• Ask students to read their poetry.
• Make a radio play.
• Teachers with paid accounts are recording whole lessons and many conference talks are available as Audioboos it would seem.

Let me have your ideas for your subject in the comment.

Will MOOCs Replace the Teacher?

There is a lot of talk about Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and how these are revolutionising university education by opening up university courses to anyone throughout the world. Recently on a LinkedIn forum I belong to, someone asked the question "What will happen when MOOCs are used in High School education as well?" And this got me thinking about "Will MOOCs spell the end for traditional teachers?" I don't think it will...

Technology moves in mysterious ways! We are naturally 'scared' or at least wary of technology and it's ability to replace us. i-Robot (the movie starring Will Smith) is my favourite movie which tells of how robots take over the world, go mad and starting shooting everyone. Luckily Will Smith's character is there to save the day, make friends with the robots and bring order to the world, old style. Many teachers cling to 'the old ways' in order to try to keep the status quo because, partly, they are scared of being replaced. "It's how we've always done it so it's how we'll carry on" they say, however, this isn't the world our students will grow up in.

Unlike our generation, our children and students are unlikely to live in a world where they go to university once at the beginning of their careers and then that is all they need to know. Oh no, their continued 'lifelong' learning is going to ultimately be more important than a few years at the beginning to get them going. We owe it to our students to prepare them for this. MOOCs (or something similar) might turn out to be the single most important way that people learn later in life.

So what are the important skills that students will need which will enable them to take part in MOOCs?

• reading - Contrary to popular belief, the internet does not kill the need to read. If anything the World Wide Web requires that students do a lot more reading because of the sheer quantity of available material. True, video is becoming important and much more accessible and MOOCs seem to use it a lot, but in my experience there is still a LOT of reading to be done. So let's not drop the ball on that.

• information literacy - I cringe when my own primary aged children come home with tasks like "Go and research (a country) or (a famous character)". Firstly they don't actually know how to do a reliable search beyond typing the words into Google. Secondly, they are not ready at age 7, 8 , 9 or even 10 to understand much of what they are reading and also figure out if that information is at all reliable or useful! Students need to become discerning readers and understand how to use the information they have been given in a MOOC or in any other online context, before that information becomes useful to them. MOOCs have the advantage of having materials chosen by the course designers, but further research for assignments are often needed. Let's make sure they know how to do this properly.

• time management - Anyone who has ever done a course by correspondence, whether online or not, will tell you that finding the time (and discipline) to sit down and actually do the reading or watching or whatever else needs to get done, is the toughest part of the whole process. If we are using MOOCs in class or developing our own blended learning opportunities, let's make sure we keep setting those deadlines and having consequences for not meeting them. It will train our students in the art of managing their time.

So what MOOCs are available for Senior School students?

A couple of my students have enrolled in MOOCs which teach them programming skills. Many of the larger universities are offering these courses, but I hadn't realised how many MOOCs there are specifically targetted at 'K-12' or Senior School students.

A good list can be found at http://moocs.co/K-12_MOOCs.html and I will review some of these in a future post to see which ones I like the best.

Manners Matter

Just like it is the responsibility of every teacher to develop a student's moral and social values, so is teaching and modelling good Digital Citizenship. Here is a great infographic to share with students to start thinking about how they use technology both in and outside of your classroom. Help them understand that their digital footprint is part of the way they present themselves to the world.

Knowthenet presents Manners Matter the online Netiquette Do's and Don'ts infographic.

Mural.ly

So here is one to try out!

I stumbled upon Mural.ly a week or so ago and have been receiving friendly emails from the developers with helpful hints on how to get started.

In essesence, Mural.ly has been designed so that project groups can play tasks collectively in a web-based environment. 

The web based application lets you add post-it type notes and drag photos and videos onto your mural.ly boards. All participators can then comment on elements of board.

Have a look at this video to get the idea:

Another feature is to add frames to give the viewer a path through your board. This is similar to Prezi, although not as complex as what Prezi can do.

I can see so much potential for this tool in the classroom. From creating 'mood board' type pinboards as a planning device for Art, Design or Drama projects to department brainstorming to creating presentations. What a quick and easy way to create a lesson starter!

Mural.ly embeds nicely as well, so adding one to your Moodle course is an option.

Here is my first attempt:

Please let me know if you have any good educational examples of using Mural.ly in your classroom.

Using YouTube as a classroom resource

Well we all know that our students use YouTube all the time, mostly to check out new music, but is there a place for YouTube in the classroom?

I was playing with the YouTube app on my iPad last night and after a few minutes of tinkering, started thinking of all sorts of ways to use YouTube in my classroom in a much more formal way. Sure, I pull up YouTube from time to time to demonstrate a particular point but how do we formalise that into a resource which is really useful for ourselves and our students.

The answer, I think, might lie in setting up a YouTube channel for yourself. If you have a Google account you are already on your way to a very easy set up. A YouTube channel will allow you to upload your own videos (maybe we'll think about that another day!) but what I was looking at this evening is setting up playlists which I can hopefully figure out how to share with my students.

So this is what YouTube looks like now that I've logged in (with my gmail account details).

On the left I have a list of all the 'channels' I have subscribed to. New submissions pop up as alerts. The middle panel has a list of suggested videos from my channels. To the right are some suggestions of things I might like.