Oh For The Love of The Flip
By far the most used bit of technology I brought to China is my little orange Flip Video. What a work out it has received! Almost every day it has been working hard recording the sights and sounds of the students in China, and every day it has been fabulous. Mostly it has been me using it and recording what the students are doing or saying, but they have also made plenty of videos to add to the program ning site.
So, the process is to take the video, then put them on my computer. Because there are several short videos that need to be put together, I then put the clips into iMovie (you could also use Movie Maker), add a title or two, and export. There is such a volume of video and little time, that I don’t really do any editing. It’s just drop it in, add a title and export export export! (Then wait for AGES for it to upload to the ning site cause of the fairly slow internet connection here).
Here is one of the videos I’ve put together and posted to the ning site:
Find more videos like this on Gariwerd Program
Best Practice – Really?
What is Best Practice? Is there really such a thing? Is best practice for me the same as best practice for you? Is Best Practice just a phrase used to help publishers sell books?
One of the unconference sessions I went to at the Learning 2.008 conference in Shanghai was a discussion on Best Practice and if there really is such a thing. I don’t have all the answers of course, just plenty more questions!
For me, best practice (if one needs to use that term) would be something that takes my teaching and my students learning further. Something that pushes boundaries because for me, that is one of the best things you can do in a classroom. Much of the description that came out of this session about what ‘best practice’ actually is to me sounded like common sense teaching. Saying that of course, then just begs the question as to what common sense teaching actually is. So, I’m not sure if I should use that phrase. What do you think? It’s not a simple conversation to have!
‘Best practice’ is not going to look the same for everyone, as we all have different classrooms and kids, different ideas and different curriculum. Best practice then has to be the thing that is then best for those particular students in that particular context. How then can you write book saying what it is?
There is value, however, in learning for others who have done the trials and found methods that work successfully all or most of the time. Is this not best practice?
One thing we have to be careful of is getting all caught up in labeling things and saying that one thing or way is better than another. It is so easy for everyone to make judgments of others and say that things aren’t up to standard, or best practice. In order to be able to implement a form of best practice effectively, you have to have a good relationship with your students and be able to engage them or the rest is a waste of time.
Have I missed the point? What is best practice for you?
My tweets from the session – please read from the bottom up!
best practice as something that engenders the values and competenciesthat are valued by society (great comment from participant to end on!)01:30 PM September 20, 2008
students beyond what we are doing – something innovative – thoughts?01:29 PM September 20, 2008
it has to be very fluid or it very quickly becomes outdated01:22 PM September 20, 2008from twhirl
@nzchrissy yes it has to be. if you don’t know your kids, how can you engage them properly in order to use ‘best practice?’
@israelgreg yes, I think so. does it really matter as long as it is making positive differences for our kids?
best practice definitions up to the teacher – thoughts?01:11 PM September 20, 2008
@mdeborde way too many variables, which is why I don’t think there really could a be one ‘best practice’
best practice is whatever engages the student – thoughts?
best practice being about what is best for the child in the particular context
if you are going to call something ‘best practice’ then I would want it to go beyond common sense teaching
if there has to be best practice, then for me it is what is going to
take my classroom and my students forward with new skills, experiences
is there really such a thing as best practice?
what is best practice?12:49 PM September 20, 2008
Flickr image: contactjuggling
3 Things I Will Do
So often after a conference or PD session we are all enthused, inspired, passionate and more and then nothing ever happens with what we have learned, or the changes are insignificant. There are many reasons for that - we’re too busy and we forget, the momentum of the conference isn’t maintained as we aren’t around the same people, the people we work with don’t understand or don’t care about what you have learned etc.
The last session I attended at the Learning 2.008 conference in Shanghai was an informal discussion with Ewan McIntosh about lots of different things. Flickr was mentioned as was privacy, there was talk about social networks and Mac vs PC. Just before we left though, Ewan asked us to sit and write down three things we will do after this conference. So, here are mine – I wrote 4.
I will;
1. Increase the amount of professional reading I do as much as I can – there is so much good stuff out there and I just don’t know enough.
2. Learn more about Alternate Reality and other gaming and think of ways to implement it next year
3. Be more active in my PLN – asking questions and engaging in discussions because, as I said in point 1 – I just don’t know enough.
4. Use Flickr more! Take more pics and actually upload them, and use all the different aspects of it.
Here I go, trying to keep the wheels in motion…
After School Creativity
Last week I gave a couple of English classes to Senior 3 students here at Nanjing Number 1 Middle School. At the end of the second class I put up my email address and told the students that if they wanted to they could email me for help with their English or if they just wanted to ask questions about Australia etc. I also asked them to send me the short videos I had been getting them to make on their phones – just recording themselves speaking English. Time and bluetooth technology prevented me from getting the videos from them during class time and I was really keen to see what they had done. Only one student actually emailed me, and he didn’t send me any footage from the class, but he did send me a video that he and his friends had made. It’s a music video to a popular Chinese song and it’s hilarious!
I have asked him in a couple of ensuing conversations about the technology they have, what they like to use and the fact that they don’t use any of it in class. This particular student, who calls himself Jefferson, really likes to make videos with his friends and would love to make some for classes, but that is never an option.
Here, for your viewing pleasure, is the music video they made. I would love to get hold of his class for a few weeks and really see what creative things these kids could come up with. It’s all got me thinking about doing research on educational technology in China. Ah, where to start!
Just Chat To Us
At the Learning 2.00 Conference a couple of weeks ago, one of the best sessions I went to was one that Jabiz (@intrepidteacher) set up with some of the kids who were helping out as part of the ‘Geek Squad.’ Of course the conference was about education and what is best for our kids, so Jabiz thought we should ask some of the kids themselves.
Here are some notes on what we asked them and what they answered:
When asked if they would or do put more effort into blog posts because they have a global audience they said they would and that blogging is a way of communicating to everyone.
There was a great conversation about exams and their relevance. The kids were saying that they wanted an overall grade about how they progressed – not final exams. They didn’t feel that this showed what they could really do.
“There has to be a point in me learning it
When am I going to need this in life?”
We asked how do you know that the information you find on the internet is correct? – well, that’s where teachers will come in. Teachers having blogs will help a lot. The kids were saying that they need to know how to search and need to know the real life applications. These students were saying how they make sure they comparing resources – as it is much easier to get more information from several resources
Some advice from the kids on how to encourage kids to engage with technology outside of class -
Film making and blogging are good places to start.
How would you like to be assessed? –
This was my favourite part of the conversation. Being as into technology as we are, all us teachers were expecting something like ‘get us to make movies’ or ‘get us to blog’ or anything like that. But no, the kids came up with the most simple answer that really does make a lot of sense:
“Just have a chat to us.”
We said “Oh you mean like IM?”
“No, just face to face. Just have a chat to us to see what we know.”
Who’ve thought?! They just want us to talk to them!
Having real conversations as assessment tasks – how on earth do you assess this?! Jabiz had a great idea – record a converation with the students, then get them to edit the conversation and hand in an ‘audio essay’ for their final record of learning and assessment for a unit. Great idea!
I really appreciated having a chat to these kids. They had a lot to tell us – not that there weren’t things we didn’t already know about what many kids thought, but it was great to be reminded of those perspectives in the middle of a conference about education. After all, the kids are what we are all about.
The tweets I was sending out during this session (in reverse chronological order!):
kids: in class if there is something you want to hear – you will listen
kids: class need to be relaxed – silence invites talking!
kids: class need to be relaxed – silence invites talking!
kids: exams not real – you write your answers then it’s given to someone who doesn’t know you
kids emphasising the point that there has to be a point to what they are learning! imagine that!
assesing kids via f2f conversation or with IM
kids saying that real conversation would be great assessment task
@israelgreg if something is not effective then is it really innovative?
damn – typing too quickly! interactiVe 
kids: the biggest thing you can do is make it interactice
kids: do something that is interactive – anyone got any questions for 3 international kids about techn in classrooms?
kids: most boring lessons are when you are told to read pages and do questions – make it interactice
kids: sending private messages through games – something that accessible at home
kids: making class more interactive with games please!
this session is asking kids about what really does engage them…
question to 3 kids about how overwhelmed they feel – talk about homework timetables
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