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

Using Ning to Keep in Touch

To keep parents informed of what we are doing while here in Nanjing, I set up the Gariwerd Program ning site. Originally we used it before we left as a place where the kids could get to know each other (they are from 5 different schools) and to ask questions of the staff. The ning was set to private at that stage as it was not being used to share anything other than information that was relevant only to those kids that were preparing for the trip.

Now, though, we are in China and have plenty to share and so I have made the ning public. I made sure there were no surnames used and the kids haven’t listed what schools they are from. I’ve uploaded many videos from our first week here in China to the videos page of the ning. Parents have been watching them and one or two have made comments. We’ve even had a mum and a grandma join the ning to follow the kids along their journey.

Each day here at school we have a access to a computer room. Now that we are settling in to more of a routine after a furious few days of rushing around and getting very tired, the kids will be blogging on the ning site as well. There were a few reasons I didn’t set the kids up with their own individual blogs external to the ning -

parents and other classes would then have to go to several different sites to see what different kids were up to – blogging on the ning site keeps it all in one place
I wasn’t sure what blogging sites were going to be blocked in China and I new that nings weren’t blocked
I wanted to have a place where the kids could connect and read each others blog posts easily. The ning will make a great and easy to access resource for other classes and for the kids while they are here and after they have returned home
It is more collaborative than single blogs, and I really wanted to make sure all the kids voices were heard – and seen!

I know the parents have appreciated being able to see what the kids are doing and once we get them blogging regularly, they will enjoy what the kids are writing too. 6 weeks is a long time to be away, and China is a long way away, so anything that keeps us in touch with home is a good thing – with bonus audio and visual elements!

So, please check out our ning. Follow us on our journey here in China. Check out our videos and see and hear what we are up to. It’s such a pity that video does not pick up smells and we can’t add them to the ning! Well, maybe it’s not…

Benefits of Blogging – a conversation from the technoLanguages Network

technolanguages.ning.com

What are the benefits of blogging?

Posted by Jess McCulloch on 6 August 2008 at 8:35pm

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Viviana and Isabelle are exchanging a few messages about the benefits of blogging and so I thought I would start a discussion here to see what others would like to add.

how many of you have your own blog ? How many of you blog with your students? It would be great to hear what your responses are as to why and what you see then benefits to be.

For me the benefits of blogging are:
1. it gives me a space to reflect on my practice
2. it’s a place where I can share ideas and involve other people in conversation
3. it’s a way for me to make connections with other people who are interested in the same things
4. it’s fun – I just really enjoy writing my blog
5. it provides a resource to help out other teachers

The benefits I see blogging having for students:
1. It gives them an authentic audience and purpose for their work
2. They make connections with other students from all over the world – and you should see the excitement on their faces when they see thy have a comment from overseas!
3. It encourages students to take more pride in their work as they know they now have an international audience
4. It encourages students to write about and share things about themselves that they may otherwise not have a reason or inclination to share. I have learnt so much about the students in my school through their blogs.

What do you think?

Tags: benefits, blogging, blogs, connections, international, students

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Viviana Golding on 7 August 2008 at 10:43am: Dear Jess this is excellent! Thank you! Don’t worry about that PD on blogging I am sure that we can do something in the future also with Isabelle….
Have agreat day ciao Viv; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Michael Atkinson on 7 August 2008 at 12:04pm: I have just started blogging and I think that it is a great intro to Web 2.0 tools. It is relatively easy to set one up, sso technophobes need not fear! And I agree with Jess!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Tina Wilkinson on 9 August 2008 at 1:20am: Hi Jess – I think you hogged all the answers!!!! lol
I am trying them out with my Year 11s, but we are having terrible trouble with edublogs inside the school on the student server.
What other free blog sites do people use successfully in schools?

Tina

What are your thoughts?

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Technology in Room 14 21 July – Year 8 and Ning

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technoChinese Eurovision is Coming!

Yes, you read it correctly. technoChinese Eurovision is on its way. I have joined the Alternative Eurovision Song Contest for Schools which is a fabulous idea and now and ning network created by the one and only Jo Rhys-Jones. Jo also runs the Talkabout Primay MFL ning which is a great network to be part of.

For the Alternative Eurovision contest a new task is set each week and each participating class represents a different country – we’ve chosen China – and submits their completed task. Whatever the tasks are, I’m sure there will lots of music, singing and daggy costumes involved. I have never really paid much attention to Eurovision before, but I do know what it is, and this could all get very very very silly – which I think is brilliant! Can’t wait to see what the first task will be.