Back Up – Thing 13
I actually WAS wearing my PJs when I attended the online K12 Conference. I chose to watch Kicking it Up a Notch: Film School for Video Podcasters, which was basicallly a tutorial on video making for use in the classroom. The presenter, Michael Needleman, gave some great info and ideas on how to make interesting and effective videos for the classroom and, more importantly, how to help students do the same thing.
I’m a total novice when it comes to making podcasts or videos other than the quick home movies that I shoot of my 10 month old crawling after the cats. Needleman’s presentation did assume that the audience knew the basics of video/podcast making, so there were definitely some holes in my knowledge that need to be filled before I can venture into the podcasting world. I see that we’ll be making podcasts soon in this course, so hopefully that’ll get me up to speed and enable me to use some of the great info that Needleman gave.
I really like the idea of having the students make their own videos to present information. I have been hesitant to do this in my classroom because I was afraid of “glorified power point presentations”, as Needleman calls them. This online presentation definitely gave me some great examples of “non-boring” movies that I could present to my students to spark their imaginations. Now, I definitely don’t have any of the fancy equipment that Needleman endorsed, nor am I going to acquire any anytime soon, but I think that my students could make videos using their laptop cameras in order to accomplish this task. While I wouldn’t make this activity a semester project for my Senior level students, it would be a fun way to break up the pressure of an AP course.
I did enjoy the online format of this “conference.” I like being able to watch videos at times that are convenient for me. Also, I feel like the online format is much more streamlined than real-time conferences. A lot of the downtime and distractions are eliminated and viewers can quickly get to the heart of the information they’re after.
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Online conferences certainly remove the obstacle of finding in which “BallRoom” your session is being held! Maybe a short video project for the kids would be fun…since they’ve got MACS they can certainly do it quickly with ther laptop cameras, IMOVIE, etc. Maybe extra credit for the student(s) who help other student(s) who need technical help?
Thanks for watching. The session you watched is part of the “Kicking It Up a Notch” strand of the conference so you are correct that it does assume basic knowledge. You can watch presentations in the “Getting Started” section for beginner help. While there is equipment that I would recommend for someone “kicking it up a notch” you should know that I began with a single computer and just a digital still camera in my classroom and then worked up from there. You don’t need additional equipment to get started. Also the age of my students was first and second grade so surely your students would pick it up easily. Good luck.