Change the Media

Take a look at this 7 min. video excerpt from a recent conference where Alan November presented a session.  It starts midway through his presentation apparently but be patient and listen for a few minutes to get a sense of his ideas.

Essentially what he's talking about is putting kids in charge of producing videos that demonstrate the learning going on in classrooms - everything from progress as readers to introducing parents to the classroom at a back to school night.

Now, before you click away thinking that kids can't do this and you don't have time, listen to the video if you haven't already and think about what Alan is suggesting.  He's suggesting a small change that can be made that will invite parents into the learning, a small change that could have a large impact on student achievement.  A Flip camera is extremely easy to use and yes...even a kindergarten student can use it.  It's easy to take the video from the camera and edit it using MovieMaker or iMovie or any other video editing tool of choice.

Think about the possibilities for producing videos - it doesn't have to be something that you spend a lot of time planning and working on.  It can be just every day activities - reading with someone, talking about a writing piece, explaining a science experiment, even recording a lesson that students will be doing follow up work with.  What ideas do you have?

Smartboard teachers - you already have the ability to capture work that students are doing at the Smartboard.  Attaching a microphone/headset to the USB port on one of your speakers gives anyone the ability to record and narrate what's going on with the learning.  What possibilities can you see in being able to do this?