CC Image - Karen Cropper - Attribution

Martin Weller’s blog, The Ed Techie, was the first technology blog that I followed and he’s a constant stream of intrestingness. His latest post is really valuable for anyone interested in ed-tech generally, but also open educational models specifically. He has done interviews with a number of OU luminaries (Martin Bean, Grainne Conole, Andrew Law and Simon Buckinham-Shum) and basically asked them 4 questions:

• What are the benefits of technology for learning?
• What are the interesting areas around openness at the moment?
• Are there any interesting trends we should watch over the next few years?
• What do you think about the open, online approach of the conference?

The interviews are between 8 and 15 minutes long each.

I was particularly interested in Grainne Conole’s point about moving towards more open models of research and blogging ideas in progress to get the communities input rather than waiting to publish them in closed  journals.

The conference is running next week on the 22nd and 23rd June and he’s posted the agenda here. Follow Martin’s blog and his Tweets for more info.

PS: Trying to embed this playlist was an unexpected hassle. Ended up having to go into the source code of Martin’s blog and copying the embed code from there. Thanks to Steve for his help. Do you know an easier way?

Adobe Premiere CS3

Clip Notes has been available with Abobe Premiere since CS3. I saw it demo’d when CS3 was launched 2 years ago but haven’t got around to trying it out till now. There are plenty of possibilities for using it in education.

In short, Premiere allows you to render a movie to Quicktime or Windows Media and embed it in a pdf. When you share the pdf it allows you to play the video and add annotations at specific points in the movie. Many users can add comments so you can build up a converstation about a particular video clip.

Have a look at this example I’ve put together using a video I produced for one of our schools last year.

Click to open Clip Notes

 You can download Adobe Reader here.

The comments sometimes zip past quickly but use the goto buttons and pause to catch them.

The main purpose of the tool is so that video producers can get a client’s approval on a cut of a video prior to final production but it would work equally well in an education setting. What about:

• Media – students can get detailed feedback from a teacher on their assembly, rough and final cuts before they hand the work in. Also good for digital video projects in ICT.
• PE – students can film a phase of play (in rugby for example) and then analyse patterns, outcomes and choices players could have made.
• History – download a clip from an archive site and then ask students to comment on aspects of the film.
• Science – film a reaction or process maybe using time-lapse or super slo-mo and get students to comment on what is happening.
• And so on…

It does require someone in school to have access to Premiere CS3 or 4; not cheap so it isn’t a universally accessible option (look for en educational supplieras there is a discount). Also, it’s not easy to use this online so it requires cumbersome saving and exporting on the school network.

Nevertheless, as Adobe Reader is free and already has a wide user-base it makes it a useful tool for education.

NOTE TO SELF: Include instructions on how to make it, fool!

• In Premiere, make sure the correct sequence is highlighted in the timeline
• Click on File – Export – Clip Notes
• Use the following screen to change the compression settings (QT or WMV, screen size, frame rate etc) click OK.
• Choose a location for the file
• Click Save

A further point is to make sure that you’re not running another pdf reader. Only Adobe Reader has the video codecs embedded in it (as far as I know). See my reply to Catherine’s comment below.

The BBC’s education website has posted this today, Alva Academy in Clackmannanshire (near Stirling fact fans) is posting vodcasts of lessons for students to download. Check Alva Academy’s site for examples.

Neat idea although a few places have tried this already. They are posting the videos on Teacher Tube, an educational version of You Tube which links nicely to my previous post about You Tube access in schools. Might revisit that in wee while.

The technology they’ve used to create the videos is very accessible and with a bit of training most people should be able create things like this. The maths ones have been done with simple screen capture software and I think the music ones have used Adobe Premiere Elements but iMovie or Movie Maker would be just as good.

What I wonder is what the impact is going to be. I’d love to know what impact this has in;

a) which students use these, how often and for how long and
b) what impact it has on attainment?

It’s something that has been troubling me recently. I’m sure with the “global financial melting crunch” (or whatever they’re calling it this week) someone is going to be asking what value for money IT investment in schools and CLC’s in particular actually give. Unless we can point to hard and fast benefits that result from use of ICT, sources of funding might mysteriously start disappearing.

A quick Google search on effectiveness of ICT in schools brings up a load of studies and reports saying it does but that the link is not strong. It doesn’t take a genius to work out that just dumping ICT in schools and expecting it to transform anything is a waste of everyone’s time. Think of all the unused whiteboards, tablet PC’s, video cameras etc gathering dust in classrooms and cupboards.

I’d like to know how it goes at Alva. Good luck to them, I hope we get a chance to see how they get on.

Here’s a thought, though. Why shouldn’t it be the students that create these video lessons, not just the teachers? (UPDATE 23/09/08- see Stuart Clyde’s reply to this post. That’s how to do it! Learning going both ways. Note to self – check a bit more thoroughly before spouting off!)

Go here to see their website and Youtube channel…if you can!

But of course, Youtube is probably banned in your school. Certainly our broadband supplier, Yorkshire and Humber Grid for Learning helpfully “protects” children by banning it.

Careful now! Students might learn something!

Couldn’t Youtube be a learning resource, rather than a classroom liability? Teachers could be posting all sorts of stuff on their to help with learning and revision and it’s on students’ home ground as it were.

What would we actually be risking by allowing Youtube into the classroom that isn’t outweighed by the pedagogical benefits?

Creative Commons is an alternative legal structure from normal copyright rules. Anyone can post creative work on the web in certain places and then specify that people are free to use it with certain provisos.

Have a look at Creativecommons.org for a full explanation and methods of searching for stuff.

Also have a look at these useful sites that allow you to download content. Some may need you to sign up or use a schools broadband connection.

Video
Fourdocs
Pathe
British Film Institute
Teachers’ TV

Music
Audio Network

Sound Effects
Free Sound Project