72 Hour Film Challenge-2012

At the weekend I took part in the 'Stoke Your Fires' '72 Hour Film Challenge' with 2 colleagues from work. A number of people have asked why give up a weekend?...so I am writing this post to explain and reflect on the experience.

I enjoy learning new things but prefer to use a real project to do so. I find if you have something 'real' to work on with deadlines I experience leaning in a way more similar to students and often accomplish something. We have had a Canon 550d SLR in college for a while (which shoots video as well as stills) and the A Level Photography course I teach on includes a range of lens based media, students have been experimenting more with moving image as well as stills. This project seemed to be the perfect opportunity to get to grips with this camera.

We met up on Saturday morning to plan ideas for shooting our film. We thought about how we could use old cinematic techniques alongside learning new skills:

• One section to be a washed out 'real' view which would contrast against the saturated 'dream'. 
• A silent film using music to build tension and narrate the scenes.
• To incorporate childish elements into the dream sequence almost like a child had scribbled on the film.

The filming itself was relatively straight forward; a number of in house shots were identified and we filmed what was going on around us before we wrapped up warm and headed to Longton Park. When filming in the park we wanted to try and capture a 2 year olds view of the world so everything was filmed from a low angle.

Once back in the warm we identified what we wanted to add to sections of our filming.

To achieve this painted look the frames of the video were imported into Photoshop as layers then these were individually painted in ways relevant to the scene.

The rest of the film editing was done on Final Cut and the music was composed using Garage Band on an ipad and a Mac over the next 48 hours.

This is the final film which we submitted to the competition

The idea behind the film was to try and comment on the world outside that people are missing by staying indoors on snow days and that a journey into a childs mind contrasts against the adult  world.

The things I learned taking part in this project:

• My team (Kim Finn and Nikki Simpkins) have a wide range of skills that I had no idea about.
• Working with children and animals is really not that bad.
• How to film with a 550d though when using photography lenses and tripods that the zooming and panning has a 'steam powered' look.
• How to rotoscope video with CS5 (and how long of a process it is).
• I really am quite scared of ducks especially when surrounded.

This also made me think about how we could use this style project within the college:

• To deliver elements of the BTEC Creative Media Production course.
• Could we set a 'Challenge' brief that allows students freedom to interpret ideas in a far more personal way.
• As a liaison activity to involve local schools/teachers.
• Team building activity to use with other groups of teachers-CPD.
• Could it be used by other subject areas to produce revision materials or produce an assignment.

My first Jog

After bookmarking http://www.jogtheweb.com months a go I have finally got round to giving it a go.

I found this extremely straight forward to use and to edit, you simply copy and paste web links then add some guidance or description.

My first jog is part of a staff development session tomorrow highlighting  just some of the support from Moodle around the web...watch this space for how well it goes down.

I do think this is a tool I will definitely visit again in a classroom setting or for pre trip research as the guidance could actually set a task/question for the student i.e. find info on...

Reflections...

Tatton Park Gardens 10/04/10

Over the last few weeks I have watched a number of conferences, talks and live streams from around the world. They all seem to be getting very repetitive as similar ideas/enthusiasm seem to come up in all situations along with the same lack of understanding and vision. These are the same tech/learning related issues that are being debated in every educational institution across the country if not the world:
-How to engage learners
-Social networking
-Internet
-IT provision
-CPD (lifelong learning amongst teachers and lecturers)


Today I was watching the initial JISC Conference 2010, Pre conference debate "A perfect vision-Technology priorities for higher education" and comments William Dutton made reminded me of all those discussions at BectaX.


He talked about how we shift students to being able to create the internet, not just consume it? And that answers were unlikely to come from FE and HE.


He asked the question "Networked individuals will be the drivers of education in the future not institutions" -almost 80% of the audience agreed.


I personally agreed with alot of what he said as it was nothing really that had not already been said in all those other situations over the last few week. What was different was the back drop-HE and FE.


The thought that is going round and round in my head at the moment is why don't all educational institutions SHARE:
-Ideas
-Methods 
-Practice
As all these different sectors have so much they could learn from each other. Stop focusing on the tech and the politics, focus on the teaching, learning and STUDENTS.   


I know I learn from looking at different educators/sectors and thinking how could I apply that? Don't you?

Thought provoking times

This has been a strange few months; my teaching senses seem to be heightened and I am becoming more aware of the world around me. This is due to a renewed passion for learning:

• No longer reading blog posts in email and using a reader; Google Reader.  Though this has also increased my reading from 8-12 blogs a day to 190+. (Perhaps excessive?)
• Signing up to Twitter and following the teachers whos blogs I read and speakers I have come across at conferences. Obviously this grows as new tweeters catch my eye.
• Blogging to vocalise/reflect/record thoughts (though at embryonic stage) 

Having said all of this it is not just technology/social networking alone it is also a change in attitude. I was letting the system and 'politics' get to me and I made a conscious effort to stop getting frustrated and focus on what is best for my students and myself.

I can not change the whole education system over night and no one person can but what I can do is:

• In the classroom:Be positive about students learning and my teaching. Continue to learn to be a better teacher and continue to reflect/assess/develop my practice. Prepare students as well as I can for the 21st century using what I can.
• In my department: Support those around me who are less comfortable with technology. Find ways to build the community within the department both face 2 face and online. Celebrate our students.
• In the college: Do what I can. Continue to push for CHANGE.

I feel there is something in the air at the moment; this was best highlighted in Tom Barretts recent post Whispering Change . I hope there is a revolution but for the moment I am focusing on what I can and chipping away.

Presentation-e Curriculum Group

www.wordle.net

Leaving staff development day part of me was really excited as it had brought out so much positivity and enthusiasm. I spent the weekend mulling over these my thoughts as I really wanted to find a way to encourage build upon and promote this positivity. This is what I have come up with:

The college could benefit from developing a pedagogy on how Moodle, the Internet and social media can be used within the new build to develop teaching and learning.

A good focus for this would be how to motivate, engage and enthuse students to ultimately facilitate them becoming more independent learners through the inclusion of Moodle, the Internet and social media.

How a potential pedagogy and exemplar materials can be developed:

• The creation an "e Curriculum" group which meets to drive the development of Moodle. This allows us to harness some of the enthusiasm for this area and people to work in collaboration across curriculum areas rather than isolated departments.
• Regular publishing of an "e newsletter" that showcases best practice and highlights articles of interest from around the web. This could also encourage the development of "PLN"s (Personal Learning Network) amongst staff.
• A collaborative project which encourages all staff to contribute ideas.  This could address an area of the curriculum all teachers teach i.e. year 1 tutorials.  Teachers could be asked to contribute ideas for tutorial topics they think should be covered, and the scheme of work developed collaboratively online.  "Crowd source a topic".

In the long run this path could reap a large variety of rewards:

• Build on good practice from recent staff developments
• Treat all staff as valued 'experts' with opportunities to contribute.
• All staff would become 'collaborators'
• Develop moodle into a learning environment not just a resource deposit.
• Develop a core set of lesson plans for use in tutorials, specifically with a social media/interactive slant which teachers can use, regardless of their knowledge of these areas, eventually multi-skilling staff in e-technology which may raise their confidence to apply this to their own specialisms.

To fully embrace an "e Curriculum" the institution should address our approach to the internet, especially in light of recent research and this particular Ofsted report; 'The safe use of new technologies'

The OfSTED report shows, putting blocks on multiple websites is detrimental to students long-term Internet safety; students increasingly spend their lives with an unblocked Internet in their pockets.  They embrace social media as a communication and collaboration tool.  The college has recently began to leverage social media's promotional opportunities, yet we see this as an inappropriate medium for students to use within the college?

This makes students view the medium as forbidden, rather than something to be embraced as part of their daily life and to build upon this cultural change.  If we embrace this change it gives the college the opportunity to show students how social media can be used safely and responsibly and  how they can use these tools within their own development as a learner.

Facebook has a number of educational applications in the classroom, research, sharing course content (none of these mean 'friending' students). Not only this but it is:

• No. 1 photo sharing application on the Web
• More of our students have an account than do not
• We can use it to show the true power of the web and develop student use for the positive rather than negative reasons.

Twitter has even more applications for teachers and can be used to improve sharing and motivation and even has a wide variety of classroom uses. Some of theses uses are:

• Following news
• Sharing information
• Providing a back channel to a lesson
• Broadcasting information
• Sharing objectives
• Live discussions
• Following and taking part in backchannels to events.

In the world today it is not acceptable to block websites to manage classrooms, especially with the age group which we educate; we are trying to prepare students for university and work where no such barriers exist. We should not completely lift all barriers but we need to loosen our grip of the Internet to allow teachers and students to be more spontaneous in what they do and fully exploit some of the powers of social media, allowing us to educate students how to responsibly use social media and protect themselves.

We can not lift barriers without addressing our AUP (Acceptable usage policy) for staff and students that clearly outline:

• Sanctions (possible use of white list)
• Responsibilities ' 
• What is 'Inappropriate

Becta in conjunction with many other agencies (including Ofsted) have guidance we could access to help us do this.

I feel if we can teach students to use technology to create, innovate, research, communicate, collaborate and learn we are preparing them for their 21st century future as none of us know what they will face.

Do I Tool-Belt it?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/blue_diamond/ / CC BY-ND 2.0

I have been thinking about this all day, mainly due to a conversation on the way in to work...

Why do I choose to use specific pieces of software and not others? (In my planning, learning,teaching of lessons and 1 to 1 with students)

What are my criteria to decide value?

As teachers we all seem to have favorites; these are almost 'go to' pieces of software/online tools, yet  we also try the new things that we find.

Today I have been trying to discover how I decide if it goes on to my "tool-belt" or it remains bookmarked for that rainy day.

To end up on my "tool-belt" it must meet the following criteria:

1. Be accessible to the students; easy to use, quick to pick up, add value to their lesson and be safe
2. Have a usable interface for me; save time (or use time effectively)
3. Be free to use

Examples of these tools I use daily if not weekly are:

• delicious.com - http://delicious.com/sfcart
• google reader (I really could not do without this. It allows me to learn)
• wallwisher.com
• wordle.net

Even though I have decided upon these criteria I must admit, occasionally for a bit of a sensory WOW  now and then I resort to:

• prezi.com
• glogster.com

what do you think? what do you use on your "tool-belt"?

Continue to learn

This week we had a staff training day on Friday. Volunteers were asked for to contribute ad share what they do in their classrooms that others might find useful, I had suggested earlier in the week we share our continuous learning which I must admit at the time provoked a puzzled look. I explained that I felt what we do well as a department is continue to learn; about our subject and other areas of interest we each hold, but we also share these things with each other. I chose this as I think it is the most important thing we have.

I believe that there are people out there who teach that do take their knowledge for granted and do not actively seek fresh new knowledge  (if you feel I am wrong I apologize) and I think they do this for a number of reasons but mainly because something has made them loose enthusiasm.

Fridays presentations/sharing went well and seemed to encourage some people but most of all I will take away this thought...

"Keep your enthusiasm, hold on to it tight and don't let anyone take it away from you."