"Doing IT for the kids"
  • Home
  • Classroom Tech
    • OneNote Tutorials
    • Techno Tips
    • Web 2.0 Tools
    • Windows 8 Apps
    • Web Literacy
    • Multimedia Tools
  • About Me
    • Work History
    • Professional Work
    • Accreditations
  • My Blog
  • Contact

Office Mix and Flipped Learning

1/19/2015

2 Comments

 
Picture
Everyone is talking about the Flipped Classroom Model (or Blended Learning) for teaching and learning. There is a real opportunity here to use technology to flip learning on its head. Students spending independent time at home absorbing and interacting with the prior-learning concepts means that they can access time in the classroom for problem solving, applying concepts and developing deeper understandings through collaborating with their teachers and peers.

I've started to use the new 'add-in' for PowerPoint called Office Mix. With a few years' worth of material that I have developed in PowerPoint, this has been an absolute timesaver for me and made recording videos so much easier. It's got everything I need to create flipped classroom material such as screen casting, webcam recording and embedded quizzes and other interactive apps to my embed into my existing PowerPoint slides. It allows me to make sleek, pro-like interactive videos for my students  without having to have any video editing experience. I simply record and upload my recordings to Office Mix for my students to be able to access the videos on any device.

Like all new technology innovations, everyone is talking about it. Some are trying it. Few are actually nailing it. With any shift in practice it takes time and professional learning to develop the new skill. We all know that we learn from our mistakes, of which I have made many. So as I continue to refine my Flipped video recording skills I have been noting my successes and failures. Here are my suggestions for getting the most out of the Flipped Learning videos that you create:

10 tips for transforming your Flipped Learning videos:

1. Brand yourself. If sounds a little daft but your students will like the familiar nature of your videos. Khan Academy do a great job of this. They have an excellent pace and narrative plus use spiffy glow like colours. Think about your audience and what engages them. Use common colours, fonts and themes that you students will come to feel comfortable with.

2. Show your face. Ok I know it's a little scary but it adds a personalised touch to your videos. Technology often takes the personalisation of learning so bring it back in. It also shows your students you are willing to take safe risks and jump out of your comfort zone. As you build up confidence try using Office Mix to pre-record just the first slide with a 'hello wave and welcome' message. Recordings from other educators can be great but doing it yourself means you can contextualise it precisely for the students you know!

3. Give a timeline. At the start of the video include a quick explanation of what the video will cover. A visual timeline is perfect. This way the students know what to expect and will be more likely to sit out 'the boring bits' when they know it only goes for 30 - 60 seconds.

4. Less is more. When developing slides avoid using too many pictures and text. Our kids are already overloaded with digital information, so I recommend an image as the background and a couple of key words on each slide. Don't write it all on the screen and read from it. The kids will end up loading it onto boring.com!

5. Half bake your slides. Before recording your Mix, have your slides prepared but not finished - leave space for you to use the pen to draw on your slides, provide worked examples, annotate diagrams or write dot points. Something moving on the screen will indefinitely increase engagement. Nobody likes to a brutal 'death by PowerPoint' even if it's a recorded version.

6. Allow for thinking time. Especially if you are asking students to participate in higher order thinking and questioning it's so important to slow down and give time to your students. It's not radio so you can have silent moments. Office Mix allows you to segment your video. Encourage them to pause and take notes by highlighting important

7. Keep it to 5 - 6 minutes or less. I read some research somewhere about this but it really just makes sense. Don't bore them with lengthy videos. Keep it short and sharp. If you need more time, split your videos into parts or modules. This way they can do them sequentially or (for those like me who get a little distracted) they can self-pace.

8. Quizzes are a no brainer. Students love to gamify learning. When they know there is a short quiz, about the content you are sharing at the end, they will be more likely to engage in the content. Best part is you will also be able to view the analytics that Office Mix provides enabling you to see how long each student spend on each slide, number of views per student and the responses to your quiz questions. BOOM - there is your formative assessment data!

9. Include a discussion thread. Office Mix allows you to activate a discussion thread on any video you upload. Providing a space for students to ask questions or discuss key topics transforms it from a passive video view to an active learning session where everyone can be involved.

10. Finish with a 'call to action'. Sounds salesy I know, but one of the biggest challenges with implementing a flipped model is having a strategy to manage the viewing of the videos prior to class. By asking students an open-ended question at the end of the video and requesting they respond in a discussion thread, will help you identify who has watch the video carefully. You could provide a link to a Web 2.0 tool or a quick activity, linked to the video content, for completion in their personal/class OneNote.

My OfficeMix sample:

Here is one of my flipped videos for my Year 7 Science class - watch it now.
Picture

Getting Started with Office Mix:

Get an Office Mix account for free at www.officemix.com
Download Office Mix add-in for PowerPoint here.
Office Mix How-to-guide access here.


2 Comments

OneNote: Helping students stay organised this new school year

1/17/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
The start of the school year is the best time to set routines and help your students become more self-regulated and organised learners. OneNote is a digital version of the ye olde leaver arch folder. Similar to the leaver arch folder, OneNote uses a tab based filing system to structure and organise workflow but with a few more functional features than just loose leaf paper. Setting up a new OneNote is just as exciting (for me anyway) as hitting my nearest Officeworks store to get organised with new stationary for the year.

There are many benefits of using OneNote as a student organiser:
  • It's a central place for recording ideas/responses, collecting research and storing digital creations
  • As they can be collaborative it provides greater visibility between student and teacher, including to opportunity for feedback.
  • Notebooks can be stored in the cloud, so the dog definitely won't be able to reach it!
  • Develop self-regulation skills, crucial for the 21st Century

Why not encourage your students get into the habit of using a personal OneNote stored in their OneDrive in Office 365 with these 5 useful section ideas for their School Life 2015 OneNote:
Picture
To Do List: Keeping a log of tasks to complete and ticking them off is a great place to develop a satisfaction for efficiency and management. You can use tags in OneNote to create tick off 'To-Do' lists. Even better still, tag tasks with a variety of icons tags which may be handy for categorising the type of task, subject or for prioritising.

My Timetable: If your school is like mine students will be provided with an individual timetable. Storing it in OneNote means they can access it easily without having to login to into too many different places. Students INSERT a digital version by inserting a FILE PRINTOUT in OneNote.

Homework Planner: Insert a table and develop a homework routine/schedule. Ask your students to reflect on their school week and shade areas where they have extra-curricular or family commitments followed by spaces available to tick off things on their homework 'To-Do list'.

Picture
Usernames: The last thing we need in the classroom is the "I've don't know my login/password" interruption. Passwords are becoming more complex and we must support our students' in leading responsible digital lifestyles, including the change of password every few months. This can certainly through ourselves into a spin, let alone our students, as we juggle complex logins to a variety of services such as emails, online textbooks, app stores and online creation tools. To combat the nagging usernames and passwords blues I encouraged [make] my students keep a list of these in their School Life OneNote.

Picture
Usernames: The last thing we need in the classroom is the "I've don't know my login/password" interruption. Passwords are becoming more complex and we must support our students' in leading responsible digital lifestyles, including the change of password every few months. This can certainly through ourselves into a spin, let alone our students, as we juggle complex logins to a variety of services such as emails, online textbooks, app stores and online creation tools. To combat the nagging usernames and passwords blues I encouraged [make] my students keep a list of these in their School Life OneNote.

Learning Styles: During the 'Learning to Learn' period in the first few weeks of the school year we often ask our students to complete a Learning Styles and Character Strengths survey. It's a great opportunity for students to reflect on themselves as learners and helps boost their "I CAN DO IT" attitudes towards school. On completion, I ask my students to screen clip their results and insert it into their OneNote. This way they can return to it during discussions, annotate and reflect. It also means I can access a copy.

Term Goals: The beginning of a each terms always feels like a new opportunity to reset focus for the learning ahead. Using graphic organisers is a great way to prompt critically thinking and for students to reflect on their strengths and weakness as well as talking on feedback from their teachers or peers. You can create templates in OneNote such as the Fish Bone diagram below using shapes in the Draw tab.

Reflection Journal: Keeping a log of learning, a reading log or gratitude journal. Don't limit them to just writing about it. Students love using the Audio & Video recording tools to create podcasts and video recordings. The great thing about it is they are stored in their OneNote and they can use the files later for remix and create.

Picture
To create, curate and mix we all need a digital dumping ground or place to flesh out ideas. Having "Think Tank" space is a must have for any digital user. You might need some extra room for this in your School Life OneNote so you could consider creating a 'Section Group' within the Notebook. This adds a new layer within the Notebook whereby you can start a new row of sections within this category.

Research: Section Group - you might create a Research section, Brainstorm section and My Ideas section. You can keep these blank and students can add to them as they need. One neat OneNote trick is when you are browsing the web through Internet Explorer you can copy and paste text or images from any website. When you paste them into OneNote is will bring a live link with it so you can go back to it next time. I wish I had this when I was at University and needed to keep a reference/source list.

Picture
OneNote is great place to store everything digital, sometimes students need a place where they can keep a record of digital work such as a file, image, website link, a screen clipping of a certificate. You can insert all sorts of things into a OneNote and because it's a blank canvas - the sky is the limit.

If you like would like to get your hands of a copy the School Life 2015 OneNote that I will be sharing with my students on the first day back feel free to download it here. Once you have downloaded your copy you can of course add or change things to suit your context.

Comment below: How do you use OneNote to keep your students organised at school?

0 Comments

    RSS Feed

    Author: Trent Ray

    eLearning Leading Teacher & Microsoft Innovative Educator. I care about kids, learning and all things technology!

    Archives

    April 2015
    January 2015
    October 2014

    Categories

    All
    ELearning
    ICT Peer Coaching
    Professional Learning
    Teacher Capacity
    Technology In The Classroom

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.