Upper School Launch Grant: Experimenting with Instructional Mathematics Videos

Video, as an instructional tool, is on the rise in recent years.   I used my launch grant to learn methods of making instructional videos for the mathematics classes that I teach and how to organize those resources.  In this blog, I will describe three different types of screencasting software and how I created my Google site.

So, which screencasting software is best?  It depends on your comfort level with video-editing software, and how much time you want to spend making your screencasts look professional.  Here’s my opinion of three particular types:

1.  Explain Everything

Explain Everything in an inexpensive app (currently $2.99) only available on an iPad or iPhone.  I never experimented with this software on an iPhone, because I don’t think that the screen is large enough.  In fact, I don’t actually find the screen big enough on an iPad for most of the educational videos that I wish to record.  But if the videos that you want to make don’t need a large screen and if you are comfortable on an iPad, Explain Everything is a very easy piece of software to use.  It records on-screen drawing, annotation, and audio through the iPad microphone.  Exporting your videos is simple.  For a teacher that is an iPad user and wants to begin making videos, I would highly recommend Explain Everything.

2.  Camtasia

Camtasia is available on either a Mac or a PC, but for a cost.  It is a very powerful software product though, and will allow you to do almost everything you would want to do in an educational screencast.  You can record through the webcam or the screen, add clickable links throughout the video, and easily share videos on YouTube.  The possibilities are actually a little overwhelming for the novice videographer.  I would recommend Camtasia only for teachers with some screencasting experience and demanding of a professional result.

My Camtasia Example Video

3.  Screencast-O-Matic

It’s free!  I think it also looks professional.  Both Mac and Windows users can run this software on their computer.  You can have it record your webcam or your screen.  I found it to be rather easy to use and make small edits.  It’s simple to upload videos directly to YouTube or save videos to your computer as an mp4 file.  I think that Screencast-O-Matic offers the optimum combination in terms of features, ease of use, and price.   I highly recommend this software to any teacher who is starting out in screencasting and wants more screen space or edibility than an iPad offers.

My Screencast-O-Matic Example Video

My Google Site

This past year I found that I needed to organize all my online resources in one central location.  My created Google site contains websites that I found to be valuable, instructional videos for different topics, and mathematics software programs, such as graphing calculators.  It also includes suggested follow-up questions to ask students once they have completed watching certain educational videos.  When I have experimented with the flipped classroom approach to teaching, I found it critical to ask my students follow-up questions to videos watched for homework so that I could be sure that they actually watched it and learned something.

My examples of videos with follow up questions

I have learned so much through this launch grant and had fun playing with new technology.  If anyone has questions about making or implementing instructional videos, I would be happy to help!

-Mariah Napeñas

Video Tutorials in the Upper School Spanish Classroom

To follow-up on Katrina's articles regarding sceencasting in the classroom on Nov 13th and 23rd, below is an update with a little more information from Rosario.

I use tutorial videos in my classes in order to maximize Spanish language use by my students during class time so they don’t have to be quiet listening to me in class but rather busy talking, collaborating, asking questions. This way class time is centered on the students and I can give instructions on the expectations for a Project, on what to do if I am going to be absent in class, on a grammar review or on how to prepare for the Final exam through a video tutorial that is more engaging. Students are still going to hear me say it in Spanish but they will listen to me at their own pace, as many times as they need to and will have to take responsibility figuring out what is expected of them. Having a class website makes it really easy to post everything for everyone.

Here are samples of all different technologies I’m using to make them: 
Camtasia (Tareas del Proyecto)
Powtoon (Gramática y Vocabulario básico)
Screencast-o-matic (Como preparar para el examen final)
Videoscribe (Práctica de audio)
and Explain Everything (Tarea para el bloque C). 

-Rosario 

Need to Explain Everything? Part II

Last week’s news update shared examples of the videos that Kelsey and Christine created using Explain Everything (if you haven’t checked out their videos yet, then you should do that!). Since the last news update, I’ve heard from several other teachers about the technology that they are using in their classrooms, specifically in regards to creating instructional videos. This seems to be a hot topic right now and something that many people are interested in experimenting with. Mariah has been using instructional videos with a flipped classroom model for three years, pairing videos from other sources with her own videos. Students in her classes are used to watching instructional videos; she assigns the video and follow-up questions for homework at least once per month. Mariah has experience using the (free!) screencast-o-matic software and she’s also exploring using Camtasia (BB&N purchases a license for this software). Currently, Mariah is working on creating a library of videos (on Google sites) that the math department can utilize and share with each other, seen here in its early stages.

Rosario also uses Explain Everything, as well as Camtasia, Screecast-o-matic, and Powtoon to create instructional videos for her classes, something she has been doing since last year and loves. The videos that Rosario creates often explain a grammar point, give instruction on homework, provide an explanation of a group project, or explain how to use a particular tool. She posts all of her instructional videos to the class Haiku page and has found it to be very helpful for giving instructions. Feel free to check out Rosario’s Haiku pages, found here and here, but also available through your own Haiku page. She has posted tutorials that she created using Camtasia, Powtoon, Screecast-o-matic, and Explain Everything, so you are easily able to compare these technologies. Seriously, check out some of this- you get the gist of it, even if you don’t understand Spanish. Here are some YouTube videos: here and here and here

If you are also using any of these technologies and would like to share your experiences, let me know! If you are looking to bounce some ideas around and talk to an expert, feel free to see Mariah, Rosario, Kelsey, Christine, or Megan! Megan also wants to remind everyone that she’s here to help you with the technology you use or would like to try in your classroom. One of her favorite parts of her job is being able to connect the dots and help teachers connect with one another about how they are using technology. She always wants to hear about these wonderful ways of using technology to enhance the student experience, then help teachers connect with one another to further their own learning. To see what’s going on across all campuses in regards to technology, continue to check out this tech blog.

Speaking about cool uses of technology in the classroom, have you heard about Poll Everywhere? Al uses this technology on a regular basis in his classroom as a tool for quick formative assessments. Al started using this software a few years ago and has found it to be incredibly helpful in quickly assessing the learning within the classroom, allowing him to decide whether or not he needs to re-teach a topic or can move on to the next topic. If you are looking for a quick way to get an immediate and anonymous answer from every student in the class, ask Al about his experiences with Poll Everywhere!

-Katrina Fuller

Need to Explain Everything? Part I

Need to Explain Everything? The math department is exploring ways to create a flipped classroom and is quickly becoming experts in making their own tutorial videos. Kelsey created her first videos (using Explain Everything) last year and used them as part of her final exam review days, though she’s now beginning to use them more frequently with her classes. Here is one of her final exam review videos... warning, this is a long one!

After seeing how successful these videos can be, Christine created her first video last week for her Algebra II class. If you also use Explain Everything, please let me know, as I'd love to see how other people are using this technology with their classes. If you have questions, see Kelsey or Christine for a quick tutorial!

-Katrina Fuller

Remix Culture, Fair Use and Online Tools for Capturing Audio and Video Content From the Internet

Q: What is Remix Culture?

A: Making new stuff from the existing stuff

Center for Social Media resources:

• Fair Use Question of the Month
• Code of Best Practices in Fair -Use for Creating Video, Documentary, Poetry, Remix Culture
• Examples of Successful Fair Use in Documentary Film
• Did These Mashups Use "Fair Use"? You Decide! Ten grad students used the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Online Video to try to create "fair use" mash-up videos. Take a look at the videos and decide how well (or not) they did!

This video explains why the Code for Fair-Use in Online Video got created, and how the Code can help you create online videos that employ fair use of copyrighted material.

Creative Commons provides free tools that let authors, scientists, artists, and educators easily mark their creativity. Creative Commons can help you find photos, music, text, books and educational materials.

Tools for Capturing Video and Audio Content From the Internet

• Media Converter converts your audio and video files from your hard disk, by url/stream (http,ftp, mms,rtsp) or directly from websites like Facebook or Youtube

• Listen to youtube your best source for converting YouTube to MP3. You can convert unlimited YouTubevideos to MP3 for FREE.

• Video2Mp3 allows you to convert and download YouTube videos to MP3 file online.

• Screencast-O-Matic is the original online screen recorder for one-click recording from your browser on Windows, Mac, or Linux with no install for FREE!

• Sketchcasting allows you to record a sketch with or without voice, explain something, have fun, or create art. Then embed the sketch player in your blog or point people to your sketch channel.

ATS Picks 10/28/10

1. 100+ Google Tricks that will Save you Time in School

Check out these great tips and learn how to use Google to convert units, do a timeline search, search for a specific file type, search for a face, use Google News, study the oceans, and much more.

2. Protecting Reputations Online

This 3 minute video illustrates what happens to information that you share on the web. Common Craft's unique style makes it easy to understand some of the risks of oversharing information Online.

3. True size of Africa

A small contribution in the fight against rampant immappancy by Kai Krause.
 This map makes it very clear how big Africa really is. Be sure to zoom in to get the full picture.

4. Lincoln Middle Schools Students Use Technology to Help Each Other Succeed

Campus Innovation: Kids Teaching Kids

Lincoln Middle School creates an innovative learning environment centered on kids teaching kids. Middle school students create math video lessons and collaborate via a Moodle-powered class website, creating a community of learners. Eric Marcos teaches 6th Grade Mathematics at Lincoln Middle School in Santa Monica, California. He also operates Mathtrain.TV, a site that features math video lessons (a.k.a. mathcasts) created by his students.

ATS Picks 10/8/10

1) Ways to Use Voicethread in the Classroom

The Digital Library is a database of articles about successful VoiceThread projects. Our hope is to create a resource that offers guidance and inspiration for people undertaking new projects.

2) Internet4Classrooms... Helping You Use the Internet Effectively

At this site there are a large number of games that kids can play that help review math, social studies and language arts skills. The games are organized by grade level and the site is very easy to navigate.

3) Sketchcast... a New Way to express yourself

Record a sketch with or without voice. Explain something, have fun, or create art. Then embed the sketch player in your blog or point people to your sketch channel.

4) VocabGrabber- Visual Thesaurus

VocabGrabber analyzes any text you're interested in, generating lists of the most useful vocabulary words and showing you how those words are used in context. Just copy text from a document and paste it into the box, and then click on the "Grab Vocabulary!" button. VocabGrabber will automatically create a list of vocabulary from your text, which you can then sort, filter, and save.

Select any word on the list and you'll see a snapshot of the Visual Thesaurus map and definitions for that word, along with examples of the word in your text. Click on the word map or the highlighted word in the example to see the Visual Thesaurus in action.