How to make a vodcast with iMovie...

If you are a Mac user this video will help you making a vodcast with the software iMovie. It is very user friendly and you can get the whole class involved in the project. Also as a teacher, vodcasting will allow your students downloading your lectures into portable devices.

A great idea...

I have been sharing this video with every teacher I know because I think it is a great new approach that needs further research. However, when implementing new technologies we need to take into consideration that not every student has the same learning style. I always advise teachers to use audio-visual materials in conjunction to reading and writing assignments.

There is not a magic formula for teaching, so we should restrain from pushing our students into new learning methods without curricular foundation. I use the following criteria:

Facilitated learning (podcasting/vodcasting) + intellectual stimulus (reading/ web searching) + critical thinking (opposite viewpoints /sorting sources) + team work (collaborative group assignments) + editing & writing (papers /blogging) = A well educated student ready to face today’s challenges.

Podcasting, Vodcasting and Blogging are great educational tools that every teacher should incorporate to their lesson plans.

Free, free, and free!

Do you know that most resources on the web that teachers can use to improve student learning are free? Yes, FREE! One of my goals is to find them and share this valuable information with you.

http://www.teachertube.com/ This is a version of the popular video site You Tube but focus on educational materials. You will not find inappropriate materials for your students, but even if you do, you can “flag” it and will be immediately removed. How can you as a teacher use this free resource?

1) Register and open an account
http://www.teachertube.com/signup.php

2) After you follow the account creation process (don’t forget to send the confirmation e-mail), log in and click the tab named “Groups” and click the button on the right column named “Create A Group”

(TIP: Make it a class activity and have your students voting to choose one)

3) You can create a new group by subject area, by semester, or by grade.

Videos can be use to document science projects, lectures, convert Power Point presentations to video (more on this on next posting) or create a movie as class activity using simple editing software’s like Windows Movie Maker or Mac’s I Movie.

If you don’t have a video camera, remember most portable phones and digital photo cameras can be use to record a video.

For more information on Teacher Tube read their help files here:
http://www.teachertube.com/help.php

An open invitation

For the last ten years I have been a web designer for private clients and a freelance photojournalist for numerous publications and news agencies. I was also an elementary schoolteacher. Because of the combination of my passion for new technologies and for sharing information with others, I went back to school to earn a Master of Arts degree in Education in Instructional Technology. I discovered, to my surprise and astonishment, how little technology is known and used in our classrooms, even in our institutions of higher learning! College professors, extremely accomplished in their fields of study, balked when challenged to learn even the simplest computer skills. Even students who purported to be experts at chatting, game playing and listening to music, failed to take advantage of new technology to improve their research skills and learning methods. Many educators complained that technology was too challenging and too expensive to implement, especially in financially disadvantaged schools.
To prove that myth wrong, I created this a Blog to share free bits of information on how to utilize new technologies in the educational field. I am not a wizard or supernatural being; just one who saw the internet from its beginning as a living encyclopedia where people exchange ideas to make our global community a better place for all.