Here there are some activities of the learning lab.

1. WEB-BASED VIDEO IN E-TWINNING<br />Greetings and welcome to the Learning Lab! Over the next three weeks we will be exploring aspects of the educational use of web-based video within eTwinning. A main goal for this Learning Event will be to identify and build off of your existing expertise in this area. We will all learn much from each other. This Learning Event entails twenty hours of both asynchronous and synchronous training.<br />Your participation in this Learning Event is highly valued, so I would like to thank each and every one of you for your time and commitment. This Learning Event is designed around learning activities. It is therefore important that you undertake these activities in order to engage with the learning process and derive benefit from the Event.<br />Course work in quot;
Web-Based Video - Educational Use Within eTwinningquot;
is divided into 21 days. The types of assignments and the level of interactivity vary from day to day. This is not a self-paced course, and undertakings involving collaboration with peers are required. Thus, most work is not made available in advance as the purpose is for participants to work together at the same pace. I will always try my best to give clear directions on what, where, when and how.<br />You will receive your Certificate at the end of the Learning Event if you effectively participate in the discussions in the Round Table area (see a rubric for assessing effectiveness of participation in online discussions here), do the group work required, participate on the live online session on the 13th of April and/or comment on its recording (the content), and provide the feedback and the evaluations you are asked to. <br />Communicating with the presenter and peers can be readily accomplished through the chat function of the Learning Lab, located on the lower right corner on every page. A participants' meeting point has been created in the Round Table area. Its name is quot;
02. Participants' Lounge - Coffee / Tea Housequot;
. You can arrive at the Participants' Lounge by clicking on the Round Table tab located above, just below the name of the Event. This Lounge provides an opportunity for you to visit with other participants about any topic of interest, related or not to web-based video. I encourage you to use the lounge, much as you did in the hallway or the cafe before an on-campus class at university...<br />To get started, please read the Timetable and the Learning Objectives below, then familiarise yourself with the Learning Lab. Then please have a look at quot;
The Core Rules of Netiquettequot;
- using good manners on the Internet is of paramount importance. Your next step should be establishing community by introducing yourself to others in the Learning Event. To do this you need to go to the Round Table area and click on quot;
01. Open Arms and Glimmering Feelingsquot;
. Please start a new thread and write a few words about yourself (give us an idea of your background and experiences in education and educational technology) and your expectations for this event. Feel free to comment on other participants' entries, with the aim of welcoming them and making them feel at home. Deadline: the 3rd of April.<br />At this point you may wish to upload a photo to your account. I invite you to do this by going to My Account (upper right corner) and put a face to your name.<br />Your next step should be the ice-breaking activity. With it I am aiming at two things normally missing from academic forums: anecdote and humour. I would also like to reinforce identity with the eTwinning community and help forge a group identity. This ice-breaking activity is positioned in the Round Table area. Please click there on quot;
03. Ice-breakingquot;
, start a new thread and present an amusing, weird or otherwise memorable event in your eTwinning life. Then reflect on at least three of the experiences presented by your peers - make connections, find similarities, understand differences. Deadline: the 3rd of April.<br />I am really excited about the opportunity to present quot;
Web-Based Video - Educational Use Within eTwinningquot;
to you. I will do everything within my power to facilitate your learning in this event. I am looking forward to working with each of you.<br />Welcome aboard!<br />------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br />Jane Hart, the founder of Centre for Learning and Performance Technologies (based in the UK, this is one of the world's most visited learning sites on the Web) has been compiling a list of the most helpful 100 tools for learning for 4 years now. To the left and a little down is the 2010 list (you may wish to view it on slideshare, it is here), which categorizes services and software based on simple criteria: platform and cost. Platform can include desktop, server, online and mobile. Cost is either free or charge, with some actually supporting both options.<br />The contributions were made by learning professionals worldwide - both from education (teachers, academics, etc), as well as those involved in workplace learning (learning managers, instructional designers, trainers, consultants, analysts, etc). I have contributed myself.<br />Twitter is number 1, for the second year in a row. With its simple and crafty microblogging capabilities, Twitter received more than half of the votes.<br />Number 2 is YouTube, classified as video sharing site - it moved steadily from number 22 in 2007, 18 in 2008, 3 in 2009, and it may well lead the list in 2011 (see the Emerging Top 100 Tools for Learning 2011). Surprising? Many would answer quot;
Noquot;
. Let us dig further on this.<br />What exactly is YouTube, after all?<br />Perhaps statistics would make a good start in our search of its definition. In 2010, YouTube users uploaded over 35 hours of video each minute, amounting to over 13 million hours of video for the entire year, according to year-end figures released by YouTube.<br />Users view 2 billion YouTube videos per day, reads the YouTube Fact Sheet.<br />According to a 2009 survey as part of an initiative of the Pew Research Center in Washington, D.C., seven in ten adult Internet users in the USA (69%), or roughly half of all American adults, have used the Internet to watch or download video.<br />These are staggering numbers, and although I might seem to equate YouTube with online video, this is not my intention, as the amount of video sharing and hosting sites (see the following for more information: Wikipedia's quot;
Comparison of video servicesquot;
and Richard Byrne's quot;
47 Alternatives to Using YouTube in the Classroomquot;
) would stand to contradict me.<br />The sites mentioned host videos that have been contributed by users or video owners. Highlights of these sites include full movies, TV shows, and documentaries. Their value stands in their stable implementation, for the most part, as when one finds a video to watch, it usually plays.<br />Yet YouTube is undoubtedly their leader. It also currently holds the title of world's second largest search engine. Plus it can also be considered a social networking site, with the numerous facilities it offers its users - people watch, rate, comment on, upload videos... It is indeed one of the most popular websites ever. Globally, it is one of the top 5 websites in popularity and number of visitors. And it is still growing rapidly.<br />No need to ask where YouTube would fit in the Internet technologies categories that educators should know about - and I do not necessarily mean those technologies that educators are expected to use in the classroom, I mean those categories about which educators should understand what they are, what their potential in the classroom is, and how students may already be using them. YouTube has a little bit of all, this is how versatile it is.<br />------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br />We are living in the age of web-based video today. Despite the short period of time (YouTube is six years old!), it is easy to see that this video-sharing phenomenon has been affecting society and the traditional media in (often) fascinating ways. I believe virtually all areas of media and society are developing their own relationship with web-based video nowadays. Be it entertainment, sports, music, art, science, business, the news, politics, law or education, changes are fast and unpredictable. So what about us? As enthusiastic teachers, how are we and our classroom situations being changed in this age of web-based video?<br />Web-based video is the most diverse medium I know. It (I am considering anything and everything from poems to nature clips, from famous TV moments to science experiments, from adverts to art) is ‘multi-layered’, as it consists of still-images (when using screen shots), moving images, paper texts (if you use transcriptions), spoken language, music, sound effects and so on. Having said this, I believe it is obvious then that selecting the most appropriate video for a particular objective, class, time, situation, taking into account curriculum requirements, working within the teacher’s philosophy and approach to teaching, is a daunting job, and (common sense) criteria for doing this would be much appreciated.<br />But before attempting to do just that, let us thoroughly understand that, although not originally meant for use in education, web-based video holds indeed the potential to be an extremely effective learning tool for today’s technology-geared students and their venturesome teachers. Use it, and you will encourage interactivity and engagement, motivate and empower your students, and create differentiation in their learning process.<br />To sum up for today, I kindly invite you to do our first assessment-framed learning activities below.<br />------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br />Learning Activity 1: Let us see this group’s preferences – please answer the poll to the left by voting for your favourite video hosting and sharing site. Deadline: the 5th of April – a visual interpretation will follow on the 6th.<br />You may wish to take into consideration certain criteria when you decide. Users are no longer thrilled about large collections of unorganized video clips – they do no longer march into a video hosting and sharing site to find something to view just for the sake of watching something online. I, for instance, expect to find clear, coherent and understandable navigation features that allow me to browse (look at what they have and see if anything interests me) or search (look for video clips with specific keywords or features). I am interested in knowing whether what I found is an excerpt or a full video; whether it was professionally-produced or it belongs to (and it was made, and contributed, by) an amateur; what its title is; what it is about (in a short description); who its creator is; when it was produced; who holds the copyrights. I might also want to understand clearly how I might use the tags and the user ratings on the site to find a certain type of videos. Video characteristics might also help a discerning viewer. I believe this article is a good source of inspiration. It can at the same time incite you to find out more about the features and benefits of video sharing, plus its potential challenges and barriers - this is 'food for thought', and the discussion around it can get a suitable place in the Participants' Lounge in the Round Table area.<br />Learning Activity 2: Go to the Round Table area and click on the category entitled “04. Rhythm of Web-Based Video”, then on the thread “Defining video hosting and sharing Sites” and reply to my post “Video hosting and sharing sites” by giving your own definition of what a video hosting and sharing site is and what it can do for us. Your readings until now will assist you in this endeavour. I will make myself visible in the discussion as well. Feel free to comment on others’ definitions and / or ask for clarification. Deadline: the 6th of April.<br />Learning Activity 3: In the same category, click on the thread entitled “Favourite Video Clips” and share your number-one video clip by providing us with a link to it – reply to my first post there please. Then explain your choice in a few words. Afterwards, read the other explanations and comment on at least one peer’s “crème de la crème” pick and their reasons in doing so. Deadline: the 5th of April. On Wednesday the 6th of April at the latest, have a look at what comments were written for you and answer back to at least one colleague – you may find yourself in the position of either further rationalizing your choice and / or reasons, or negotiating, or challenging their views while all the time you make sure you acknowledge diverse perspectives. You may very well start building upon your peers’ knowledge and experiences to extend views and co-construct knowledge. The discussion may continue beyond the eTwinning Learning Lab!<br />Learning Activity 4: Think about your skills as a user of video hosting and sharing sites at the moment. Consider how you might make changes and develop new ways of working. Read below about reflective learning. Now generate a reflection (a written note, a recording and / or a representation of some sort) and share it in the same category in the thread entitled “First Steps” – reply to my first post there. Deadline: the 6th of April.<br /> <br />Thank you, and happy exploration, fact-finding, knowledge acquisition and reflection!<br />------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br />Reflection has an important role to play in learning and self-development. There are some key elements of reflection, and you will need to decide on your preferred way(s). Reflection could be described as:<br />thinking with a purpose;<br />being critical, but not negative;<br />questioning and probing;<br />making judgements and drawing conclusions.<br />Common tools for reflection are:<br />learning journal entries - jotting notes down in written prose;<br />tables, lists and bullet points - your notes summarised in note form, using different colours to make them more engaging and memorable;<br />recordings: documenting using digital recorders, video etc;<br />creative representations - icons, mind maps, diagrams, sketches, cartoons.<br />There are four stages you are likely to encounter:<br />deciding to participate in a learning event;<br />embarking on a particular learning event;<br />engaging with the learning event work;<br />completing the assignments and receiving the certificate.<br />Each of these stages is associated with specific priorities and concerns. Yet in all try to let go of judgements - remember that there are no right or wrong answers - and be honest, open and direct, as reflection is most effective when you can be yourself.<br />Keep in mind:<br />Reflection is part of learning.<br />Reflection on learning helps with stepping back and putting experiences and developments into perspective.<br /> Reflection can make one recognise their capacity for, and enjoyment of, learning<br />-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br />Bloom's Taxonomy is an integral tool for educators to gauge student progress. Developed in 1956 by Benjamin Bloom, it is a structure composed of hierarchical levels, representing increased critical thinking and learning. A new model, developed in the 1990s, has slightly modified the original categories. The current pyramid model, shown to the right, has Remembering, Understanding, Applying, Analyzing, Evaluating, and Creating for its levels. Teachers can design scenarios by planning learning tasks and project activities that move up the pyramid.<br />Notice that you are taken to an interactive page (author: Samantha Penney) if you click on the pyramid. The links provided are to Web 2.0 software that satisfy each of the levels of Bloom's Taxonomy.<br />Look for YouTube in the pyramid. It is up there, in the Evaluating category – users do comment, review, collaborate, check, critique, post, experiment, judge, detect, monitor, test, network, they EVALUATE.<br />YouTube has been shown to be effectively used to engage the affective domain as well. Have a look at this article for a description of its role in meeting educational outcomes within the affective learning domain.<br />The emergence of video hosting and sharing sites, coupled with the rapid growth of video content, is compelling from an educational perspective. Never before has such a vast selection of freely available video content been accessible in searchable collections. However, the case of designing, developing and using this content is complex, and we should never forget to focus on the learning process.<br />Like any other form of technology with educational potential, the instructional value of web-based video is largely dependent on how it is used.<br />Almost any type of video can be used in an educational manner, depending on the instructional goal. An excerpt of a weather forecast show will strenghten the study of geography or the acquisition of specific vocabulary, while advertisements can cater for learning the comparison of adjectives but also for understanding how cultural references are exploited with particular aims in mind. Furthermore, a video clip that contains incorrect information may not be used to introduce a new topic, yet it can perfectly sparkle critical thinking in a discussion in class about why the information is wrong.<br />When you want to locate suitable educational video on the Internet, that is when you intend to effectively find a needle in a stack of needles, you should use search tools or visit sites that host video clips that educators might find useful. For instance, as search tools, there are many available: CastTV has video reviews, Veoh possesses an advanced filter for languages, Magnify searches 17 video sites, Truveo sorts the results into most viewed and / or most Twittered, while Fooooo searches specific video sites. As for sites that feature content geared toward traditional or academic interests, there are technology tutorials on Woopid, how-to videos on many subjects on Howcast and eHow, lectures from top scholars on Academic Earth, news stories with learning activities on CNN Student News, video clips for the biological sciences on LabAction, ideas and opinions from experts on Big Think, historical video clips on Internet Archive.<br />Once web-based video has been located, there are quite a few tools produced to help teachers when attempting to work with it. The Dialogue Tool for Planning of Video on the Net is one of them and it is in English. The message of these tools is essentially the same: first ask yourself how using video will add value or produce better learning results, then start working with video.<br />You will not be surprised to learn that there already are numerous imaginative lessons, activities and tasks on the Internet built around video clips. Teachers all over the world have given video a try - just have a look:<br />Discovering the Arctic - on Discovery Education;<br />Managing Money - Buying a Car - on Teachers.tv;<br />General Weather - on Linguaspectrum;<br />A Reunion - on Mike Harrison's blog;<br />Use Your Own Folk Melodies! - on LessonPlansPage;<br />Ferrari 250 GTO - on LessonStream;<br />Rockin' Fractions - on Education World;<br />A City Love Story - on Nik Peachey's blog;<br />Juicy Geography Podcasts - on Juicy Geography;<br />Star Trek - on Claudio Azevedo's blog.<br />Bloom's Taxonomy Revised<br />- The Cognitive Domain -<br />Our next learning activities are to last for a few days.<br />Learning Activity 5 will ask of you to have a look at our guest expert Jamie Keddie's site LessonStream, pick one lesson (there are 51 to choose from) and either do it in class, or just prepare for doing it in the future. Once you have done it, please go to the Round Table area, click on the category entitled quot;
05. Integrating Video in the Curriculum and in eTwinning Projectsquot;
, then on the subcategory entitled quot;
LessonStream Lessonsquot;
. If you cannot see the title of the lesson you decided on among the threads there, please start a new thread and give it the title of the lesson you chose. In your post be so kind and evaluate your lesson - write down the subject you teach, the level of your students, how old your students are, how long the lesson lasted, which skill(s) you mainly developed, whether or not you followed the lesson plan provided on the site strictly, and if not note what you did differently, what you would change some other time, what purpose you had with this lesson, and any other comments you feel you need to make. If you just prepared the lesson and did not deliver it, jot down your background, ideas and expectations. Consider rating the lesson and / or leaving a comment for Jamie. You can ask Jamie questions in the Round Table area, category quot;
06. Expert Guest Sessionquot;
, subcategory quot;
Ask Jamiequot;
. Deadline: the 12th of April. On the 13th of April our guest expert will welcome you in a synchronous session as part of this eTwinning Learning Event, which will be held on Elluminate - details on the Guest Expert page.<br />Learning Activity 6 will focus on criteria for selecting educationally suitable video clips. Having browsed through so many lessons originated from video clips and in all likelihood having done (or at least prepared) a LessonStream lesson, please research their appropriateness and suitability and think about the possible criteria the author teachers might have had in mind when they chose their videos for their lessons. You are therefore kindly asked to work in your groups – you are each a spring flower in a bunch! Look for your name at the Round Table - that group/bunch is yours. Please be responsible and mutually supportive, and work to come up with your own set of rules for electing the most suitable videos for your lessons. Please think of general categories first and foremost, like their potential for motivating student interest, reinforcing student learning, illustrating ideas, concepts and principles, stimulating discussion, promoting critical thinking, taking students around the globe, showing experiments, bringing great literature, plays, music or important scenes from history into the classroom. Keep in mind all the time that effective use of video in the classroom starts with teachers opting for effective video clips.<br />In these decisions, again, motivating students is a primary concern. As much as possible, the video clip should be personally relevant to your students and motivate them to want to learn more. It needs to communicate effectively to students, and help them to construct new knowledge, affirm knowledge structures already developed and challenge their current understanding in a non-threatening way. Your experience can assist you and your group now, also the following texts could be of help: “Guidelines for Suitable Teaching and Learning Resources” and “Evaluating, Selecting and Managing Learning Resources: A Guide”.<br />You will advocate for your own individual position. Discussion is likely to be subjectively influenced by opinion and supposition. Your discussion conversations will be transactional in nature - one participant negotiating with others with the advocacy and preservation of personal assumptions as the centre of the discourse.<br />You are expected to work with your 'flower fellows' using either asynchronous tools such as email, or a synchronous collaboration tool - there are quite a few you can choose from:<br />- Google Docs - how-to videos on YouTube, HYPERLINK quot;
http://www.vimeo.com/7430119quot;
quot;
_blankquot;
Vimeo and HYPERLINK quot;
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xec1ww_google-docs-101-1-a-video-tour-of-g_techquot;
quot;
_blankquot;
Dailymotion;<br />- HYPERLINK quot;
http://typewith.me/quot;
quot;
_blankquot;
Typewith.me - how-to video on YouTube;<br />- HYPERLINK quot;
http://writeboard.com/quot;
quot;
_blankquot;
Writeboard - how-to videos on HYPERLINK quot;
http://www.vimeo.com/5469229quot;
quot;
_blankquot;
Vimeo and YouTube, and a tour here;<br />- Mind42 - how-to videos on HYPERLINK quot;
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xepr7e_brainstorming-with-mind-mapping-app_techquot;
quot;
_blankquot;
Dailymotion, HYPERLINK quot;
http://www.vimeo.com/1230441quot;
quot;
_blankquot;
Vimeo and YouTube, and a tour here;<br />- HYPERLINK quot;
http://meetingwords.com/quot;
quot;
_blankquot;
MeetingWords;<br />- HYPERLINK quot;
http://writer.zoho.com/home?serviceurl=%2Findex.doquot;
quot;
_blankquot;
Writer.zoho - how-to videos on YouTube and HYPERLINK quot;
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9czuo_zoho-writer-word-processing-in-the_techquot;
quot;
_blankquot;
Dailymotion, and a tour here.<br />If you choose to give a try to synchronous collaboration, you should decide in your 'flower groups' what tool to use (I warmly recommend Google Docs for its versatility), and then start brainstorming to complete the task! At any time you would need task clarification, feel free to drop a line in the quot;
05. Integrating Video in the Curriculum and in eTwinning Projectsquot;
category, subcategory entitled quot;
Garden of Flowers and Thoughtsquot;
, in the Round Table area. While working in your groups, please keep in mind that this should be a safe space through which members can support each other in achieving their collaborative task.<br />It is my intention to facilitate group interactions as much as possible. Cooperative group skills such as decision making, consensus building, dealing with conflict and basic communication skills would come in handy. At the same time, you might benefit from establishing group norms from the very beginning. Norms in a group are quot;
the mental expectations that people share about the acceptable range of behavioursquot;
(T. O'Connor, 2010). There are several types of norms, including value norms, leadership and decision-making norms, communication norms, logistical norms. As online communication might be a challenge for the fresh graduate from the 'cooperator' category into the newer 'collaborator', I strongly believe that, by establishing explicit group norms inside each of the 'flower groups', this challenge can be addressed successfully - you should consider choosing the most suitable mode(s) of communication, communicating the unseen and acknowledging communication - see the examples here, pages 195-198.<br />I expect you have your results ready by the 11th of April, when you are kindly invited to delegate a 'flower' to enrich the Pindax 'garden' here - the password is: eTwinning. (This is a tutorial about how to post to Pindax.) Please make sure your delegate touches upon at least three criteria and signs the note with the group's name. You are expected to summarise your group's work when writing the Pindax note. I am looking forward to reading you! Please bear in mind, however, that your note will not be visible straight away - I will need to approve it first. When I approve a post, I also give it a vote up or down - please, everybody, check the garden from time to time on the 11th and vote yourself for any new notes here! Thank you!<br />On the 12th we will prepare a summary of your summaries and discuss it in the quot;
05. Integrating Video in the Curriculum and in eTwinning Projectsquot;
category, subcategory quot;
Garden of Flowers and Thoughtsquot;
, then get ready for the next day's synchronous session with the guest expert.<br />Learning Activity 7 At any point now, until the 14th of April, you are invited to the Trust-building area at the Round Table, where you are kindly requested to do an activity called quot;
Positive feedbackquot;
. As the title suggests, please write positive honest feedback about a fellow participant's work in this Learning Event so far in a new post that has as title the name of your peer (you will need to either start a new thread or reply to a post that is already there). It would be nice to comment when somebody writes about you too!<br />------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br />A warm welcome to our expert guest Jamie Keddie, a teacher coming from Scotland who possesses what seems to be an infinite batch of inspirational teaching ideas!<br />An ELTon 2009 winner (from The British Council), author of quot;
Imagesquot;
in the Oxford series quot;
Resource Books for Teachersquot;
, writer of teflclips.com and LessonStream.com, teacher trainer, live and online presenter, blogger, Twitterer and more, Jamie Keddie is waiting for us in a cosy Elluminate Room on the 13th of April starting 6 pm CET to talk about web-based video and its educational merit.<br />You can find out more about Jamie if you google him - here you have his blog, info about his book, a 2009 interview, his YouTube channel.<br />You can ask him questions in the Round Table area, category quot;
06. Expert Guest Sessionquot;
, subcategory quot;
Ask Jamiequot;
.<br />Let me share with you my favourite (so far) Jamie YouTube clip:<br />How to share Amazon.com to teach. Instructional design can be defined as the process involved in the systematic planning of instruction. This is what the instructional designer does:<br />performs an instructional analysis (of the learning goals and context, plus the learners' characteristics);<br />develops an instructional strategy;<br />develops evaluation (of the learners' performance and of the instruction);<br />revises the plan.<br />Instructional designers often hand in their plans to someone who is a production specialist. Classroom teachers often implement their own plans.<br />Thoughtful planning is important, no matter what media of instruction are used in implementation. It is even more important when the instructional medium is not immediately adaptable, as with video clips from video hosting and sharing sites - careful planning allows us to allocate our mental resources during instruction to adaptations that are necessary due to the different prior experiences of the students; to motivation, behaviour or administrative problems; to unforeseen events that require instructional planning on the spot.<br />We have watched together a number of video clips promoting learning through active engagement of students' mental processes. Active learning is one of the foundation pedagogical approaches of modern learning theory and educational change initiatives. Students learn best when they are actively (physically and / or intellectually) engaged in the learning activity. For more information on active learning, have a look at Kathleen McKinney's quot;
Active Learningquot;
.<br />Because video clips have a huge range of topics, styles and instructional design qualities, suggesting a specific formula for classroom use of video would be inappropriate. However, a general approach is applicable to most video clips. Essentially, a video viewing experience is to be seen as composed of three phases: pre-viewing (preparing for the viewing), while-viewing and post-viewing (consolidating the experience).<br />Consciously linking the segments of a pre-while-post viewing learning sequence to one another, and perhaps to previous and subsequent sequences, is a powerful way to enhance instruction using video. Of course, a video viewing experience can be itself seen as a pre-activity or post-activity for a focus activity such as a laboratory experiment, an eTwinning project, a class play. It may be useful to go back and forth, considering the video clip as a centre for the three-phased sequence in order to get the most out of the video viewing, but then reconsidering the video experience as an appropriate pre- or post-activity to get the most out of the hands-on focused activity.<br />Today's children, digital natives as they are, having being raised in a media-loaded society, pay partial attention; do multi-tasking well; prefer graphics, not text; discover information randomly, not sequentially; network to find information; respond to instant rewards, the more frequent the better. We teach these students. Let us do our part in transforming instruction into a media-rich environment.<br />Using video supports the learning modalities of our visual and auditory students. The human brain pocesses images 60,000 times faster than text, and our minds remember concepts built on images faster and longer than concepts built from text. Let us take advantage of their modalities and efficiently give them information - do not rely solely on print-based materials. Let us use the inclination of the 21st century learner, who has grown up watching TV and using a computer, to save instructional time and increase learning by using video as a tool in our lessons. By implementing techniques that integrate video into instruction consistently, we can make the most of our students' learning style and teach more effectively.<br />There are a number of video integration strategies - designing effective lessons using video involves careful lesson planning. Here are some Pearson Longman teaching tips for using video in the language classroom. Main strategies would include the following:<br />We should present the video in our lesson in such a way as to keep our students actively engaged in the lesson. Keeping our students in 'active learner' mode is vital to using class time efficiently and teaching effectively. We should not let them be passive viewers - our lessons should be designed to keep them interested so that they stay in 'active learning mode'.<br />Each lesson must connect with past and / or future lessons. The video should be correlated with other lessons across subject areas, and not just presented in isolation.<br />Start the lesson in the most suitable manner - be it reading, lecture, discussion, experiment. Decide where to place the video. Either match the video with the part(s) of the lesson, or design the lesson to follow the video points for sequential play.<br />Use the video to access prior knowledge or to make a connection.<br />Evaluate your lesson - how the video supported the objectives and what the student response was.<br />Re-play the video clip - it can prove valuable in re-teaching, clarifying and / or summarizing the lesson.<br />Now think about how you usually plan your lessons and about how the information offered here can help you in delivering lessons based on learning activities built around web-based video.<br />I use a simple lesson plan format: subject, title, topic, objective(s), required resources, materials and equipment, anticipatory set (lead-in), step-by-step procedure, plan for independent practice, closure (reflects anticipatory set), assessment and follow-up, accommodations (adaptations and extensions), connections. A few tips: before the lesson, preview the video completely; also, always check the equipment and have a back-up plan in case technology fails you; after the lesson, ask yourself: could placement in the sequence of the lesson have been better?<br />There are numerous lesson plan formats on the Internet. You may have already developed your own. Take a few extra steps at the lesson planning stage of your instruction, decide where to use web-based video, and you will be able to meet the goal of increasing student interest, retention and performance!<br />Let us give it a go. <br />For our next learning activity in the eTwinning Learning Lab you will need to go to the Round Table area, click on the category entitled quot;
08. Creating Web-Based Learning Activitiesquot;
, then browse through the video clips presented in the sub-categories there. Some video clips were proposed by you as your favourites, others are part of my 'bank of video clips'. Keep an open mind while browsing - there are video clips for many different subjects, for learning actvities or tasks in English or in the mother tongue. <br />There are a few parts to this learning activity - you are kindly requested to meet the deadlines.<br />1 Decide on one of the video clips and think about what you would do with it in the classroom. Create a lesson plan based upon this video clip and post it as a reply to my post with the respective link. Deadline: the 15th of April.<br />2 Comment on at least one partner's lesson plan. Deadline: the 16th of April.<br />3 Read the comments written for you and write back at least one answer. Deadline: the 17th of April.<br />4 (optional) Explain in an about 150-word post which video clip in this collection you consider to be educationally inappropriate. Write in the sub-category entitled quot;
Not for usquot;
- start a new thread having as title the name of the video clip you chose, if there is not such a thread already started by one of your partners; if there already is, write your explanation as a reply to that post. Deadline: the 16th of April.<br />5 Choose your own video clip as an example of what you think is educationally appropriate and post its link on the Wallwisher.<br />(There is a tutorial on Wallwisher to the left and another one on YouTube.) Also, write your main reason for choosing that particular video clip. You are kindly requested to sign your sticky with your first name. Deadline: the 17th of April. We will hopefully be building a bank of educationally suitable video clips for a wide range of subject areas! I am looking forward to it!<br />A few words about part 2. When you evaluate a lesson prepared by one of your partners, try to answer the following questions:<br /> Would you use this lesson? Why, or why not?<br /> What are the strengths of the lesson?<br /> How would you improve the lesson?<br /> Did the plan address the multiple intelligences of the learners? If so, how? If <br /> not, what could be added or changed?<br /> Was enough information provided so that you could teach this lesson? If not, <br /> what additional information would you need?<br /> <br />Learning activity 9 requires of you to answer a question in the Refocusing - Reconnecting area at the Round Table. It has to do with working towards forging an even greater sense of community by sharing unusual - even weird perhaps - info. Please (re)connect this way! Thank you. Deadline: the 17th of April.<br />Learning activity 10 is to take place throughout the whole Learning Lab area of this Learning Event! You are kindly asked to re-read content and posts, then give at least ten posts either a thumb up or a thumb down - the voting gadget is under each post to the left. Please choose one post and explain your vote in a few words in the Refocusing - Reconnecting area at the Round Table, subcategory Thumb up / Thumb down. Also, make use of the Tags function for at least five of your own posts - add or select a few tags. Deadline: the 22nd of April.<br />Thank you, and happy building, reconnecting and evaluating!<br />------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br />The development of video resources with our students can be very rewarding. We have already seen that, when using educational video, it is important to have a clear rationale for what we want to achieve pedagogically. Creating new material is not different than using existing material. The complex process of designing, developing and using video resources is exceptionally engaging for both teachers and students, and it is sometimes easy to lose sight of the learning goals and focus not on the learning process but on the video product!<br />As the different aspects of authoring video are at times confusing, it would be useful to take a structured approach and to clearly express what we want to achieve with our students. We have agreed on this when we looked for educationally suitable existing material. Yet looking for such material and creating your own, each have their advantages and disadvantages. Using existing materials has the big advantage that (much of) the creative work is done (however, we still have to select, and maybe even edit the material). When you create your own material, it will be of best use for the learning goals you have set. You can create just the content that you think is necessary. Will this require a lot of effort and technical skills? Are teachers good video authors? <br />Obviously, authoring your own video has advantages and disadvantages as well. One growing approach to authoring video is to encourage the students to create their own video resources. This enhances the students' learning process, and can be extremely motivating. As defined by T.M. Duffy and D.J. Cunningham in quot;
Constructivism: Implications for the Design and Delivery of Instructionquot;
, learning is quot;
an active process of constructing rather than acquiring knowledgequot;
, and instruction is quot;
a process of supporting that constructionquot;
rather than merely communicating knowledge. According to Paivi Karppinen in quot;
Meaningful Learning with Digital and Online Videos: Theoretical Perspectivesquot;
, there are six principles that are generally acknowledged as being necessary for a meaningful learning process - learning should be quot;
(a) active, (b) constructive and individual, (c) collaborative and conversational, (d) contextual, (e) guided, and (f) emotionally involving and motivatingquot;
. Student authoring video is a particularly effective way of fulfilling all of these criteria. <br />When authoring video yourself, make sure you obey basic rules of good design of graphics and support materials to be most effective. It is recommended to start with a scenario - this preparation is of great importance for the success of the production. In its basic form, this scenario is a synopsis of a projected course of action. This is where your organisational skills come into play. Then you record, capture, edit. Afterwards you publish. The article quot;
How to Make a Moviequot;
on the wikiHow site offers clear guidelines - one is taken through the process step by step. <br />There are various kinds of videos we can produce. Events such as lectures or role-plays can be recorded on video. New material can be created for teaching or reinforcing particular concepts, or for learning tasks in projects.<br />We will concentrate on creating eTwinning project trailers here.<br />An eTwinning project trailer is similar to a movie trailer or a book trailer - see examples to the left. An eTwinning project trailer is a short advertisement for an eTwinning project, in film form; it is a preview of the eTwinning project, which arouses curiosity about that particular eTwinning project and develops an interest in eTwinning in general. It is a tool, an amazing one, a tool we can use to help us organize or show our project work.<br />eTwinning project trailers rely on the eTwinning project they were made for. They spring from the imagination of their creators and the good use of the right tool(s). Let us try one!<br />Learning Activity 11<br />Self-promotion is important to eTwinners, as we do not have the resources to announce the existence of the project. We need to be extra creative in letting people know about our project work. We can do this by producing an eTwinning project trailer for our project and displaying it on video hosting and sharing sites like YouTube. Such a process is obviously an imaginative, inventive one, that can indeed be beneficial to the students and teachers involved as it usually requires thinking about the project in a new and very visual way. Making trailers can help us realize what is important – perhaps not only stress the original main pillars of the project, but also find out something new in it, a new dimension. Whoever makes the project trailer brings in her/his own perspective on / understanding of the project. And expressing it through this visual medium is different than day-to-day work on the project, so what one may discover could be rather surprising even for the maker. It is indeed a fresh way to look at a project. Maybe we should try our hand at project trailers every time we seem stuck – the solution might come from the deep thinking process of putting together the very trailer…<br />One main characteristic of trailers is their length – making it too long is a mistake. It’s like being in a bookshop and feeling intimidated, as a customer, by a thick book. I am sure a trailer that would run for more then let’s say 4 minutes will go unnoticed on this increasingly crammed Internet. So around a minute and a half should be enough to draw people to the project, to get people to say “Hey, I want to know more about this”.<br />Filmed and narratively structured video clips can attract audience to the project. Emotion can be aimed – music can do the trick, music and fast cutting can indeed elicit an emotional response, so it may be a good idea to focus / rely on music to generate a sense of excitement. The pace of the trailer is also important – try to keep it up during the course of the trailer.<br />There are various techniques to be used in order to produce an effective eTwinning project trailer. Making a video clip, creating a video slideshow, generating a YouTube search story, constructing a Voki and many more - we can capitalize on them and create effective eTwinning project trailers to be properly displayed in the most appropriate places to ensure better visibility for our eTwinning projects and for eTwinning in general. <br />The most straightforward way to produce an effective eTwinning project trailer is to create a video slideshow. It has already been used by eTwinners familiar with Web 2.0 tools. To be able to make an eTwinning project trailer in the form of a video slideshow, first you need to watch various trailers – see how others did it. While watching, keep note of which trailers really stand out – what makes them captivating? What irks or bores you? What clever tricks would you want to emulate? Then think about the reason you are making the trailer – what do you wish to accomplish with it? Where does it fit in the overall strategy of your project? Next step would be to write down a short blurb about the project, using important information. Next, pictures and clips should be chosen, film that you made, photos that you took, drawings that were made. Now match each phrase from the blurb with a picture or clip and create the slideshow using a movie editor programme like Windows Movie Maker, Animoto, Flixtime, Smilebox, Stupeflix, GoAnimate, Xtranormal Movie Maker, Photo Story, Mixbook, VoiceThread or other similar upload-your-pics-and-clips-and-make-an-amazing-video programmes. Look at this list of 30 video editing software and online tools. Next you should add music (see here some great examples of how to do this), and perhaps publish it on YouTube or other video hosting and sharing site. It sounds like a simple recipe, and in a way this is exactly what it is. You can build on this according to your own imagination and needs – you can use quotations in your blurb, for instance, you can have a voice-over reading the labels or telling a story around the captions, you can subtitle the clip in your native language if the words spoken or written are in English and viceversa - the sky is the limit really!<br />Project trailers can be powerful tools in part because they can help to create emotional connections with the project – having someone TELL you about a project is more compelling than reading about it. Also, good project trailers can take complex projects and make them immediately understandable, in that picture-is-worth-a-thousand-words way. One cautionary word though: trailers are quite time-consuming. Posting an unedited one is pretty easy, but anything that needs editing can quickly turn into a huge project on its own!<br />You are kindly invited to plan and create your very own eTwinning project trailer now! Don't be afraid to rock the boat! Glorified PowerPoints or short films, employing non-narrative measures such as stop-motion animation, finger puppets, a catchy jingle or working off of the children's reactions to the project, animation plus voice-over or pencil drawing, eTwinning project trailers are what we educators want them to be if following artistic and creative decisions in our endeavour to create opportunities for restating that we indeed are enthusiastic eTwinners, students and teachers alike.<br />Produce your eTwinning project trailer using the process/programme you feel most comfortable with, then consider publishing it on the video hosting and sharing site of your choice, and next please post a link to your eTwinning project trailer in the Round Table area, category entitled quot;
10. Authoring Videoquot;
- start a new thread. Deadline: the 21st of April.<br />I would obviously recommend the video slideshow technique, yet what you setlle on is entirely up to you.<br />During your work as a producer of an eTwinning project trailer, please visit the Round Table area to watch the trailers posted, to ask for help when in need (write a new thread here in the quot;
10. Authoring Videoquot;
category, or, alternatively, in the category entitled quot;
11. Hazmat Experts at Your Disposalquot;
), to offer your suggestions when questions you might have good answers for arise, to read about how your partners are doing and what their concerns and challenges are, to offer encouragement and expertise, to praise outstanding solutions, to applaud imaginative ideas shared here.<br />On the 22nd of April, please select at least two eTwinning project trailers and evaluate them in terms of content, images/clips, music, technical production, delivery. The following rubrics should assist you - they work best (again) for video slideshows:<br />http://www.scribd.com/doc/35983166/Photo-Story-Slideshow-Presentation-Rubric<br />http://www.rcampus.com/rubricshowc.cfm?code=D46369&sp=yes&<br />http://www.statcan.gc.ca/kits-trousses/projet-cyber-project/pdf/5022829-eng.pdf<br />http://www.kqed.org/quest/downloads/video_slideshow_rubric.pdf<br />When you have an evaluation from one of your partners, please consider answering back, even if it is just for thanking her/him for their insight.<br />Some thoughts about posting your eTwinning project trailer to a video hosting and sharing site now. Inspired by a post on quot;
Sweet Businessesquot;
, entitled quot;
Best 50 YouTube Video Secretsquot;
, here are my tips and tricks for getting significant and meaningful web traffic for your trailer: <br />Publish it to as many video hosting and sharing sites as possible.<br />Use other social media sites like Twitter and Facebook.<br />Create a series of ongoing trailers, so viewers will be hooked and want to learn more. Stick to your schedule if you do this.<br />Ask for feedback from viewers.<br />Ignore or delete negative or rude comments and thank people who post positive comments.<br />Do not use music on your eTwinning project trailer that you do not have the rights to - for 'Copyright Education' see this: YouTube Copyright Center.<br />Use tags and key words when you write the description for your eTwinning project trailer, as this also gets people's attention.<br />Choose your thumbnail (if applicable) wisely.<br />Open your eTwinning project trailer with the eTwinning Jingle produced by the Central Support Service for eTwinning - so that people easily recognise that you are part of the community for schools in Europe!<br /> Learning Activity 12<br />Think about your skills as a user of video hosting and sharing sites and as a creator of video material. Consider how you have made changes and developed your ways of working during the past three weeks, and how the world of web-based video might change in another 6 years' time. Now generate a reflection (a written note, a recording and / or a representation of some sort) and share it in the category entitled “10. Authoring Video” in the thread entitled “Final thoughts and 'what happens next'” – reply to my first post there. Deadline: the 22nd of April.<br /> <br />I am confident our time here was spent in the most useful way, and all partners gained new knowledge, or reinforced what they already knew, in a community of amazingly dedicated eTwinners ready to use web-based video as often as possible in their lessons and eTwinning activities! <br />Daniela Arghir<br />Open Arms and Glimmering Feelings<br />Participants' LoungeCoffee / Tea House<br /> 03. Ice-Breaking<br /> 04. Rhythm of Web-Based Video Subcategories: Defining video hosting and sharing sites, Favourite Video Clips, First Steps, Results of Learning Activities <br /> 05. Integrating Video in the Curriculum and in eTwinning ProjectsSubcategories: Garden of Flowers and Thoughts, LessonStream Lessons, The Daffodils, The Freesias, The Hyacinths, More » <br />06. Expert Guest SessionSubcategories: Ask Jamie, Chat transcription as attachment, Jamie's links, Link to the Elluminate recording, Thank you, Jamie! 07. Trust-Building <br />08. Creating Web-Based Learning ActivitiesSubcategories: quot;
Asteroid Hit Earthquot;
, quot;
Baby Polar Bearquot;
, quot;
Biker vs Tractorquot;
, quot;
Do Nail Artquot;
, quot;
Droopy Dog - One Droopy Knightquot;
, <br />09. Refocusing - ReconnectingSubcategories: Claim to fame, Thumb up / Thumb down<br />10. Authoring Video<br />11. quot;
Hazmat Expertsquot;
at Your Disposal<br />PROMOTING ENGAGEMENTTHROUGH A DEVELOPMENTAL APPROACHThis is an engaged learning environment, where emphasis is placed on knowledge generation. In order to assist you to engage in learning, which is critical in online courses, you will be progressively introduced to engaged learning concepts over the three weeks period of the course. This is a developmental approach to engagement.There are four stages of online engagement for participants:1 NEW KID ON THE BLOCK;2 COOPERATOR;3 COLLABORATOR;4 PARTNER.During the course you will develop your schema for quot;
how to workquot;
to include concepts of yourself as a knowledge generator and as a co-participant in constructing content.<br />Videos:<br />quot;
Asteroid Hit Earthquot;
<br />quot;
Baby Polar Bearquot;
<br />quot;
Biker vs Tractorquot;
<br />quot;
Do Nail Artquot;
<br />quot;
Droopy Dog - One Droopy Knightquot;
<br />quot;
Henry VIIIquot;
<br />quot;
How to get a soccer partnerquot;
<br />quot;
Mankind Is No Islandquot;
<br />quot;
Soft Bank Commercialquot;
<br />quot;
Sustainability in 2 minutesquot;
<br />quot;
Teacher, I Need Youquot;
<br />quot;
The Perfect Pet Petterquot;
<br />quot;
Where the Hell Is Matt?quot;
<br />quot;
Wiley vs Rhodesquot;
<br />