Learning Conversations

There are plenty of new and emerging opportunities for teachers to take advantage of digital video and other new media in their classrooms.  There is an increasing range of quality sources of existing digital video. Once appropriate footage is found, teachers need to carefully consider a range of strategies (scroll down to tables 1 and 2 if opening this previous link) for using existing digital video in the classroom. Burden & Atkinson’s (2007) impressive Dial-e framework (‘Digital Artefacts for Learner Engagement’ ) has recently provided exemplary learning designs for teachers wanting to take advantage of new media in their classroom (including images or sounds). For example, a learning design such as the predict-observe-explain (POE) strategy  is a well know design for scaffolding learners’ engagement with video-based demonstrations. Exciting new teacher cloudware such as LAMS can be used to easily make these designs.

For those teachers also interested in constructionist , project-based teaching approaches, there are more ‘generative’ (Hedberg, 2006) options that encourage young people to be ‘bricoleurs’  in the classrooms. Firstly, students can author some of the designs flagged above! (eg. students too can be LAMS authors!) Secondly, students can now more easily create, publish and celebrate their own video projects using a range of exciting new tools in a range of modes. Apart from traditional commercial tools such as Moviemaker, Photostory and iMovie, free cloudware such as Animoto , Jaycut and Youtube Creation tools are making these projects more user-friendly and collaborative. (See here for a more extensive list. NB. Aviary or Soundcloud are highly recommended for audio-based projects.) Popular modes of use of DV in these learner-generated media projects in K-12 include use as a communication tool; an observation and analysis tool and as a metacognition tool (see Table to left from Schuck & Kearney, 2006). As discussed in previous blog posts, the process of making these ‘digital sandcastles’ is just as important as the product itself.

Burden, K. & Atkinson, S. (2007). Jumping on the YouTube bandwagon? Using digital video clips to develop personalised learning strategies. In ICT: Providing choices for learners and learning. Proceedings ascilite Singapore 2007. http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/singapore07/procs/burden-poster.pdf

Hedberg, J. G. (2006). E-learning futures? Speculations for a time yet to come. Studies in Continuing Education, 28(2), 171-183.

Schuck, S., & Kearney, M.(2006).Capturing learning through student generated Digital Video. Australian Educational Computing 21(1),15-20 Retrieved 5^th August 2011 from http://acce.edu.au/journal/21/1/capturing-learning-through-student-generated-digital-video (image above from Table 1 on p.16 of this paper)

It’s interesting to ask the following basic question about any use of learning technologies in the classroom: is it authentic or contrived? Subsidiary questions include:  From whose perception is it ‘real’ … mine or my students? What make a task authentic? (the task itself, the instruments used etc?) In a past post ,  a paper about authentic learning in digital video projects was raised where we explained the difference between Radinsky ‘s (1998) simulation and participation models of authentic learning environments. Examples raised of a participation model of authentic learning in the post included the History projects from students at a HS in San Francisco. More recently, it was interesting to see another similar social sciences example from the Authenticity scale of the TIMS matrix. This recent Australian example from the famous Be Very Afraid (BVA) site has similar authenticity characteristics. (Michelle and Damian from DLDG2011 wrote an interesting analysis about similar sites from BVA.) Examples of simulation model of authentic learning raised in the post included Mike Cowling’s Year 8 English class’s newspaper site.
Kearney, M. and Schuck, S. (2006). Spotlight on authentic learning: Student developed digital video projects. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 22(2), 189-208.
Thanks to this flickerer

The Technology Integration Matrix provides an interesting framework to think about approaches to using learning technologies in the classroom. It uses Jonassen’s Meaningful Learning model as a vertical axis and the stages of teacher development with educational technology from the ACOT study. It’s interesting to observe the video-based case studies in the matrix, especially towards the columns on the RHS of the matrix (presumably more pedagogically sound ICT use in the classroom). Project-based and ‘learner-as-designer’ approaches seem to underpin many cases in these columns.

Dwyer, D., Ringstaff, C., & Sandholtz, J. (1991). Changes in Teachers’ Beliefs and Practices in Technology-Rich Classrooms. Educational Leadership, 48(8), 45-54.

Jonassen, D. et al (2008). What is meaningful learning? In D. Jonassen et al.(Eds).Meaningful learning with technology. 3rd Edtn. pp1-12. Pearson/Merrill Prentice Hall: Upper Saddle River, N.J.

With thanks to this Flickerer

Building on an earlier theme , I noticed games-based learning again appearing as a major theme in the 2011 New Media Consortium’s K-12 Report (This annual research effort by NMC identifies and describes emerging technologies likely to have a large impact on K-12 teaching and learning around the world.) Informed by Kafai (2006), some of our prolific pre-service teacher bloggers have picked up on this theme, discussing the merits of both instructionist and constructionist approaches. Monique developed a thoughtful thesis for children as designers of their own games. Amy also explored the value of games in K-6 while Kate made some insightful comments in her vodcast on the ‘use of play’ in K-6. Possible tools for a ‘learner as designer’ approach to games in the K12 classroom include Moovl , Sodaplay , Scratch and for more advanced students, Gamemaker 8 .

Kafai, Y. (2006). Playing and Making Games for Learning: Instructionist and Constructionist Perspectives for Game Studies. Games and Culture, 1(1), 36-40.

Image thanks to this Flickerer

Our pre-service teachers recently created some digital stories in our classes as an immersion experience. We followed a recently published ‘model of good practice’ (see Kearney, 2011) in creating these stories. We are also trying and ‘walk the talk’ with underpinning constructionism (Papert, 1991) and ‘learner-as-designer’ themes in our course. A key final stage in this model is the ‘celebration’ of these ‘digital sandcastles’ (Harel, 2003) and eliciting of further learning conversations. (Later in the semester, these student teachers graduate to communicating the ‘story of their learning’ as a video-based e-portfolio. E.g. see Kearney, 2009) Hence, it’s my pleasure to announce the following ‘oscar-winning’ digital stories and issue an invitation for reactions in the comments section of their Youtube page:
COMPELLING STORY category Winner: H. Wilmott with ‘Hannah’s Inspiration’ (Oscar)
(Runner Up: L. Trinh with ‘My Little Story’ )
TECHNICAL category Winner: A. Ellis with ‘Grandfather’s Inspiration’ (Oscar)
BEST OVERALL DS category: Winner: S. Buckle with ‘Behind the Lens’ (Oscar – see video embedded below)
(Runner Up: M. Oliphant with ‘Patience & Understanding’)

Harel, I. (2003). Sand castles go digital. Retrieved August 4, 2006
Kearney, M. (2011). A learning design for student-generated digital storytelling. Learning, Media and Technology, 36(2), 169 — 188. Last accessed 21st April 2011.
Kearney, M. (2009, June). Investigating digital storytelling and portfolios in teacher education. In C. Fulford & G. Siemens (Eds.), Proceedings of Ed-Media 2009 World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications, Chesapeake, VA, USA: AACE. pp. 1987-1996. Chesapeake, VA, USA: AACE
Papert, S. (1991). Situating Constructionism. In I. Harel & S. Papert (Eds.), Constructionism (pp. 1-11). Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing Company.

I was recently inspired by two teachers who are gamers. The first teacher is award-winning K-6 teacher, Dawn Hallybone, from Oakdale Junior School in UK. She presented some of her exciting initiatives in this area at the recent Learning without Frontiers conference in London. I was also inspired by David Yuan, a pre-service K-6 teacher from Sydney, Australia who made an ‘ideas video’ – shown below (also see his rationale here ). Like Dawn, he comes from a gaming background and wants to explore evidence of children’s deep learning through games.