You’ve seen them everywhere, in malls, supermarket, on Pepsi cans and pizza cartons. QR codes hold double information more than a barcode. Therefore, they can hold a text, web link, contact address etc. In the past two years, educators have been finding interesting ways in integrate QR codes in their teaching practice. For example, have a look at the 50 Interesting ways to use QR codes to Support learning. Using QR codes stimulates students’ interests in ways you could never imagine possible. It gets them moving around the classroom and in school premises with exploration and anticipation in their minds.
When used with mobile dictionaries, QR codes can help students effectively learn and recycle vocabulary words . My reflection on one of my lessons using QR codes and mobile dictionaries is that they resulted in more vocabulary retention, motivation, and autonomy.
The Lesson
The lesson was a revision of vocabulary clusters (lexical sets) the students have acquired the previous academic year. One of the aims of the lesson was to recycle the students’ vocabulary before the sit for SAT.
You can download the lesson package to help you design your vocabulary lesson using QR codes and mobile dictionaries. (Click “file” then “download” to download the zip file)
Below is a slideshow of my students scanning QR code in the hallway, writing down the vocabulary, using mobile dictionaries to define the words, and then clustering them (dividing them into lexical sets).
What do you think of mobile learning using QR codes and mobile dictionaries so far? Do they hold promising potentials for student learning?
Today I had the privilege to attend a so-called workshop on Teacher Anger Management. The presenter holds a PhD in educational psychology and has been conducting workshops and training sessions for many years. What made the workshop unusually tedious and droning was how the presenter used PowerPoint as a tool to replace him. I mean, here is a PhD holder in educational psychology and an experienced teacher trainer, yet he does not have any clue on effective presentation, regardless of the presence of a visual aid such as the PowerPoint. He clearly didn’t have a clue on the basics of multimedia theories and practices. If he had ever read anything in terms of working memory and long term memory and the effect of the verbal and visual channels on the attendees’ minds, he would’ve definitely revamped his presentation and restructured his workshop. At the end of the workshop, teachers said that they learned one important thing from the workshop: Not to use this type of PowerPoint presentation with their students (At least they learned something !!)
There I was with dozens of other teachers reading aloud words packed and squeezed on all slides of the PowerPoint to all participants because the trainer wanted it to be an “interactive lecture” where the participants interacted [with the content, trainer, themselves? Not sure really!]. I lost interest from the first 10 minutes of the four-hour workshop, and continued this way the whole time!!!
So what do we have here? A presenter/trainer uses a PowerPoint to replace him (He could’ve just emailed us the PowerPoint and saved us a lot of anger). Bad PowerPoint presentations are found everywhere, in the classrooms, lecture rooms, business section, etc., and the audience/participants have to endure “Death by PowerPoint”.
In the 21century, literacy and communication are not the ability to read and communicate through words only. The ability to use the combination of verbal and visual modes effectively to engage your listeners is a have-to-have skill in this digital-visual age.
Thankfully, there are many multimedia theories that we can refer to help us on integrating audio and visual components.
Many professional presenters engage their audience by using PowerPoint as a visual aid, not more. This means that PowerPoint should be mainly images and metaphors with only keywords of the presenter’s points. In fact, most professional presenters use storyboarding to guide their presentations (But this is another story, for another post perhaps) . Below are two great Slideshows on how to avoid bad PowerPoint presentations. Please note that some of texts on the slides are intentionally added because these are stand-alone slideshows (that is, there is no presenter).
This slideshow also presents what is meant by a bad PowerPoint presentation and how to avoid using bullets that would shoot and kill your audience due to boredom.
Here Are Some Links to Improve Your PowerPoint Presentation
Cliff Atkinson’s Beyond Bullet Points Blog is a great source of information (see links to books below).
Unlock the amazing story buried in your presentation—and forget boring, bullet-point-riddled slides forever! Guided by communications expert Cliff Atkinson, you’ll walk you through an innovative, three-step methodology for increasing the impact of your presentation. Discover how to combine classic storytelling techniques with the power of visual media to create a rich, engaging experience with your audience. Fully updated for PowerPoint 2010, and featuring compelling presentation examples from classroom to boardroom, this book will help transform your presentations—and your business impact!
No matter where you are on the organizational ladder, the odds are high that you've delivered a high-stakes presentation to your peers, your boss, your customers, or the general public. Presentation software is one of the few tools that requires professionals to think visually on an almost daily basis. But unlike verbal skills, effective visual expression is not easy, natural, or actively taught in schools or business training programs. slide:ology fills that void.
Presentation designer and internationally acclaimed communications expert Garr Reynolds, creator of the most popular Web site on presentation design and delivery on the net — presentationzen.com — shares his experience in a provocative mix of illumination, inspiration, education, and guidance that will change the way you think about making presentations with PowerPoint or Keynote. Presentation Zen challenges the conventional wisdom of making "slide presentations" in today’s world and encourages you to think differently and more creatively about the preparation, design, and delivery of your presentations. Garr shares lessons and perspectives that draw upon practical advice from the fields of communication and business. Combining solid principles of design with the tenets of Zen simplicity, this book will help you along the path to simpler, more effective presentations.
All the links and books above use cognitive theory of multimedia learning and findings of cognitive science and neuroscience research in guiding the writings and how-tos. In later posts I will share with you, in details, some multimedia theories and how these can be put into practice to produce stunning presentations that capture the audiences’ minds and hearts through the careful design and mix of the verbal and the visual.
Implications for Teacher-led Classroom Presentation
Many ideas can be extrapolated from the above discussion and links. I would like to leave this part for you to comment on. What do you think are the implications for teacher-led classroom presentation would be? How can teachers redesign their PowerPoint presentations to engage their students and gain their interest instead of boring them to death?
The internet abound with videos for educators, some contextual and benefit educators in particular situations at a particular time (e.g. tools tutorials) while others are timeless by focusing on what really matters in education.
Below are 10 videos that every educator should watch and reflect on his teaching context.
Changing Education Paradigms: Sir Ken Robinson (an adapted animation)
In this talk from RSA Animate, Sir Ken Robinson lays out the link between 3 troubling trends: rising drop-out rates, schools' dwindling stake in the arts, and ADHD. An important, timely talk for parents and teachers.
Changing Paradigms: Sir Ken Robinson
2. Five Ways to Listen Better: Julian Treasure
In our louder and louder world, says sound expert Julian Treasure, "We are losing our listening." In this short, fascinating talk, Treasure shares five ways to re-tune your ears for conscious listening -- to other people and the world around you.
Five Ways to Listen Better
3. The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us : Dan Pink
This lively RSAnimate, adapted from Dan Pink's talk at the RSA, illustrates the hidden truths behind what really motivates us at home and in the workplace.
The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us
4. Teaching Teaching & Understanding Understanding ( Three Parts)
"Teaching Teaching & Understanding Understanding" is a 19-minute award-winning short-film about teaching at university and higher-level educational institutions. It is based on the "Constructive Alignment" theory developed by Prof. John Biggs. The film delivers a foundation for understanding what a teacher needs to do in order to make sure all types of students actually learn what the teacher intends.
TT and UU Part 1
TT and UU Part 2
TT and UU Part 3
5. Arthur Benjamin’s Formula for Changing Math Education
Someone always asks the math teacher, "Am I going to use calculus in real life?" And for most of us, says Arthur Benjamin, the answer is no. He offers a bold proposal on how to make math education relevant in the digital age.
Changing Math Education
6. What Adults Can Learn from Kids : Adora Svitak
Child prodigy Adora Svitak says the world needs "childish" thinking: bold ideas, wild creativity and especially optimism. Kids' big dreams deserve high expectations, she says, starting with grownups' willingness to learn from children as much as to teach.
What Adults Can Learn from Kids
7. Gaming to Re-engage Boys in learning: Ali Carr-Chilman
Ali Carr-Chellman pinpoints three reasons boys are tuning out of school in droves, and lays out her bold plan to re-engage them: bringing their culture into the classroom, with new rules that let boys be boys, and video games that teach as well as entertain.
Gaming to Re-engage boys in Learning
8. Teaching Kids Real Math with Computers: Conrad Wolfram
From rockets to stock markets, many of humanity's most thrilling creations are powered by math. So why do kids lose interest in it? Conrad Wolfram says the part of math we teach -- calculation by hand -- isn't just tedious, it's mostly irrelevant to real mathematics and the real world. He presents his radical idea: teaching kids math through computer programming.
Teachiing Kids Real Math with Computers
9. Schools Kill Creativity: Ken Robinson
Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining and profoundly moving case for creating an education system that nurtures (rather than undermines) creativity.
School Kills Creativity
10. Bring on the Learning Revolution: Ken Robinson
In this poignant, funny follow-up to his fabled 2006 talk, Sir Ken Robinson makes the case for a radical shift from standardized schools to personalized learning -- creating conditions where kids' natural talents can flourish.
It's no question that the notion of literacy has transcended beyond the written word to include the combination of visuals and words. Writing skills has also evolved into the art of combining the written word with visuals such as images and videos. Our students themselves are disengaged from the writing and are more tuned in to the “Visual Word”.
For the past two years, I have turned the common CV assignments, part of the writing sessions with my grade 11 students, into Visual CV assignments. The results were remarkable, and I am writing this post to share it with you.
I was first fascinated by the visual CVs when I came across some. Professionals using PowerPoint + images + words to produce stunning visual CVs and resumes that stand out. I first did my own visual resume and decided that my students should also do it, besides their traditional paper CVs.
Students first wrote their traditional paper CVs which would serve as the basis for their Visual CVs. As high school students, they didn’t have enough experience or skills to make their CVs. So, I encouraged them to pretend they are now working in the profession they envision themselves doing and write down the experiences, education and skills that they would have gained along the way.
After they were done with the first part of their assignment, the paper CVs, I modeled some great visual Resumes. This gave the class enough material to discuss. They had to deconstruct those visual resumes, and we discussed what made them so communicative. By the end of the discussion, students came to realize that images mean more than words and that’s what they did.
Guided by their paper CVs each student chose keywords and turned them into images on their CVs. Each students started a Google presentation and shared it with me. This enabled me to give each one of them timely comments and suggestions. After they were done, each presented before the class and each shared his Visual CV on the internet. Below are some example of visual CV’s produced by my students.
Students were completely engaged. Their attitude towards writing has shifted to pleasure writing. Their motivation was heightened. But what was really remarkable is how low-achievers have improved in their writings. This is due to strengthening their willingness to communicate through not only text but also images using PowerPoint as a tool and the Google platform as a medium for communication and collaboration.
Innovative educators are trying to engage students in their literature classes in books and literature works by using multimedia to address the students needs in the 21 century. One innovative technique is using the power of Google Earth and multimedia to take students in a 3D animated tour of one or more characters in the book that they are currently reading. Students would navigate the guided tour, already designed by the teacher and interact with the spatial environment of the characters. This post will give a glimpse of what Google Lit Trips is, why is it useful, and some useful links if you want to delve deeper Please refer to the list of links at the end of the post for everything you need to learn about Google Earth and doing Guided tours.
Scenario
Students are reading “Johnny Appleseed”. They are engaged in some kind of literature circles to discuss chapters, characters, and analysis of salient elements in the book. Teacher realizes that the plot includes many places where events occur. This, the teacher believes, gives some geographical aspect of the book that students need to explore to make more sense out of the book. So, the teacher decides to combine the power of technology , pedagogy, and content to engage students in a Google Lit Trips.
1- The teacher first makes a story Board to locate the places where the character has been, the information about the events that occur in that place, an image that might convey more on that place, some links perhaps, and reference to the pages or chapter in the book where these occur. To know more on how to make a story board for a Google Lit Trip please watch the video below.
How to Make a Storyboard for Google Lit Trip
2- The teacher goes to Google Earth and searches for the first location from the storyboard. The teacher places a place mark and adds more information on this place including page reference and selections from the book, image, and perhaps some links for the students to explore the place where the event has happened.
Watch the two tutorial videos below on how to design a Google Lit Trip and record a tour.
How to Create Google Lit Trip–Part I
How to Creat Google Lit trip- Part 2
3- The teacher then saves the KML file and shares it with the students to view the tour. Students would view the tour, referring to the book too, and explore the geographical locations. They would be engaged with the associated vocabulary for each place, the questions in query, etc.… and discuss with their peers.
Google Lit Trips are especially useful in exploring books that contain many geographical settings. Students would explore places in the book that were previously foreign to them. They would align the verbal and visual channels to be engaged in a memorable exploration of a literary work.
Google has produced an interactive game to help beginners quickly understand how to use Earth. It’s the most interactive way to become familiar with Earth. Click here to go to Google Earth: Learn.
For beginning users of Google Earth, as well as advanced, Google Earth lessons is an outstanding resource.
The Google Lit Trip Website the most comprehensive Google Earth-based lessons resource. It cotains galleries and downloadable Google Lit Trip files from grades 5 to Higher education. Make sure you check it out and download some of those .kml files
GoogleEarthGoods is a great collection of resources for Google Earth and Maps.
Ah, and don’t forget that Google Earth is not confined to the surface of our planet. You can make a tour guide on other planets of even on the sea surface !!!
Last Comment
I believe that educators should take it to the next step and make students themselves produce Google Lit Trips based on their explorations of the book. This, of course, depends of the students' prerequisites, age, and the aim of the lesson/course. If students collaboratively construct their own interpretation of the literary work with the aid of technology then I believe that this is the highest layer of interactivity and engagement, let alone the high order of thinking and collaborative skills that are honed by this approach.
I’ve lately come across SNAPP (Social Networks Adapting Pedagogical Practice). SNAPP
is a software tool that allows users to visualize the network of interactions resulting from discussion forum posts and replies. The network visualisations of forum interactions provide an opportunity for teachers to rapidly identify patterns of user behaviour – at any stage of course progression. SNAPP has been developed to extract all user interactions from various commercial and open source learning management systems (LMS) such as BlackBoard (including the former WebCT), and Moodle. SNAPP is compatible for both Mac and PC users and operates in Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari.
visualize the discussion forum in an LMS (Blackboard, WEBCT, MOODLE, SAKAI..) and displays the student-student, teacher-student interaction in mind map. Names of students/teacher can be displayed. Also, each node size and link thickness refer to the frequency of the posts.
I gave it a try on one of discussion forum on one of my Moodle Websites with my students. I chose a a discussion forum at the beginning of the year where students had to post their first Hellos using Voki as their voice avatar, and they had to comment on each other’s post.
You have to fill in the required information before your submit for download. Then you need to choose the LMS type you work on from the drop down menu.
2. This took me to a new page where I dragged a bookmarklet onto my browser’s bookmark tool. I followed the steps depending on my internet browser(Firefox in this case). And yes, SNAPP resides on your internet browser and not a stand alone desktop application
3. Then, I went to the discussion forum of my Moodle Website. I made sure that the discussion forum is in the nested view so that SNAPP can read the posts.
4. I clicked the Bookmarklet
5. I scrolled down till the end of the nested discussion forum. I waited for a while. This might take longer time depending on internet connection and pc speed. Also, make sure that Java is installed on your browser. The visualization of the discussion forum will soon appear with contributor names, the connection of posts, the size of nodes and link connection depending on post frequency , and a menu of filtering options on the right.
You can also view the statistics and export it as GraphML format or VNA File format.
As you can see in the above discussion forum visualization, I, the teacher is in the middle of the web with the most posts and most interactions are between students and me, with some posts among students themselves.
This is a typical view of a discussion forum at the beginning of a course where students get to know each other and are reluctant to comment on each others’ post. This stage is where the teacher posts a lot. However, as the course goes along this discussion forum should change to reflect a different type of student behavior with a more student-student behavior, unless it is teacher-centered.
What this software can do is to reflect the student-student teacher-student interaction behavior in terms of links and frequency.
However, the software does not ensure that the discussion forum is engaging and fulfills the course requirements. A content analysis is needed for this.
SNAPP can be used as an insight into interaction behavior. For example, if one wants to explore teacher presence and social presence this might be useful. The teacher would for instance base some informed decision on how the behavior of interaction is shaping, is it teacher-centered? Is there a student who lurks and does not participate? Is there a pattern of discussion in particular stages in the course that should have been patterned otherwise?
What do you think? What other insights can we get from SNAPP?
If you look at the image on the left, you will notice the four key components of technology integration, what Collis & moonen (2002) refer to as key components of “flexible learning in a digital world”.
The components ( institution, implementation, pedagogy, and technology) are nested in each other, which means that each depends on and feeds from the other. The approach for the flexible learning can be seen in a top-down, that institution-wide to technological aspect, or in a bottom-up, that is from the technological aspect all the way up to the institution.
The 4 E Model as a Guide:
Collis & Moonen suggest a 4 E model that will guide anyone who wants to integrate flexible learning in each and all key components
Ease of use
Environment
Personal Engagement
Educational Effectiveness
Now, I will not go into details of the activity-flexibility abstract framework and its U pedagogical approach. All I want to focus on here is how the 4 E model would guide the teachers in adopting/adapting and using technology in their teaching contexts, be it a complex, core technology such as a CMS ( content-management system) or a complementary technologytool such as PowerPoint, word processor, or a web2.0 tool.
E for Ease of Use:
The ease of use of the technologytool can be viewed from the teacher’s and student’s perspective. Is the teacher capable to use the tool with relative ease and exploit it for the students’ benefits? Is the student able to use the tool easily so as to focus on the intended task and not on the tool features?
Are the activities associated with the tool easy to accomplish? Will the students easily work through the activities supported by the tool?
When a teacher decides to use this tool or that (X or Y) he/she should ask the question of : Is the tool easy to use? if not should there be an introductory activity to help students get the hang of it before using it for the subject or course?
E for Environment
Environment is a broad topic and it encompasses the educational institution or organization, the culture or socio-cultural aspect, and everything ( politics…) that affects holistically the adoption and adaption of the pedagogy and technology and the process of implementation.
Key questions such as : How does the educational institution, policy makers, or others in the position of power affect the implementation and use of technology and the associated pedagogy? Does the educational institution the teacher works in support the use of technology to enhance learning? or is he/she a pioneer?
In either case, the teacher who wishes to implement technology to enhance learning should not disregard the effect of the environment on the implementation process and should be keen on what is the best approach to use technology ( in-class access, home access, guided access, self-access…. )
E for personal Engagement
This E is tightly related to the teacher’s personal and professional engagement with the issue of technology in education and flexible learning as a whole. What drives some teachers to be engaged in technology to enhance learning? Is there any teaching beliefs behind that engagement? One should better gauge his or her beliefs on teaching with technology.
E for Educational Effectiveness
If a teacher decides to use a particular tool for learning and teaching, what is its educational effectiveness? The more the teacher sees that there is educational effectiveness, the more likely the teachers uses that tool. So, the underlying question here is: What is the pedagogical implication of this technological tool when exploited properly? How can technology enhance the learning process that was impossible or improbable before?
I believe that every teacher, administrator, or educational policy maker should be guided by the 4 E model not only in flexible learning but also in all technological pedagogies.
Now all you need to do is to select one tool that you used before with your students and compare it against the 4 E model. Do you think it was worth it using that tool? Do you think it added anything worthwhile to the learning process and outcome?
Reference: Collis & Moonen (2002). Flexible Learning in a Digital World. Routledge
Please refer to the list of links at the end of the post for everything you need to learn about Google Earth and doing Guided tours.
