it’s iNavis… the teacher technologist

Vodcasting has been a real goldmine for educators. There are so many multiple intelligences involved in the creating, producing and assessing a vodcast. When using best practices and pedagogy, the vodcast process will include the multiple intelligences including; Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, Bodily- Kinesthetic, Linguistic, Logical-Mathematical, Musical, Naturalistic, and Spatial.

Vodcasting stands for Video On Demand broadcasting. It can be explained in one word: YouTube.

When teaching about vodcasting, assume nothing other than students have heard and seen YouTube. As teachers, we want to bring help students do their best. How do we begin?

Step 1: Help students discover what vodcasting is and what it takes to create a vodcast. There are many sites on the web that will help students understand. In order to help them find their way, rather then “Just Google It”, I create a hotlist of sites I want students to read or watch. These usually include the how-to’s of creating videos and writing good vodcasts. Each student pulls out 10 pieces of information from the websites that they didn’t know about. As a class, we write our findings into a blog or wiki. Our discussion centers around what are the major parts/roles of those involved in a vodcast. Essentially, we narrow down the categories to technology skills, presentation skills, roles of people, and the stages of planning. I like to use Inspiration in class to help identify the detailed parts of our findings. This is a powerful mind-mapping tool. A hint here: I use a wireless keyboard and mouse and give the kids control of the Inspiration document that is being created. This gives more ownership. I also label ideas with the kid’s initials that give the idea – they love seeing their name!

Once we have identified the categories, I break the students into groups of three, four if I have to. I find with three everyone has a role that keeps them busy. Now, the creation of the vodcast.

Step 2: Plan the Work … Work the Plan
Time for planning the roles of each member of the group, creating a timeline, and brainstorming the vodcast. Working together collaboratively can be a challenge for some students. This short video highlights how engaged students are. All audio sounds were created by the grade 5 students with Garageband.

Step 3: Write the Script
On a first vodcast, I try to help narrow the topic for students. I place a time limit, no more than 5 ~ 7 minutes for each vodcast. YouTube does not allow more than 10, that’s usually a good enough reason for them Once the brainstorming is over, they begin to write the script directly to a word processor. This allows for easy editing and changes along the way.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 30th, 2008 at 4:24 pm and is filed under Dave Navis and You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.