Session 8
Other publishing options
Conceptual Understanding: Exploring video hosting sites give teachers an understanding of their accessibility and usability
Essential Question: What other publishing options are out there?
Essential Question: What other publishing options are out there?
Article about Flipped Learning from May edition of Leading and Learning with Technology (ISTE)
Vimeo
Vimeo is a lot like YouTube, but it was developed for people who are more comfortable as video producers. There are fewer advertisements, the UI is a little simpler and cleaner, and it seems to prioritize video quality. YouTube, on the other hand, prioritizes access, and it integrates more easily with other applications because it is part of the Google suite of apps, and makes it a little easier to share your videos. If your school has limitations on using YouTube, you might explore Vimeo. Ultimately, it will come down to personal preferences.
Knowmia
Knowmia is a combination of presentation software and a video-hosting site. It's a repository of educational videos by teachers, which students and teachers can navigate to find lessons on a number of topics. Knowmia also has some powerful tools for creating screencasts, with animated objects and other features to enhance your lessons. In addition, when you upload videos to Knowmia, you are joining a community of other educators, so it's a great way to get your work out to a wider audience.
iTunes U Course Manager
iTunes U Course Manager is the platform that teachers see when they log in to manage their classes. A major restriction of iTunes U Course Manager is that on the student's end, it only works on an iPad and other devices aren't supported, so if your school doesn't have an iPad program, it's best to consider other options. Also, although iTunes U allows you to share videos, PDFs, and other files with students, the interaction is one-sided, meaning students are not able to participate in discussion boards or upload assignments. The main benefit of iTunes U is that although it is lacking in features, it's kind of refreshing because it's a very simple interface and it's easy to navigate around in. Just know that you will need to use other services in addition to it if you plan on having your students interact with your content online.
Grockit Answers
Grockit is a test prep service. Grockit Answers allows teachers to type in a link to a YouTube video, and then create questions for students to respond to, or allow students to post questions for the teacher. The comments feature on YouTube is set up more for quick responses than the well-developed, thoughtful responses, which teachers encourage, so Grockit Answers helps you to have that type of conversation with your students. Also, there's a great feature, which allows you to time-stamp your questions to specific points in the video, so that students see your question come up at the right time!
TEDEd
TEDEd is an extension of the popular TEDTalks series. The TEDEd video library is a repository of educational videos for teachers. In fact, if you've got a great mini lesson, you can submit it to TEDEd, and if your lesson is chosen, TEDEd's team will animate it and produce it for you! Another great feature of TEDEd is that it allows you to "Flip this video," or turn a video into a lesson by adding questions, text, and follow-up suggestions to it.
Activity 1: Other Publishing Options Explored
Explore the other publishing options mentioned above. Complete the slides on this Google Presentation to reflect on these issues:
- Strengths / weaknesses of other other options (what did you like? What frustrated you?)
Day 2 Wrap up
- Summary of main points
- Burning questions (parking lot)
- Homework readings (jigsaw strategy) 3 groups
Possible HW readings:
Affordances of Flipped Learning and its effects on student learning and achievement