I was reading one of my favorite blogs (NashWorld) the other night and stumbled upon the work of Punya Mishra from MSU. He has done some amazing work highlighting the need for utilizing relevant technology in the classroom with Lee Shulman’s work on Pedagogical Content Knowledge.

This morning I presented to the Technical Services Department five of my favorite ways that teachers are using technology in the classroom. Specifically, I focused on the computer, projector and visualizer.  There are thousands of examples to choose from, so it was nice to have a clean way of organizing my ideas. I leaned heavily on Punya’s work for the presentation below and am quite thankful that he shares his talents.

If you are interested, my attempt at blending Punya’s work with presentation is below in the form of a Google presentation. Below, I’ve added links to the 5 parts of Punya’s video. His videos are definitely worth your time. Check it out!

My Presentation on Creative Teachers | Punya Mishra’s Keynote: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5,

A few weeks ago a received a Flip Mino video camcorder. It is a marvel of technology. It’s the size of a phone and takes decent video. It is a fantastic classroom tool. Students and teachers can use it to easily capture marvelous moments or powerful projects. Just press the power button, press record and away you go!

I used the Flip to capture the therapeutic water display in my office. The rhythmic sound of rain dripping from the ceiling to the rubbish receptacles on the floor and table has a way of easing tension that I find comforting.

Once you’ve captured your video. A little USB flips out and can be plugged directly into your computer. Then drag the video from the Flip to your desktop. Because of special codecs on the video, not everyone can see the video. So before publishing or sharing the video, be sure to convert it from “.avi” to “.mp4.” There are lots of free software available that you can do this with. I’ve had success using  “Jodix Free iPod Video Converter.” Export your video at the size of 320 X 240.

This is the best video I’ve ever seen on using a computer, projector and camera for creating classroom presentations that are engaging. Dan Meyer does a great job of illustrating why he uses this technology and how we can too. Check it out!

When I taught middle school students how to use video to tell a story, I quickly ran into the same challenge that I had when I taught the writing process to 3rd graders. Some students will quickly digest skills and strategies and speedily move along the continuum, while other students take more time. I solved this by using video to teach video production.

By recording your lessons on video, you too can empower students to work at different rates. For the video production class, I recorded all of my lessons using Captivate. Captivate recording everything I did on the computer and included my voice describing my actions. ActivStudio can essentially do the same thing. There’s an example below.

Imagine this. If all of your lessons for the writing process have been recorded. Whether a student is absent or would like a second demonstration, they can easily access that instruction for review. Students can move at a quicker pace. Guest teachers can negotiate classroom management while you teach by proxy through the computer. This technology gives you more time to meet in small groups and individuals. There numerous are possibilities. Here’s a link to what teachers at one school are doing with video.

To get started make sure that the Flipchart Recorder is on your activStudio toolbar. Click on the Flipchart Recorder and choose “Fullscreen Recorder.” Press record. Choose where to save the video. Press record again and there you go. Once finished you’ll have a video named “rec.avi.” Which is great!

If you develop instructional content with video, you have great work sitting on your computer. However, if you upload it to a website or blog, students can access it from anywhere. Our district has a great resource with WordPress. With your own WordPress account, you can organize your lessons for students to easily access whether they are at the library, home or school.

WordPress will display your video better if you reduce the size. The easiest way to to use Windows Movie Maker to convert your file from rec.avi to rec.wmv, with the size of 320 by 240 pixels.

Below is a video created using ActivStudio that demonstrates how to take a video created with ActivStudio and to convert it so that you can upload it to your WordPress site.

You can use this technology to teach any subject! Have fun recording lessons that empower students to pick up the pace!

Video Conversion