Educating the Dragon

Yet another call for action. Are the messages, are the call outs, are the pleas from our students getting through are do we, as NZ Educators, merely think that all the fuss is coming from the US. With us all the way over here, our students are not in the same frame of mind even if they are using the same technology.

My gut tells me it’s wrong. I’m looking forward to getting some 11-18 year old perspective on this, from our students, in our country.

I spotted this video from Principal’s blog at Puketapu school . There school is begining a learning journey into effective use of technologies (Hardware, software, Web2.0).

This is the second afternoon where students have been given free choice of digital stories to create.

There are a few points to note.

1. The ground work needs to be done first- storyboards and scripts prepared thoughly.

2. Group sizes need to be 2/3 otherwise engagement with the project is lost and some students sit back.

3. Empty memory cards are vital for space for short video clips and photographs to be recorded…

4. …as are a ready supply of batteries for the digital cameras.

5. Mixed ability grouping is essential + mixed gender may well help, depending on the personalities involved.

6. A sound grounding in the use of the software packages, whatever they may be.

7. Individuals working alone is limiting the learning and sharing potential.

All of these things came to light today. I could tell the groups which were soundly motivated and those that are not. A couple of groups spent ALL last week ‘rehearsing’ (playing cowboys) whereas I was under the impression their antics were being recorded for digital story… apparently not!

Two groups have got on with it and are very nearly complete. Others are still a way to go.

My assumption was that giving the students this level of freedom would mean focused attention on the learning of the mechanics of digital story-telling. But now it has run over to another week which puts things a way behind schedule…. Hopefully Monday’s session will run more smoothly and they can get finished off…. We’ll see.

Umajin is an innovative, easy, engaging application that has been introduced at the conference. It has been specifically designed to support digital storytelling and oral language. If you want to trial it you can find it here and I have to say I love it. Breathe Technology has negociated the exclusive training rights for it too. So if you down load it and you want some training just leave me a comment