Thing 13
For my “21st Century Conference” I chose one under Keynote 2008 entitled, “How Can I Become Part of this ReadWriteWeb Revolution?” It was filmed using Flip Video which I had never heard of before. The way this was presented made it easy to watch. The three people presenting were filming each other while sitting together at a coffee shop. The informal setting almost made me feel like I was sitting there with them. This is certainly a new way to learn! I liked it; it was more like being part of a discussion than being lectured to. It really held my attention quite easily. The main point of this presentation was to stress the importance of teaching the students of today the new skill set called digital literacy. This not only means learning about new web 2.0 technologies, but as importantly the ethics involved in their use. This made me think how at my school we rely so heavily on filtering programs under the auspices of keeping our kids safe. When our students get to college, however, they will be in classes with other students that are more knowledgeable about new technologies as well as having been taught the morally and ethically acceptable ways to use them. Which students will be at a disadvantage then?
October 29th, 2009 at 11:44 am
Great point about the ethics in using the Web 2.0 technology. Once our students leave the building to go home, if the computer at home is unfiltered, they can and are traveling anywhere they can. A few of us at our school have been discussing the need for cyber-ethics, safe-cyber usage…whatever you want to call it. We need to go beyond the lesson of copyright (just because it’s on the Net doesn’t mean it’s free) to wise choices (just because it’s out there doesn’t mean you have to view it!)
November 1st, 2009 at 6:11 pm
My husband bought a Flip Video last summer and it is so easy to use! We just filmed my kindergarten class last week to use in chapel and the presentations are just as you said…..a very informal atmosphere where everyone feels a part of the group. VERY EASY to use in class; students can film themselves and the program is very simple in helping put it together in a movie!
November 1st, 2009 at 7:20 pm
I just wanted to let you know that I have used flip video with my first grade German class this year, and it has been a very easy tool to use, even with such young students. It is a great tool for immediate feedback, e.g. language acquisition, and the students can easily take turns filming each other. The only word of caution I have is about sound recording, as one needs to be fairly close in order to record people speaking. This was somewhat difficult for the students, as they concentrated on getting the right image.
November 3rd, 2009 at 7:57 am
You raise a good question regarding filtering. I look at it as something that needs to grow (or “shrink”, in this case) with the age of the student. The older the student, the less filtering.