21st Century PD- Practice What you Preach

We are trying to teach our students 21st Century skills and  prepare them for a world with job descriptions “we can’t even imagine yet”. You have heard this over and over again.

How come we continue to support our teachers in their own learning (through Professional Development) with the same tools and skills than educators from the 60s, 70s , 80s or 90s? We can’t just throw up a PowerPoint presentation or a SmartBoard in front of the room and call that PD of the 21 Century.

How can we expect them to upgrade their teaching if we don’t allow them to experience their own learning through a 21st Century lens?

If we, like Sir Ken Robinson call for a Learning Revolution, then this MUST include a learning revolution for teachers as well.

The way teachers learn,  directly impacts the way they teach their students.

Practice what we preach

As Professional Development providers, we must practice with our students (in this case the teachers are our students) what we preach. We need to find ways to upgrade our presentations (see my Presentation21 Make-Over) and workshops and provide our “teachers” with:

• authentic ways to try out tools
• experience collaborative & connected learning
• reflect on their learning process and how it could relate to their teaching

In order to do just that, I was able to arrange an opportunity for our faculty to be part of a Skype call with Heidi Hayes Jacobs, author of “Curriculum21- Education for a Changing World (ASCD, 2010). The book was the assigned summer reading title at our school. Questions related to different chapters were posted over the summer on our School PD Ning for guidance and encourage discussion.

Heidi Hayes Jacobs

During pre-planning week, teachers had a chance to discuss the book and its application in our school further. The following day we were thrilled to be able to have Heidi Hayes Jacobs “with us” virtually.

Introducing our School

Asking Questions

A few teachers had specific questions from the book or how the concept of Curriculum21, assessment and upgrade applied to our school or their subject area.

Collaboratively writing on Google Doc

In order to model the use of collaboration tool, we set up a shared Google Doc to collaborate with. Different teachers were assigned  to be the scribes in order to take notes for one of three columns:

1. Essential Education
2. Application for our school
3. Web resources and links

Editing Notes on Google Docs

The resulting word document with notes and resource links was now available for all the faculty to review in their own time.

Curriculum21- Skype with Heidi Hayes Jacobs

The following video clip (19 minutes) is a synopsis of our conversation.

Curriculum21- Professional Development with Heidi Hayes Jacobs from langwitches on Vimeo.

Being able to…

• bring in a subject area expert (virtually)
• model a communication tool such as Skype (including the hick-ups of a dropped call)
• collaboratively write notes
• document with images and video the connection
• share publicly the documentation to allow review and encourage reflection

… is modeling the kind of skills and learning  during Professional Development that we would like the teachers to take back to their classrooms and “translate” into their own teaching.

What are some examples you can share about practicing/modeling what you preach during Professional Development for your teachers?

A few Tips & Tricks for Student filming in the Classroom

With the wonderful small, but high quality, Flip Video cameras (and similar brands), it has become affordable (around US$ 150) to bring video production into the classroom.

"Flip it" Open and plug into USB Port

The camera is light, handy AND sturdy that even a Kindergartener can use it to show the world their perspective.

Videographer Job

A great way of making students part of a learning community, giving them ownership, creating and providing digital output to share “the inside of the classroom” with the world is by giving kids regular jobs, such as being the “official” videographer.

Documenting Classroom Learning

We have started handing the Flip camera increasingly over to the students, making it a specific classroom job to record Skype calls, record content tutorials or film a skit, presentation or story. After the footage was recorded, I usually took the raw material and started to edit, upload and share a final movie. Although I enjoy editing and creating these final movies, it takes a LOOOOOONG time.

Alan November’s question “Do you want your students to work more than you do?” rings in my ear. We need to start handing over the film editing job to our students.

Not only do we want them taking more ownership and learning the tech skills of editing, in addition to summarizing and reviewing content.

I recently edited an hour Skype recording between our faculty and Heidi Hayes Jacobs down to under 20 minutes. The experience, although it took me many hours to complete, contributed in many ways to a deeper learning than simply having “attended” and participated in the live conference call. I reviewed, summarized, decided which parts to cut, and which parts would be included in the final clip. Why not give students the same opportunity of creating learning?

Mathew Needleman, in the  a K12 Online 2008 Presentation Film School for Video Podcasters, also points out other benefits of involving students in movie production

• including decision making skills about shots and composition
• making our students aware how others are using them to make a point.

He talks about kids having to learn to understand the media messages that are being thrown at them.  Critical thinking evolves out of figuring out why other have chosen to use certain shots and compositions to make their point and why.

Here are a few tips & tricks for your students as they take over being the film directors in your classroom:

1. Hold the camera with two hands to keep it steady
   1. You might want to lean against a wall, desk or chair
   2. Slow paning (movement or rotation of the camera)
2. Wait a few seconds after pressing the “record” button to start speaking.
3. The microphone is on the camera.
   1. Stay close to the source of the sound.
   2. Be conscious of the noise going on in the background.
4. Take short clips
   1. Avoid running the camera for several minutes at a time.
   2. Try to have “logical” breaks between clips: a new question, new topic
5. Take both close ups as well as “panorama” shots.
   1. Move in and out to achieve close ups and far away shots.
   2. Try not to use the zoom, it makes the footage look fuzzy.
6. Don’t film against a sunny window
7. Know what is in your background
   1. Make sure there are no other groups of students shooting in your background
   2. Don’t film a distracting background
8. Don’t include students who do not have media release permission.
9. Don’t identify students by filming something with their first and last name on it.