I have tried a new apps today. It is RECAP :https://app.letsrecap.com. It allows teachers to post a video and the students can response to the video by recording down their responses using video. It has the potential for teaching students visual and media literacy ;and oral skill.
The creation of account is very simple. It is in Beta version though.
I will like to share my journey in using technologies as an educator. I joined teaching in 2001 after I graduated from NUS. The technologies that I was introduced then was the whiteboard with 2 markers, transparencies and overhead projectors. Data loggers were locked in the cupboard and teachers hardly used it.
At that time, Singapore schools were reaching the end of ICT Master Plan 1 (1997 - 2002). The laptop provided to us were used for checking email and uploading result. 2 teachers were to share 1 computers and schools are also equipped with LCD projectors to connect. Believe it or not, I am the first teachers who turn on the LCD projectors and actually used them in my college. My HOD ICT tried his best to encourage the teachers to use their laptops, but the OHPs were still used by teachers until late 2006. In 2006, I was asked to take over the Head of ICT department. The first thing I do was to phase out all the OHP and encourage teachers to use the computer. To encourage teachers to use the computer, I had procured tablet PCs for all my teachers. I also removed the desktop computer in all classrooms. I was faced with many resistances and complaints. To help my teachers, I conducted many sharing and training sessions to enthuse and help my teachers to use the technologies. At about the same time, there were many web 2.0 tools being developed to support teaching. In order to be a credible HOD, I studied on my own about these tools and experimented thousands of these tools. I also started to make teaching videos with my teacher and we were the first group of educators in Singapore that used Camatasia to make a teaching video (at that time it is version 2 or 3, I can't remember clearly). It was a good three years from 2006 that my knowledge in using ICT had improved quite tremendously, I even had developed a school information portals with my TAs. I also started Home-based learning for students. However, usage of ICT in teaching remains is still very low despite all the effort. In 2009 (the start of ICT mp3), I realized that the teachers need a comprehensive framework in using ICT to help students to learn. I adopted the SAMR and TPACK framework to guide my teachers and I also modify my ICT professional development framework so that my teachers can see the benefits of using ICT. These two models had served me very well for the next 6 years until I left my college to serve as a school leader. By the time when I left college, most of my teachers are already confident users of ICT in the classroom. If you asked me for the critical success factors of my 9-year efforts, I will tell you that they are 1) Excellent ICT Support, 2) Continuous Professional Training and 3) Effective Collaborative learning of the teachers.
If you asked me to give a deeper analysis of the critical success factors, I will like to summarize my efforts using my philosophy as an educator, my ICT effort always strives at 1) Providing Hope (teacher should not be discouraged in using ICT) 2) Providing Joy (Teachers must enjoy the learning of ICT) 3) Providing Convenience (Set up and maintain excellent ICT support and infrastructure) 4) Finally, provide Confidence (the teacher must experience success in using ICT and the best way to do so is through collaborative efforts like PLCs) I am now guiding my teachers in the next journey of our ICT masterplan, there will be a lot of learning to be done so that we as educators can be effective designers of our students learning with technologies and meaningful learning can take place through the hands of every learner.
I will like to share how I use the 10 tools here: 1) Using a Photos -take, edit, and upload There are two apps (Snapseed and Mematic) that I commonly used on my iPhone or iPad to edit my photos. After editing the photos, I can upload the photos to whatsapp, instagram or Facebook for sharing.
Learning and Teaching Ideas
Snapseed: Students will focus on photo editing techniques and apply these to the images that they have taken with the iPad or iphone camera. Students can use this app to fine tune their photos before uploading them for sharing. MeMatic: Students can use it to create captions for photos that they have taken.
2) Using Video-take, edit, send and upload
I use iMovies on my iPad to edit my video and upload to YouTube or Facebook for sharing. You can also save it to iclouddrive or send to email.
Learning and Teaching Ideas
There are many ways to use iMovies in classroom : Click on this link to find out more.
3) Screencasting- Screencast a lesson
I have used many screencast tools before.
Screencast-O-matics is quite easy to use. Click here for the guide on recording. However, I still prefer Camtasia as it has many features.
If you want to have a simple version. You can try installing camstudio who work just fine.
Below is an example of screencast I created using webcam attached to my deskstop.
4) Whiteboarding
I seldom used whiteboarding but learnt Educreation. It is quite easy to use. After creating the video on my ipad, I login to my account on my desktop and I can embed my recording into my websites using HTML.
I used todaysmeet quite regularly. The other apps I used is padlet which is also useful for discussion, further more it also support uploading of photos and video.
6) Blogging/LMS/Webpage
I seldom do blogging but may consider it for professional development of my teachers but sharing tips on technology and leadership.
Try creating webquest many years ago, if you are interested google site, it is also quite easy to set up.
An example: https://sites.google.com/a/googleuniversity.org/ski-club/Home 7 & 10) Polling: use a poll and Archive and Gaming I had also used many polling tools( poll everywhere, SMSPoll, Socrative and Top Hat) Recently try Metimetr during staff meetings and find its features (different question types) useful. Below are the types of responses you can collate. I have used Socrative for Quiz and games before(Click here to see an example of screenshot.)
8) Twitter: Ways to used Twitter in Clasroom: http://www.edudemic.com/the-30-newest-ways-to-use-twitter-in-the-classroom/ 9) Google Drive: Google Drive has been used by Singapore educator for collaboration for quite some time. Below is an example of forms that I have created and shared with my staff on book order:
