Michelle Halvorsen, Texas School for the Deaf Vlogs, Blogs and Pod-Casts: Providing Vocabulary and Content Support at Home to Increase Student Retention Do Sign Language Lesson Intro: Teacher, Bathroom, Nucleus, Bear, DNA Michelle Halvorsen, Texas School for the Deaf Austin, TX November 5, 2010

Agenda What are Vlogs and Why Should You Use Them? What did I do? Why did I do it? How did it work? Example Vlogs and Ways to Use Vlogs with Your Students Step by Step Demo “Play” Time

What are Vlogs/Vod-Casts? Video that can be uploaded to a website or downloaded to a student’s iPod or laptop for students to use a resource when reviewing vocabulary and important concepts Example Vod-Cast: You can find more examples on my class blogs: http://halvorsenbiology.wordpress.com/review-videos/ http://halvorsenanatomy.wordpress.com/review-videos/ **Could also save to a USB and transfer to a student’s laptop OR email to parents/students **Use of VoiceThread

What are Pod-Casts? Pod-Cast An audio recording that can be uploaded to a website or downloaded to a student’s iPod for students to use as a resource when reviewing vocabulary **Could also save to a USB and transfer to a student’s laptop OR email to parents/students **Use of VoiceThread

Why Use Teacher-Created Vlogs or Pod-Casts? Provides specific vocabulary and/or content support at home that directly relates to what has happened or is happening in your classroom Increases student retention Increases student participation and engagement Increases parent awareness of topics covered in class EASY to create and upload! **It’s not some random website with potentially too high or too low content information (or wrong information) **It’s directly related to what and how you teach because it’s YOU **When students take advantage of it, they are more prepared for discussions in class (other students see this and may be persuaded to view the videos/listen to podcasts as well) **Gives a “study” tool for parents who may be uncomfortable with the material

How I First Used Vlogs: My Action Research Project Students were given a Pre-Test to assess key vocabulary During the unit, I created and posted a video review each day that new material was presented Students were required to view and respond to the review videos (graded component to encourage participation) Students were given a Post-Test to re-asses key vocabulary and to determine progress LSGC explain and Few to no resources for DHH students, and captioned resources were often not appropriate levels I did this during our cell membrane and cellular transport unit **Had them respond by answering a question such as “pick one membrane protein and assign it a nickname, then explain why this nickname is appropriate” **Seeing student comments allowed me to assess misconceptions and areas that I needed to re-address with those students **Students also created their own vlog on one topic as a project

Impact on Student Performance (Pre-Test vs Post-Test Scores) During my action research: All students (except one) who viewed four or more videos showed at least a 7 point (25%) increase from their pre-test to their post-test All students (except one) who viewed four or more videos received a passing score on the post-test In contrast, the student who viewed only three out of seven videos showed a 15% point decrease from the pre-test to the post-test Overall, this post-test had some of the highest scores of the year Students who consistently viewed videos were also more engaged and participated more easily and freely during class discussions

Other Uses of Vlogs/Pod-Casts Students create their own! Use for review or final projects Use to document labs or do a video lab report Use for discussions of current events **This year my students created video scavenger hunts of living vs non living things **Students are documenting success of their pop-bottle ecosystems using video **Students in anatomy created mitosis movies using animations **Biology students made symbiotic pairs movies **Anatomy students have made videos of terms and body landmarks

A Second Student Example…

Vlog/Pod-Cast Materials: What Do You Need? Computer Vlogs: Web-cam, digital camera or video camera iMovie (Mac), Movie-maker (PC) software for vlogs or AVS Video Editor (free software) Pod-Casts Audacity (free software for recording and editing) Garage Band, or iTunes for pod-casts Microphone (available at most electronic stores for $20-30) Recommend FLIP cameras

The A-B-Cs of Vlogs and Pod-Casts Decide how often you will create your videos or pod-casts Each day, once each week, towards the end of a unit, etc Write a short script to follow while making your video or pod-cast Record your video or pod-cast Edit (if necessary) your video or pod-cast Post your video or pod-cast to your class blog, email to students and parents, and/or upload directly to student’s iPods Script or list of key vocabulary—mine are more “on the fly” or quick and dirty

Step by Step Video Creation Using iMovie Open iMovie Click “Create a New Project” Name your project Click on Camera (“Built-in-iSight”) When ready, click on “Record with iSight” Film your movie, click again on “Record with iSight” to stop filming Save IF YOU HAVE NO WEBCAM—RECORD ON YOUR CAMERA, THEN DOWNLOAD AND IMPORT TO IMOVIE

Step by Step Video Creation Using iMovie Drag Clip to bottom area “Drag Clips here to Build Your Project” Edit (view Tutorials online for more advanced editing) Save Get ready for uploading: To Website: Click “Share-Quick Time” and choose web- streaming and name your project To student’s iPods: Click “Share-iPod” and then click share Your movie is now ready for uploading, saving to a USB stick, emailing, or transferring to a student’s iPod/laptop/iPad

Step by Step Video Creation Using Movie Maker Record/Capture your video using your webcam software or digital camera first Open Movie Maker Click Import-Videos and select your desired video file Click on that clip and drag it to your story board Edit (see tutorials for advanced editing) Publish Movie

Step by Step Audio Pod-Cast Using Audacity Software Open Audacity Software Plug in microphone/headset if you are using it When ready, press Red button to record (you can press the blue pause button during recording to pause) When finished, press the Yellow Square to stop when completely finished Edit (view Audacity tutorials for advanced information) Exporting: Click “File-Export As WAV” and name the file (this is a Windows program) Click “File-Export As MP3) and name the file (to do this, you must also download the free LAME software)

Blogs Very easy to set up A place to upload your videos or Pod-Casts Also great for announcements such as homework or test dates Suggested FREE sites: wordpress.com (cannot directly upload videos, must link to a site such as TeacherTube or YouTube) blogspot.com (can directly upload video files) http://edublogs.org/ (free and “Pro” versions)

Helpful Links iMovie Tutorials: http://www.apple.com/ilife/tutorials/#imovie GarageBand Tutorials: http://www.apple.com/ilife/tutorials/#garageband Movie Maker Tutorials: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/moviemaker/default.msp x Audacity Audio Recorder and Editor: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ AVS Video Editor: http://www.avs4you.com/AVS-Video- Editor.aspx?sct=aff&ct=regnow&cid=175028 Sites to upload your videos: http://youtube.com/ or http://teachertube.com/ Audacity and AVS sites also have tutorials that you can link to from their main pages

Other COOL Websites for Projects that I must share… www.animoto.com (http://animoto.com/education for FREE access to FULL version) Example Student Project on Biomes: www.voicethread.com

That’s a Wrap… To download this PPT, visit http://halvorsenclasses.wordpress.com/ and click on “Files for NABT 2010 Attendees” Feel free to contact me: michelle.halvorsen@tsd.state.tx.us Questions??? I would love to help you create your first vod-cast or pod- cast, so please feel free to write up a quick script and make your product, I will be here to help you!