Use of docucam and projector

Today I used the docucam to show my learners a new stitch, cretan stitch. I'm used to everyone having to gather round to see the demonstration, which is necessary even when using thick thread and a large needle. With 11 learners that's far from ideal. It was the first time for all the learners that they'd been shown a technique using this sort of kit, for most it took a short while to get used to watching the projection rather than straining to watch me. It worked, it was the first time I'd used the kit this way and I can see how I can improve, getting the focus right for example before I begin! I shall also position myself differently in the classroom, sit with the learners rather than infront of them - to project my voice well I was turning to face them then turning to check the projection throughout the demonstration which wasn't ideal. I know it was succesful though because they've asked me to use the kit again the same way when I teach them a new stitch next week.

I did have fabulous cretan stitch wall paper (Gill's great description!) throughout the rest of the session, projecting my sample onto the white sheet on the wall, it was effective, the photo of it is not good enough to post though! I'm now going to add a couple of photos of my learners work to Flickr.

Has anyone else used the laptop to record a demonstration? If you have and it's straight forward, I'd so appreciate some guidelines!

Shortening Audio

This slide shows how to shorten audio in Music Maker. It's the same technique as resizing a picture in Word. Hope this helps

Body Parts Quiz

I honestly do not intend to show off.And I don't want to clutter the blog with my posts, either. It's just the Power Point and Movie Maker in connection with my wonderful projector, that make me so prolific:)
Here's a quiz I've just prepared for Tuesday session. I took some pictures of my daughter and pasted them in each answer. She also came up with some questions for the quiz:) We had loads of fun doing this presentation! However, I'm going to play the video WITHOUT music on the lesson. I just added the song I like to make it more pleasant for you to watch;)
Oh, and I have one question: do you have any better ideas for the last sentence? I don't really like it, so it would be great if someone could think of something more appropriate. Thank you in advance.

Rob's big ideas

At last. I've finally managed to log in to the AdEd interest blogtastic site. It's been a bit of a cyber trek which has involved a bit of table head banging and a lot of choice language ( a bit like an SMT meeting for one, I imagine).

I have been 'persuaded' to write this by the lovely JCD (it's o.k., the bruises are fading as I speak). Being a literacy tutor you can imagine how daunting it is to write something like this - lots of other tutors and edukashunalists poring over it for any errors in spelling, punctuation, grammar, etc.

I have a few ideas spinning round in my fragmented little brain regarding the use of multimedia in FLLN. As you may see soon (or maybe later!) I would like to introduce the use of videos and presentations into family literacy and numeracy courses. Literacy courses could incorporate the use of digital film (stills and video) to create stories or documentaries that address literacy needs in a practical, interesting and fun way; for example, writing a story involves planning, drafting, proofreading, sequencing and writing. Lots of co-operation is needed in this process, including discussion, sharing ideas, thinking skills, utilising different learning styles and producing a positive end product. This could be used in partnership with other recognised projects (BBC RAW for example, it would be right up their street!)

Numeracy skills could also be addressed - timing, distances, chaptering, budgeting - all parts of film making! Better still, set the students the task of finding different real life situations where maths/numeracy are part of everyday life and recording them on film - most learners are unaware of how often they rely on their numeracy skills to get by.

I intend to post a video of one of our FLLN projects very soon. This involves using puppets and puppet theatres used by our parents and children to tell traditional fairy tales. The results were amazing and we had very few tantrums, shouting fits and tears - the children were well behaved, too.

However, Jane CD expects me to post the roughest of rough cuts that we made during her informative session, but anyone who knows me well will tell you that won't happen! I'm in the process of creating a 'less rough' version, but inbetween teaching/ co-ordinating/planning. But it will happen, I promise! Actually, I have to promise, otherwise Jane will be back and she's really good at pinching...

Inspired by Aleksandra!

Inspired by Aleksandra's video clip posted here yesterday (which was the buzz of conversation!) we made a video recording during today's training. I used the little Cybershot 55 camera and played around with Windows Movie Maker once I got home. It took me about 35 minutes to make this short film, which is made of an opening title, the video clip, a still image and a closing clip. I imported a music file from Windows to accompany it but couldn't work out how to get rid of the recorded sound. When I listened to it though, I liked it with both sound and music.

I found Movie Maker far easier than the video editing software we were playing with the other day. Not only that, but it did everything I wanted it to do - clipping and editing included. Believe me, I didn't even know I had got the Movie Maker program on my computer until today!

Good stuff!

Watch out everybody...the video makers are coming.

Training Today

After a meeting of the Curriculum Team this morning, the Observation team got together for lunch and some training. One exercise was to sort out the words which might appear on reports graded 1-outstanding to 4-inadequate.

See if you can work out which list was which (If you can read them, that is!)

...and a short video...

I tried out the Movie Maker, and here is the result.