This summer I spent time finishing up graduate classes, relaxing, chasing around a 15 month old (Cooper), and learning a lot about flipping. I was extremely disappointed that I was not able to attend the FlipCon this past June. It would have been 3 days of networking and creating relationships with fellow flipclass teachers around the country. Luckily, my Twitter friend @deliabush came to rescue and let me know about Muskegon ISD bringing in Jon Bergmann for a 2 day flipclass conference.
The conference was an awesome experience to gain further knowledge from Jon Bergmann and other flipclass teachers from West Michigan. If anybody ever gets a chance to go and listen to Jon speak you need to take full advantage. These 2 days left me feeling overwhelmed with the amount information I received.
Day 1 - Was a lot of review of philosophy and technology. The philosophy part was not new to me as I have been researching the flipclass method for over a year. Where I began to feel overwhelmed was he discussion about technology for the flipclass. I never realized how many different programs you can use to build and create videos for class. We were introduced to SnagIt, Screencast-0-Matic, Camtaisa Relay, Camtaisa Studio, Sophia, Moodle, Display Recorder, and Notability were all brought to my attention. All the products are phenomenal and easy to use.
I understand I am not able to use all these products so I made a decision and I am going to use the following resources this school year: Camtasia Studio and Moodle. These products will give my students the best chance for success in US History and AP US History. I would also recommend everybody to use Camtasia Studio as your source for video creation. I spent most of the morning using Camtasia Studio 8 and I was able to create videos with half the time compared to version 7 of Camtasia.
Day 2 - Let the overwhelmed feeling begin. I have never been to a conference where I walked away with so many resources and ideas. The morning was spent watching some videos and discussing the good, the bad, and the ugly. I realized that my videos that I created last year were boring. I just want to formally apologize to all my students last year in APUSH. I know I can do better. I will be making major changes to my videos for this year. I am going to buy a high quality microphone and I am going to create more videos with my colleague Judy.
The end of last school year I made a decision that I was going to introduce Moodle in my classes in the fall. The only thing I new about Moodle was it was going to allow students to take online assessments and allow me to go a little more paperless in the classroom. After seeing Jon give a brief presentation on his Moodle account and how it helped in the flipclass, I am sold on it. Don't get me wrong it is going to take me a while to get my account set up and working but it will be worth it in the long run.
In the afternoon I sat at a round table discussion with Jon, Doug Ragan (@dragan39), and Andrew Steinman (@steinman) and we discussed a variety of topics that deal with flipclass. I was able to ask questions and listen to stories from Jon about issues he dealt with in hist first few years of flipping. During this time I was able to see their Moodle pages and they helped me build my Moodle page. Both Doug and Andrew are experts with Moodle and owe them a huge Thank You.
This was the best conference I have ever attended and looking forward to implement a lot of the things I learned in my classroom this year. It was great to meet so many people face to face instead of talking to them through Twitter.
Mr. Fouch,
ReplyDeleteI am flipping my 10th grade U.S. History course this fall. I have recently began creating my videos, but I am struggling with the balance between text and images on a slide. Is it best to say more and have less on the slide or vice versa? How will you be improving your own presentations?
Hey Dave another great post. Seems like you have a lot to think about from such a short conference, overwhelmed but in a good way!
ReplyDeleteAs for videos (as the above comment mentions), I am interested regarding their thoughts on “best practices” with video creation. I also just switched to Camtasia 8 and am so glad I did. It is not only quicker, but allows for a lot more interaction (hotspots, embedded quizzes, etc.) Anyway, we should set up a quick google+ chat to discuss our approach to videos for this upcoming year. We could then write a follow-up post for discussion. Here is a link to my first Camtasia 8 videos I just finished up using hotspots and quizzing if interested:
http://www.screencast.com/t/FHXh0wsktX4
Some initial thoughts regarding good videos:
- Short, concise, to the point. One topic per video. (5-10 minutes)
- Limit amount of text per slide (prezi or ppt), but also do not yack forever. Make point and move on. Video should be an overview anyway, not an in-depth description.
- Try adding interactive hotspots (links) if possible.
- Try embedding quizzes or have associated assessments (google forms) for online submittal after viewing.
- Create videos with others when possible.
- Create videos that model skills, not just explain content. (ex. detecting bias in sources)
Regarding Moodle, I hear a lot of great things and have actually taken a few of my grad courses at Teachers College through the Moodle platform. Sharing your thoughts later on Moodle’s advantages would also be great for readers.