+Vlogs, Blogs and Pod-Casts: Providing Vocabulary and Content Support at Home to Increase Student Retention

Michelle Halvorsen, Texas School for the DeafAustin, TX

+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 and Pod-Casts? Vlog or Vod-Cast

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

Examples on my blog (this year’s blogs): http://halvorsenbiology.wordpress.com/

http://halvorsenanatomy.wordpress.com/review-videos/

http://halvorsenbasicbiology.wordpress.com/review-videos/

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

+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!

+ 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

+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

+ 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)

+ 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

+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

+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 or transferring to a student’s iPod

+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.mspx

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/

+Other COOL Websites for Projects that I HAVE to 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/

Feel free to contact me: michelle.halvorsen@tsd.state.tx.us

Questions??? If you would like to stay and play more with the

software to make your own Vlog or Pod-Cast, please feel free to stick around!