Making use of free apps in my teaching

Been meaning to post for a while but I've been REALLY struggling with time this year. However, the summer holidays are now upon us and I'm hoping to get a bit of time to experiment with the range of free applications that are knocking around on the internet, some of which I've been aware of for sometime, but haven't done anything about them...until now ! My plan is to really play around over the next couple of months and explore their potential to add a little more interest/fun/creativity into my work. The first app I've had a play with is Go Animate which enables you to create short animated videos. I can already see it has lots of potential for both tutors and students. Here's my first attempt at making a short video.... first test by nick.haigh on GoAnimate

Using Video in Education

Following on from my last post, and a timely project at work, I will be using my next few blog entries to explore the use of video in education (as this is a useful respository for links etc.) Ok, first off is a rather interesting YouTube video by Salman Khan on the use of video to 'flip' the classroom. Edudemic is a useful starting point identifying possible ways to use video, with their 6 simple ways to use video in education or Video AKITV (and their handbook, which is not only a practical guide but provides some theoretical explanation for the use of digital video in education. The BBC Active guidelines for using video is also worth bearing in mind. Another academic source worth a read is journal article 'Rethinking the use of video in teacher education: A holistic approach' in Teaching and Teacher Education Volume 27, Issue 7, October 2011, Pages 1151–1162. On the practical side, to support teacher training, I'm rather taken with the training videos/tutorials by Russell Stannard from Warwick University. Particularly interested in the 'Present Me' tutorial on providing a voice over for Powerpoint presentation, given the idea of flipping the classroom, and getting learners to do the powerpoint stuff prior to coming to class. Hmm...that's enough for now I think !