I came across this winning video from tropfest today and it really stopped me in my tracks and made me think. Worth watching all the way through.

Our ICT coordinator, John Coppola came into our class the other day and put me on the spot to talk about what we were doing with our class blog and the video is below. I wrote an entry just the other day about this so here is the class in action!!

I’m not all that comfortable being on camera and don’t really like publishing it on here but the purpose of me blogging is for reflection and sharing so I have to get over my own issues and put it out there. I also like the idea of an open classroom where we share what we do in our classrooms and open it up for discussion so I am trying to back that up in practice.  

As always the words don’t seem to come out just as I would like and it is all much clearer in my head but articulating what I do and think is something I definitely need to work on so this is a start. The key element I missed talking about was the students being able to collaborate and use each others work to develop their own understanding which is very useful in a competency based course like sport coaching. 

I have posted previously about youtube videos and how I am a big fan of it as a resource. I noticed recently that a really good video has been taken off and this is one of the downfalls of this service – that the videos can be removed by those who originally post them. A way around this is to download the videos and keep them in case they are removed. Downloading can also be helpful if you plan to use the videos in class and the internet is down or unavailable. I have played around with lots of ways to download youtube videos so thought I would put a few of the easiest ways I have found.

2. Unplug - this one is a firefox add on and presents itself as a little fish that is on your toolbar. When you are on the page with the video you want you simply click on the fish and it shows you all the files on the page that can be downloaded. Only problem with this way (and most other ways I have come across) is that it will only download it as an .flv file which is not as versatile as .mp4 format. You need to have a program to run the .flv files. Which makes the process a little cluncky. SWF & FLV PLayer is the one I use to play these files.

3. Video Downloader - another firefox add on that will download the videos in .flv format. The link provided has a good explanation of how this one works but is essentially very similar to Unplug.

4. Video Download x – is a web-based downloader which means you do not have to download any software etc. I have found that the quality of the downloads is not quite as good as the other methods but still useful if the others are not workable for any reason.There are a lot more applications out there that do the same job. Let me know if you find any that should be on the list!!

http://www.t2.com/waterbuffalo/

As with most people I love hearing stories to help me learn and understand new ideas and perspectives. There is ample evidence to suggest that story telling is a great method to engage students and the ’stories’ are generally things which are remembered long after the ‘content’ of the lesson is forgotten.

I stumbled across this great little project that tells a wonderful story of how an American educator and author, Philip Greenspun, donated a water buffalo to a poor family in china and follows their journey and how and why it all unfolded. Certainly a touching story that has a lot of potential to be shared in the classroom with lots of messages that can be discussed and analysed with the class. While it does not clearly link in with PDHPE I showed one of my year 8 classes this one today as we were talking about living conditions and there effect on health and they did not seem to connect with the message that not everyone in the world lives like they do.I find showing little clips like this can really focus a class on an idea and open their minds a little – much more than I am able to do with words anyway. A simple use of technology but certainly powerful.

I liked this little blog comment I found about the movie”I know some folks will fail to see the relevance in this, and will talk about standards and curriculum and mandated testing. But I guess I don’t see how this could be any more relevant – this is life in the 21st century (ironically demonstrated by very non-21st century water buffalo cultivation). This is 12 days from problem to solution, and 24 days from problem to Internet-viral-movie-extended solution that may impact hundreds or thousands. Shouldn’t we be teaching kids about this stuff? Can’t we address the curriculum and standards in ways like this? Shouldn’t we be helping prepare them to be really good at using these tools in both their professional and personal lives to impact the world around them? Shouldn’t we be helping prepare our students to change the world?” http://thefischbowl.blogspot.com

While sites like youtube present lots of potential problems in terms of appropriate content and copyright it can certainly throw up some little gems that can be very useful for teachers. At a recent staff meeting a youtube video was shown that could be used when talking about motivation or self belief and using our god given talents to their full potential. It is of the winner of Britains got talent, Paul Potts, who works in retail and is a regular guy who has some self confidence issues. He also has an extraordinary talent as a singer that has to be seen to be believed. This one is well worth a look if you haven’t seen it before!!