How to be a great teacher...

So this is a wiki set up by Angela Jensen.

It's a great idea. It's a place where you can talk about those things that inspire us to be great teachers. It's got a page on who are your favorite teachers and one on tools and ideas that are useful.

Have a look 

How to be a great teacher. . .

Look through the site and add some of your own experiences and ideas to these pages


Great Teachers I've Know
Great Teaching Ideas

from some of the comments below I have to reiterate this is not my creation, I am not taking credit for it.

The Multi-Sensory Digital World

So here we go with my rant on Group 2 technologies which I dub 'The Senses'.

I will forgo the references to touch, taste and smell in this post but when the technology becomes better to transmit these experiences digitally (I've always wanted smell-0-vision).

So lets explore those other senses that we can use in a digital context, sight and sound.

All jokes aside there is a revolution that has occurred and we are not even aware of it. In the past the ability of the average person in the developed world to communicate was limited to direct communication using a text or voice based delivery system think letters and phone calls and talking to someone right in front of you, and using any other medium or platform was the realm of experts, think radio, television, professional photographers and artists. But as the technology has got better and 'easier' the ability of the average Joe to use different mediums has increased, and the ability to broadcast those new mediums has grown too.

So now not only can everybody write and speak, but we can generate images, Moving image, illustrations, modified sound, and music, and more and more it's easier to combine all of these in different combinations to create personal ways of communicating that are tailored to how an individual best expresses themselves and to how your audience will best respond.

This evolution of the ease of multiple expression is most evident in the social media world. Originally text Blogs were all the rage on expression and then in became easier to add images and then video but that was very much a one way expression. When platforms like Facebook and twitter came online then the conversation became more Multi-directional but still grounded with text and image and sound accompanying. Now there are platforms that make audio and visual the main focus like Imgr, Instigram, Soundcloud and Audioboo, and there is even and new platform called Pheed which allows all modes of communication to be integrated in any area whether its a post, message or comment, so you can post a like and have a audio file as a comment and a then 3 more images as a full conversation.

I believe this is a natural progression. We as humans derive the most useful cues in conversation from body language and vocal intonation, so its's natural we would want to have those same resources when we communicate in any context in order get our point across.

GIF animations

I know it might seem a bit old but gifs are a very quick and easy way to make small data sized moving images like so:

 

This one was made with the first gif creator I came across (gickr.com) and is only 156k of data. I took 4 photos with my camera and uploaded them and the site created this gif using those photos.

and this one used a different webtool called imgflip.com using a YouTube clip

And because they are based on images they can be uploaded like a photo.

Imagine students making small videos of the photo's they have taken of a seed they planted and show show how the seed grew in an image that they can share on their blog/website/wiki. and then have it as a part of a presentation of their findings in a PowerPoint.

Embed Spotify

This is for Susan who had trouble with trying to embed a spotify track into her blog.

Just remember to paste the embed code into the HTML not the Compose section. and make sure it has it's own line by pressing ENTER (But not in the middle of a line)

and here is the result (BUT you need spotify installed for it to play, because it plays off spotify. As a place to share music while it has a huge library it's a bit limiting)

Embedding Multimedia

So I just found a way to embed video/audio/gaget into blogger from anywhere.

Now there is some limitation unless you know how to code HTML but a lot of of different websites and software make it easy for you. The reason being they want you to share their product with others who might use it as well and bring them to the original website so they can either sell you stuff or show you advertisements.

So the file that you want to embed needs to be hosted on the internet somewhere, and there are many places where you can upload files for the purpose of embedding like YouTube, sound-cloud, and even Google drive can host video files that you can share. Just find the one that works best for you.

As a note on the sharing ability of online software, there can be a risk that the students can be exposed to areas that are not desirable. YouTube is especially guilty of linking videos at the end of the clip so maybe trialing the embedded file and following any links it shows in order to find where it might go.

but lets go to the how now

Story telling

So was raking my brain about how I could use a blog, wiki or website in a drama context and I didn't want to use the old context of compiling journal entries about "how the week has gone" or "This is what we did in class" or collaborate on wiki to draw information together, or create a resource laden website, but something  that could help in how these kids could tell stories. So I thought could any of these help with writing or story telling in some way?

so here is a story I wanted to tell.

Who Am I

.

A wiki could be a great tool to tell a story as a group; adding scenarios, information, images that enhances the groups ability to expand a story. The only down side is that could get very messy with everybody telling their own story and going off in many tangents. (but a good idea to try to look at multiple journeys)

a website while could be great as a story telling tool in a final concept stage with it's ability to take the audience down a story arch with links and pages that can only be accessed in specific orders, doesn't have the room for much feedback.

I realised that a blog is a great tool for sharing and exploring each individuals stories in a way that can grow as others respond to it

You can create an universe told through the blog be it letter correspondence in a historical or fantasy piece, the logs of a Starship Captain, or like I've done a person locked in a room who doesn't know who they are.

The great thing about it is the ability for the students to have control on the material and also have feedback for it, and the feedback could also be a continuation or adding to the story itself. There might be those who want to be hurtful but they their comments can be deleted.

The wide variety of content that can be added could also enhance the exercise with the inclusion of images audio and video for extra stimulus.

If anybody else can think of other ways stories could be told or if you think there might be anything that could be a threat to the students in this form please  comment.

and if you want to add to the story got to the link

Prensky's digital native. Game players

I was intrigued by the concept that Prensky states in Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants (2001) that modern adolescents brains may have changed to that of older generations from the simple fact that their experiences of the world are fundamentally different. That game play and fun experiences are the norm.

Now I'm not sure if that is true but it makes me think about the different forms of education I was exposed too. I remember some methods of teaching more vividly than others not because they were better or that learned anything but because I was almost in pain by the the boredom and stress I was feeling. In fact I think i may have been so stubborn that I learnt things in spite of the pedagogy I was exposed to. In contrast the things that I know I have learnt very well I know have come from engaging situations. I might not be able to remember the form or context of when I learned that knowledge but those sense memories are still there.

for example when I first tried riding a bicycle without training wheels. more than anything I remember the physical exhilaration that at any moment I might fall off and that the momentum of my body may drag me across the ground. I still get that feeling every single time I get on a bike but I have learned to accept that feeling and us it. The reason I have those feelings is because the experience was engaging. It may have been terrifying but engaging, and it's not limited to physical experiences.

In a maths class I remember solving a number of different real world problems and got a similar exhilaration in the process of executing different solutions to the problem and finding which one would work the best, even being challenged by other peoples solutions was thrilling.(although at the time I didn't  want to admit that even to myself in case I got caught Loving MATHS!!!!) but now I ask myself why was I so engaged?

Why am so engaged when watching a good TV show, Movie, Video game? is it because of the exiting visuals and sounds? Maybe, but a painting could have those same visuals and music with the same sounds wouldn't hold my attention as long. It's how they come together to either tell a story that draws in me or an experience that challenges me or dares me to go deeper. (Sorry I may have not added books but they too give the same experience if they are written well)

It's no wonder students don't to learn sometimes with the stories and experiences we give then that don't have the same thought and care those movies and video games who have multi-million dollar budgets and years of preparation behind them, but we can create experiences that do the same.

Prensky (2001) shows an amazing example of that kind of teaching with "The Monkey Wrench Conspiracy". An instruction manual that is fun to use. The story is not just as set of instructions on a page but is you taking the role of a intergalactic secret agent taking on the evil Dr Monkey Wrench, and the only way to do that is create the tools you will need with the CAD software at your disposal. which would you be more engaged with. While "the Monkey wrench Conspiracy" is a good example of engaging educational experiences there are also examples out there that try to do the same thing and fail, and usually it's due to the fact that they even though they have bright visuals and an interesting premise they miss that fundamental engaging element which is how they tell their story, what kind of experiences are they offering.

I don't think that "digital natives" or contemporary students demand fun and engaging experiences. All human beings want to have fun and be engaged. It's just that the modern generation might be more aware that they can have fun. So why can't we give them those kinds of experiences and not just instructions on a page.


I tried to find the original  Monkey Wrench Conspiracy  but they seem to be out of action.

But I did find a teacher who tried to find what was more engaging, Narrative of Game Play with his students with interesting results