Exploring apps for virtual tours

不能外遊，惟有乘機explore 以下的app, 去雲遊四海，順道看看可以怎樣運用在教學上。你還有其他類似的好介紹嗎？

• Google MyMaps
• Google Earth
• Google Tour Creator
• Google Tour Builder
• Expeditions (mobile app)
• Voyager
• Google Lit Trips
• Arts and Culture with Google

Apps for creating flipped videos

In flipped learning, the pre-class individual work is often in the form of viewing a video, which contains the (new) key concepts to be delved into in the upcoming classroom lesson. Very often, teachers may want to use a quiz to either check their students’ understanding of the video content, or ensure that the students have done the pre-work. To do that, teachers may provide students with 2 links: one to the video itself, and the other to the quiz. In practice, there are apps which combine an instructional video and a quiz in one and the same creation. In such cases, students only need to work with one link. This article introduces 4 such apps.

I.                 TED-ED

TED-ED is part of the TED platform, which is well-known for its huge bank of quality talks delivered by experts from various walks of life. In its earliest version, TED-ED allowed users, mostly teachers, to embed an existing TED talk video into a lesson which they had created. They would then insert questions into the video, and share the lesson link with their students. The students would follow the link, view the video, and answer the questions. But there was no way for teachers to monitor their students’ progress or see their responses.

https://ed.ted.com/lessons

TED-ED has undergone a lot of improvements in recent years, which are:

a.      Besides TED talks, teachers can also make use of Youtube videos when creating a TED-ED lesson.

b.      Teachers can crop the video (from TED.com or Youtube) they have imported into a TED-ED lesson.

c.      Teachers can insert M.C questions, open answer questions, and discussion questions into a lesson.

d.      Teachers can also choose from the published TED-ED lessons and customise them for using with their own students.

e.      For each TED-ED lesson created, there is now a Lesson Page where the teacher can monitor the students’ progress, such as who has viewed the video, and their responses to the open answer questions and the discussion topic.

A TED-ED lesson can be used as a more extended pre-class task for flipped learning, as it follows the following procedural framework:

1.      Let’s begin – an introduction to the video topic

2.      Think – MC questions and open answer questions for while-viewing

3.      Dig Deeper – additional information on the topic

4.      Discussion – something for students to discuss after viewing the video

5.      And Finally – closing thoughts, reminders, etc.  

II. EDPUZZLE and PLAYPOSIT

https://edpuzzle.com/

https://go.playposit.com/

The biggest difference between these two apps and TED-ED is that with TED-ED, the inserted questions are not timed along the video so that the viewer has to click the next question, then the next question, and so on, while following the progress of the video. With Edpuzzle and Playposit, the questions are inserted into the video itself. In other words, the teacher who is creating a viewing unit decides when each question should appear in the video. When a question pops up, students have to respond to the question before they can continue the viewing.

In my view, the timed (Edpuzzle and Playposit) and untimed (TED-ED) model each has its own advantages and disadvantages. But perhaps with pre-intermediate level learners, the timed model is easier to handle. And between Edpuzzle and Playposit, there are a lot more similarities than there are differences. Both allow teachers to:

-        import Youtube videos and upload their own videos;

-        create classes;

-        view students’ performances in the gradebook;

-        re-use and customise the built-in units created by other teachers; and

-        link the created video units with Google Classroom.

Perhaps the only difference is that Playposit has more question types, which are discussion, polling, and blank-filling, while Edpuzzle allows teachers to customise a published video unit (from inside Edpuzzle) by replacing the original audio with their own narration.

III. GOOGLE FORMS

Another handy way to put the pre-class video and the quiz together, especially when the video is from Youtube, is to use a Google form (https://www.google.com/forms/about/). Google forms are easy to create. They allow for open-ended answers (polls) as well as objective-type questions with right or wrong answers (quizzes). As the following diagram shows, all the teachers need to do is, within a new Google form, click on the ‘video’ button, and then type in the name of the target video or its URL. A preview picture of the video will appear in the form automatically. In the ‘respond’ version of the Google form that they students receive, the ‘play’ button appears on the preview picture. Students only have to click ‘play’, and then respond to the questions on the form.

And of course as we all know, Google forms are fully integrated with Google Classroom, so that if you are also using Google Classroom, you need not worry about making a record of the students’ quiz scores!

Conclusion

Pre-class work under Flipped Learning does not have to be about watching a video, but by far it is the most popular medium for presenting new lesson content to students before the classroom lesson. Although there are other types of tasks that may go with the video viewing, getting students to answer a quiz while or after watching the video is still a practical way to check students’ understanding and to ensure they do the pre-work. In this regard, the apps and techniques introduced above should be useful to teachers.

 

Length of the pre-class video for flipped learning

According to the Western tradition of flipped learning, the pre-class study resource for students is usually in the form of a video, though in reality, other types of material (e.g., a PPT, an article, a podcast episode) can also be used. The purpose of the pre-class video is to present the main concepts of the upcoming live lesson. Experts in flipped learning unanimously assert that such videos should not be too lengthy. Some of them even suggest a maximum length of 7 to 8 minutes. In case it is not possible to include all the teaching content in a video of this length, the alternative should be to break the whole presentation down into more than one video, instead of continuing with the original one.

One reason for the experts advocating shorter rather than longer videos has to do with human beings’ attention span. Another reason that has been put forward – and this is an interesting one – is that it forces teachers to be concise with their presentation of the lesson content.

I have been producing my own videos for my flipped classes at the university, and I have learnt from my experience that being concise may not be as easy as we think. On many occasions in the past, when I had finished recording a video which I had thought was below 7 minutes and then when I checked the duration of the product, I was in for a surprise. Although I had reminded myself to be concise while planning and recording the video, the resulting creation often lasted much longer.

This is an interesting phenomenon. Perhaps as teachers, when we present the lesson content in a live lesson, we often insert questions, jokes, discourse markers when we develop our talk. And very often, we repeat our main points, develop our arguments, or cite examples. Of course, that makes perfect sense in a live lesson. But when we have to crystallize our lesson content down to a few minutes and leave out all the supplementary discourse, we are simply not used to doing that.

So, in a way, producing pre-class videos for the flipped classroom may turn out to be a useful training opportunity for us teachers to be concise with our presentation which, after all, is a desirable speech habit. Who likes to listen to a speaker who keeps rambling on?

In case we are concerned that if our pre-class video is too concise then students will lose interest, take note that our psychological readiness for viewing an instructional video is different from that when we attend a live presentation. When we view an instructional video, we tune in quicker, and are more focused and more eager to listen for the information that we are after. In fact, I have found that when I’m viewing a Youtube video in order to get some information, I often just skip along. As to the pre-class videos we produce for our students, if they miss something, or if there is something they don’t understanding at first viewing, they can always view the video again. So the implication for us is: Don’t be afraid to be concise.

Back to Blogger

Today, I switch back to Blogger for posts that are about my still learning to teach. For posts about life in general, I will continue to use http://paulsze.wordpress.com/

Activities after May 25, 2016 now posted on http://paulsze.wordpress.com/ (Click on the category 'Professional Activities'

https://paulsze.wordpress.com/category/professional-activities/

Workshop on e-learning co-presented with Ms Jenny Leung

Workshop for teachers: The Missing Link in Grammar Teaching

Held in Tuen Mun Government Primary School.

A workshop for primary English teachers, organised by Oxford University Press. 

Commercial Radio's interview with me on language awareness was broadcast today.

 To listen again, go to:   http://www.881903.com/Page/ZH-TW/News_Featuredetail.aspx?itemid=847520&csid=901_3   (02:45; in Cantonese)

Conducted a workshop on " " Effective Writing Strategies for Upper Primary Students"

a workshop for the English Dept., Zheng Guanying School, Macao. 

Conducted a training event on the Teaching of Reading and Writing in the Lower Secondary School (Dec 14-15; 2015)

 a two-day workshop for key Secondary English teachers from the Dongguan region; organised by the Dongguan Teacher Development Institute.

Gave a talk to an audience of primary and secondary English teachers in Macau

Title of Talk: "Not what or how, but why: Re-seeking purpose through BAA"

Organised by the Chinese Association of Education in Macau

Talk for parents: "Characteristics of the English Language; and what's in it for parents?"

Organised by Oxford University Press, Hong Kong.

Talk on Language Awareness for La Salle College PTA Reading Club

Topic: "How to sharpen your language awareness while on the go"
Organised by La Salle College PTA Reading Club, attended by the student members of the club and the parent tutors

Oct 14: Talk for parents: Why are games and activities important to young children learning English?

Organised by OUP.

Attended a seminar on Flipped Classroom organised by CLEAR, CUHK

Teaching and Learning in Flipped Classroom

Seminar of Cross-University Experiences

http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/clear/new/1516-s1-03.htm

"Two routes to successful language learning" A talk for parents, organised by Oxford University Press.

"What to do with technology in English language teaching" A workshop for the English Dept, Sacred Heart Canossian School.

2015-08-28             "What to do with technology in English language teaching"  A workshop for the English Dept, Sacred Heart Canossian School.

July 16, 2015: A talk for the general public at the Hong Kong Book Fair 2015

Topic: 行街學英文

New book published: "英文秘道", published by Oxford University Press.

Joint sharing session by 3 schools of the 7 schools taking part in the Pilot Project for BAA Requirements in Macao.