The Next Steps: Video Softward and My Big Campus

I have made some additional progress in my GAME plan this week. Working with the district’s technology department, I set up an account on My Big Campus, the new software I mentioned last week. Our district has joined this program, which the technology department says will let me set up wikis and blogs for my students. It also provides e-mail accounts within the school, so there will be lots of ways to share information. I am truly excited about trying it out during summer school. 

The responses to last week’s post have some good ideas about how to use a web page in class. I especially appreciated the suggestion to make the web page a regular part of my students’ classroom work. It provides them with a chance to show their responsibility and to review the essentials of the day’s lesson, and it provides me with an up-to-date page without my constant input. Thank you, Katie.

I also investigated more about using video. While I want to learn more about video conferencing, I also want to improve my proficiency with video editing because that technology is so engaging for the students. Our district formerly had Windows Movie Maker software on many computers, but it had been removed because it took a lot of memory and not many teachers were using it. However, the tech department has told me that Movie Maker can be reinstalled whenever I need it, so my students should be able to access that program in the fall. This is an area where I will probably need to fine tune my GAME plan because I can foresee many uses for short videos created by students. As Cennamo, Ross, and Ertmer (2009) explain, a GAME plan needs to be monitored and possibly modified. At present, the only video editing software in our middle school is on a single computer in the IMC. That obviously won’t provide enough access if more than two or three students want to use it.

I still need to try out actually using Skype. Using the web cam on my laptop is very simple, so this is just a matter of setting up a time to talk.

In the coming week, I hope to start setting up my class pages on My Big Campus so it is ready for summer school.

References:

Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: a standards-based approach.  (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.