I led an INSET last week on Photostory 3 Although several of my case studies used copyrighted music, this one doesn’t so you can download my clouds photostory if you like.
As a plenary we came up with a Top Five uses of Photostory in case an inspector pops in with a check list and you need to look like you’re taking learning seriously.
- “What is the word?” Write down the theme of the photostory on a slate and get the students to guess it after watching the presentation.
- “Student narration” Create a photostory (and save the Project files) and play it with no music. Then plug in a microphone and get students to record the narration themselves.
- “Silent running” Play a photostory with the sound turned off. Students have to guess what sort of music is used and why.
- “What happens next?” Pause a Photostory and get students to predict the next photograph.
- “5 W’s” Students come up with 5W’s before the presentation finishes (What? Where? Why? When? Who?)
A couple of absolutely brilliant Google Videos make a superb case study of river pollution.
Link to Google Video
As well as describing the state of the New River, (possibly the most polluted river in North America) the video also refers to undocumented migrants swimming across the river, safe in the knowledge that the border patrol guards won’t follow them into the dangerously contaminated water! Try playing the first video with the sound turned off to get students to guess what it’s about.
Link to Google Video
The second video discusses the proposed improvements to the waterway.
Google Video is becoming a rich source of inspiration for video materials. Download the player and you can then play most videos off-line. I recently found several excellent films to illustrate a case study about Dubai:
The World
Dubai Waterfront
Cranes in Dubai
Dubai - The Megaprojects
More Dubai teaching materials on Juicy Geography
Last week I spontaneously decided that it would be a good idea to film some students talking about their homework. I recorded the video on my mobile phone and converted the file into .avi format using Xilisoft 3GP video converter.
Subsequently, I’ve felt that this is a really good way of assessing work. Because the students themselves aren’t in the frame (an important point), they focus on describing their homework. Their understanding is evident, and a collection of short videos like these may be a useful tool when demonstating their progess to a sceptical Ofsted inspector.
I got some Year 10 students to talk about the Year 7’s work today and filmed them in the same way. There were two reasons. Firstly I thought it would be an interesting form of assessment for learning, because the Year 7 students would be able to see how other pupils interpreted their work, and consequently how to improve it. Year 10s got the opportunity to revise some of their work on settlement.
I’ve briefly edited the videos in Windows Movie Maker and the results are available to download below:
Year 7 talk about their work (9.4mb wmv)
Year 10 talk about Year 7 work (4.1mb wmv)
The files play in Windows Media Player, and because of the limitations of the recording device, you may need to turn up the sound on your speakers.
Gavin Richards has extended my post on adding images to Google Earth windows with an illustrated article that explains how to incorporate a variety of digital assets into a placemark. Excellent effort Gavin!
Tom Biebrach has produced a kmz file linked to a geotagged video explaining Ogmore estuary. It’s a brilliant piece of work!
download Ogmore estuary placemark
VlogMap Blog provides an introduction to the geotagging of video blogs. It’s now possible to locate the position of your video clips using Google Earth, and the site contains examples and links to helpful resources. Anders, the author of The Random Show blog has created a minor video masterpiece that aptly illustrates the potential of this latest Google Earth hack to geography teachers.
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