Oral Language
One of the major focuses at Pt England School and the Manaiakalani Cluster of schools is raising student achievement outcomes in literacy. Not only have we been trying all manner of eLearning approaches, but we have also had researchers working alongside us.
In this workshop I will focus on how we have taken advantage of the many opportunities offered by the technologies we have available to us to improve our students' oral language outcomes.
So you will be shown: how we use some of the tools like podcasting, movie making, Voice Thread, animoto, and more; you will be shown the planning and framework that is used to ensure the focus is on oral language; you will be shown examples of student outcomes starting with the 5 year olds and the evidence we have that their oral language HAS improved.
Oral Language NEEDS an audience. So to encourage our students to speak, they need to have someone(s) listening. We need to publish students' oral outcomes in ways that others can listen.
eFellow Research 2007
Two of the projects were on podcasting
Dorothy Burt "The Lure of Podcasting" Report available from this page
Jane Nicholls "Social Software and Authentic Literacy Learning" Report is available on that page - scroll down...
Evidence base
Ours is online.
Meet some kids....
Pt England School Year OneNikita July 2008 and now Nikita a year later August 2009 her 2009 collection of 'evidence'
Tamaki Primary Year One
Michael March 2009 and Joe March 2009 then Michael and Joe August 2009
Pt England Podcasters
Sela Year Two, Year Five, Year Six
Year 2 Pt England
Isaara May 2008 and August 2009
Tools for the job
Selecting the right tools for the job is important. Some teachers enjoy this part of the process and are up for any challenge. Others don't and want a simple, straight forward option.
Rather than just talk about the tools, you will see links to find out more about the techie side, but most importantly you will find links to students using them...
One step examples: These are where you record the students directly into a device or software
iMovie:
Open iMovie > select built in isight camera > record
Examples Year 0, Year One, Year Two, Year Three, Year Four,
Totally independant Year 2/3
Photo Booth:
Open Photo Booth > Select Film Strip icon (below) > record
Easispeak microphone: (Link to buy one in the sidebar)
Record directly into the microphone >plug into a computer via USB > drag the mp3 file off from there
See an explanation and links to purchasing
Voice Thread
Record directly onto VoiceThread
See links to help sheets for teachers here from VT themselves and here from Suzie Vespers
Examples Year 0, Year 1, Year 2, Year 2/3, Year 6
GarageBand
This software can be used for making sophisticated podcasts or as a very simple audio recording device.
Here are some simple recordings made on Garage Band
Simple movie capturing solutions (Link to buy Flip video in sidebar)
Some of the very cheap cameras that have recently come onto the market, such as the Flip Video camera, provide wonderful low tech devices for capturing audio that is very easy to publish. The video option on our still cameras and cell phones is often overlooked too.
Here are some examples filmed with:
Flip Video - Year 3, Still Camera movie option - Year 5/6
Two or More steps : There are lots of ways of capturing and publishing oral language if teachers are prepared to take on the technological challenge of learning a couple more steps. All of these I am going to mention require voice to first be captured as an mp3.
Obvious suggestions are using the easispeak mic, GarageBand or Audacity (PC) - or use your cell phone!
First step is to capture your audio and save it as an mp3 then it can be uploaded into any of the following ideas....
Animoto: an online (Web 2.0) video creating site. Upload your photos/KidPix, upload your .mp3, have a coffee while animoto creates your movie
Here are some examples: Year One, Year Two, Year 5/6
Podcasting: Creating enhanced podcasts to play on an iPod or any mp3 player - or to upload to a blog. Use GarageBand or Kid Pix. Lots of Photos/graphics
Here are some examples from Year 5/6
Animasher a Web 2.0 tool
Capzle a Web 2.0 tool
Example from Year 1/2
Hyperstudio a software programme
I Can Animate: A software programme
Here are some examples: Year 5, Year 6
Movie making: Our research has shown that students who have the opportunity to create movies quickly become better at oral language
Here are some examples from a year 6 class. NB these kids have had the opportunity to make movies since they started school as five year olds!
Earthrace, Room 18 are Hiring, Meeting Will Smith, Interviewing the Prime Minister