The following slides are from a presentation given by the E-learning Advisor Team at the IATL workshop on feedback.
This is also available as a PDF file to download.
Click on an image to enlarge to full size:
Robert O'Toole
27 Jan 2011 11:38
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Experiential learning is not a passive process, rather it is an activity in which students deliberately act on/in the world, predicting, doing, observing, reflecting and re-acting: the feedback loop through which we explore realities. Learning in all disciplines involves the creation of what could be called instruments of experience1: things that we can create and use based upon our theories (implicit or explicit), providing sufficient opportunity to observe, reflect and re-act. What Tom Kelley of IDEO calls "building to think".
Professor Carol Rutter, along with students, actors and Globe Education, constructed just such an instrument of experience at the Globe Theatre. It was constructed from two early versions of Shakespeare’s Othello, along with period stage costumes, rehearsal spaces, the Globe stage, and the knowledge and skills of the actors. When deployed, the instrument worked as a kind of experiment (testing theories about staging the different versions), but also as an experiential discovery on many levels for all of the participants. As Carol states in her introduction:
The project records practical experiments conducted on the stages of Shakespeare’s (reconstructed) Globe using reconstructions of early modern dress to argue that the scene’s “meaning” resides in the undressing and to demonstrate how that undressing was done. It concludes that Q is not an actors’ text.
The Unpinning Desdemona experience proved to be rich in opportunities and detail, as expected. From the outset, Professor Rutter built observation and reflection into the plan. All of the activities, over the whole day, were filmed and photographed, including the process of dressing, the various rehearsals with different combinations of text and costume, and the performance on stage (of the Willow scene).
The Unpinning Desdemona experience was necessarily rich and mulimediated. To recompose it for reflection means bringing together a large amount of quite visually rich video footage with audio (spoken word and music), filled with many individual events and observations, along with the texts and the un-expressed thoughts and sensations of the participants. We don’t want to lose too much of that complexity, as it’s what makes the experience potentially so productive. But the participants do need to be able to draw it all together selectively so as to create a narrative that reflects and draws conclusions (re-acts, learns). How can technology help?
As part of the Open-space Learning project, I am exploring ways in which participants can gather a rich account of events in a manageable format, and then quickly and intuitively build a narrative. In this particular case, we used iMovie 09, the video editing and production application that comes free with every new Apple computer. Working with the actor Jon Trenchard, Carol spent a couple of days with an Apple iMac in the Writers’ Room at Warwick. It’s 24” screen allows editors to easily view a large proportion of their footage and still images for review without too much scrolling around. The end result is impressive and fascinating: an hour long movie, in ten sections, that explores the performance experiment, explaining the differences between the texts, how they might have been performed, and the implications for how we understand and study the relationship between text and performance. The movies can be viewed online, and will be used in teaching and research (address given below).
For this kind of learning through video making, I chose the combination of iMac and iMovie 09 over many other options (including Apple Final Cut and Adobe Premiere). iMovie is aimed at the novice video maker. It is to some extent simplified. I have been able to teach people to use it in just ten minutes. But that’s not the reason for choosing it. In fact, the latest version is barely less sophisticated than applications used by professionals. I choose iMovie because it makes it easy for students and researchers to quickly explore, select and combine sequences of video from hours of footage (as well as images). Footage is instantly rendered. By moving the mouse pointer across the footage, the playhead performs audio and video skimming. Whatever the mouse is hovered over plays instantly in a preview window, and as the mouse is moved, the audio is played as well. When researchers and students are concentrating on understanding difficult content, creating difficult ideas, they have to be able to do this as smoothly as possible, as quickly as possible. iMovie 09 is perfect. To build their narrative, the editors select clips from the footage (click and drag), play the selected clip to review it (/ button), and then move them into the correct point in the movie timeline (drag and drop). Images can be added in a similar manner. Stills can be created from any point in the video footage and added to the movie (building a movie from stills, with zooming and camera drift effects is in itself worthwhile).
As Carol and Jon created their video, I filmed their behaviour. I then interviewed them about the process to create the Making of Unpinning Desdemona video (included below). Watch the movie and you will find a Professor and an actor using iMovie to “build to think, build to learn”. It’s not just the ease of reviewing footage and building movie sequences that makes this such a great tool for thinking. iMovie 09 also includes the ability to add many types of text title. They can stand alone (for example to demarcate a point in the structure of the narrative), or they can overlay the footage (to point out a detail or add information). There are animated titles to add interest, scrolling subtitles to extend the information given. All added by simple drag-and-drop, but looking like the work of a professional. Adding audio is just as simple (copyright permitting). Nice or novelty transitions are available to smooth the gaps between clips. As all of these get added to the movie timeline, the movie can be reviewed instantly – building to think.
There are three further features that Carol and Jon found to be especially vital for creating this kind of movie. We can drag and drop any image or clip over another in the timeline. Several options appear on a menu (you need to active the advanced editing tools in iMovie preferences to get this). Two that are particular useful are cutaways and picture-in-picture. Cutaways allow us to show a short clip as the main clip carries on playing – don’t forget to mute the audio on the cutaway. Picture-in-picture inserts the second clip as a small frame in the corner of the first (it can be repositioned). Carol and Jon used cutaways to show action on stage from several angles.
Finally, the perfect build to think feature: voiceovers. The iMac has a quite good quality mic (as well as an excellent video camera). Voiceovers can be recorded into iMovie and layered over the movie, repositioned and edited. The background audio can be muted, or “ducked” (with its volume automatically dropped in sync with the voiceover). In the Making Of video, you can see Carol and Jon doing just such a voiceover. If necessary, you can also record video straight into iMovie using the built in camera (for example to record an introduction).
Many of these features are available in different systems, but my experience has taught me that when working with novices to create movies that deal with difficult academic topics, the software and hardware needs to be as slick, simple and integrated as possible. iMovie 09 offers that. It’s an ideal addition to your instruments of experience, supporting a creative and wide ranging reflectivity – 10/10.
Unpinning Desdemona the Movie by Carol Rutter and Jon Trenchard
A short introduction to the movie and its aims by Carol Rutter
Book the IATL Media Suite cameras and iMacs (available to staff and students)
1 In Experience and Education, Dewey writes of "a potent instrumentality for dealing effectively with the future" (Dewey, 1997: 23)
Robert O'Toole
19 Jan 2011 10:02
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In September of 2010 Apple released a much-improved version of its iPod Touch device (known as 4th Generation or 4G). Not just another MP3 player - although it is a great device for playing audio. The Touch is just about as multi-functional as possible. In essence, it is an iPhone without the phone (and hence without the £35+ monthly contract). Or perhaps, a small and more portable iPad. It costs from £180, and fits easily into a shirt pocket. It gives us a cheap and effective means for digitising and enhancing the student experience.
I've been using one pretty much constantly since its release. I've got 4 more that I use in teaching and in Open-space Learning projects at IATL.
Here's a list of just some of the reasons why the iPod Touch 4G is a great teaching and learning tool. The Touch has many other features and uses.
Watching video: either downloaded via iTunes, on the web via wifi or using the YouTube application.
Recording video and audio: it has acceptable quality video cameras on the front and the back, and a surprisingly good microphone, coping well with recording in a noisy classroom. Most importantly, shooting video is really simple and intuitive. I've recorded presentations, student activities and reflective pieces (with someone talking into the camera). The IATL iPods have been handed out to participants in workshops, who were then able to record events from their own perspectives. The video can be uploaded to YouTube, or onto a computer for further editing.
Here is an example of a video created from footage shot using iPods by students on the International Design and Communications Management MA:
Taking snapshots: the cameras can be used for taking still images, not of high quality, but good enough for recording an event or the notes on a whiteboard.
Email, videoconferencing, web browsing, Twitter: the wifi access (which is almost totally reliable in wifi equipped spaces at Warwick) gives me access to all of the usual communications and web tools. The four IATL iPods have the TweetDeck Twitter app. I've used them as a means for students to record and share observations during a workshop.
Notetaking: Evernote's free app (and accompanying web site and desktop software) is, for me, the perfect research tool. I can use the iPhone/iPod app (see image below) to record text notes, snapshots, and audio notes. When within wifi range, they are synchronised with my online Evernote notebooks. I then have access to them from anywhere on the web (see image).
Evernote on an iPod Touch:
Adding a note:
Browsing notes:
And this is what the notes look like on the Evernote web site once they have been uploaded:
Robert O'Toole
18 Jan 2011 14:17
| Tags: 3-Minutes
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Chris Coe, e-learning advisor with IT Services, has been investigating the possibility of creating a system that will help administrators, teachers and students with managing assignments. We've found that this is very important, both to students and to staff. Improving efficiency and eliminating confusion has obvious benefits. Chris has talked to many people around the University, including academics and administrators. She has gathered together her findings to give an interim report on what she has found.
An electronic, online approach to managing the student assignment process. Not just assignment submission, not just feedback, not just plagiarism detection, but a joined-up and comprehensive process. A dislocated and confusing system has been shown to have a negative impact upon the student learning experience. For example, by returning qualitative feedback (comments and advice) later than quantitative feedback (marks), students may feel a demoralising sense of injustice. A good, clear, timely and consistent system will enhance student learning. For example, in most cases, if we can get feedback returned to the student quickly, it gives them more of a chance to review their own work while it is still fresh in their minds. We might also wish to add further options: we could get each student to review their essay and its feedback at a later date.
No, we haven’t got a single consistent system that is used across the university. We have some parts of it, for example, Chris Coe has helped many departments to set up basic online assignment submission using Formsbuilder (part of the Sitebuilder web publishing tool). As the vast majority of teachers and students now use web based systems every day, an online assignment management system has become widely acceptable and desirable.
The initial aim of the project is to get a comprehensive understanding of what would be required to create a system that meets the needs of students, teachers and administrators, both now and in the future (considering new technologies including smart phones and tablet devices like the iPad). There has been much to learn about how departments already successfully manage what is a large-scale and sometimes complicated process.
The project has uncovered a range of desirable features. From the student’s perspective, they need to:
Teachers (when assessing an essay) need to be able to:
In addition, there may be "workflow" requirements that should be automated, passing essays on to second markers, or allowing marks to be compiled and checked before they are released. Finally, other specified members of staff might also need to be able to access a student's assignments and marks, for administrative or support purposes (e.g. personal tutor).
We very much welcome feedback on these findings, and suggestions for things to consider and investigate.
Robert O'Toole
10 Jan 2011 15:44
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