Effective use of digital images to enhance classroom learning.

1. Our Journey Through the ICT contract - from digital camera to movie making to blogging. Strategies for using still and moving images in the classroom to bring learning to life.

2. Project One -Ibook Motivation consisted of modeling how to play this game from the ARC after which the students had a pretty clear idea of how badly polluted Auckland is and how much waste is produced each year.

3. It was simple in the beginning. Research>notes>talk - using saved pdf pages of relevant internet sites. The school server means students can save their work and work from any available computer in the class.

4. Using bookmarked internet sites students were asked to explore what steps people of NZ were taking to look after the environment.

5. Next step After their presentations the group were asked to explore the question - ‘ what are we doing at Sunnybrae to look after the environment?’ Students were given a digital camera and went exploring with a teacher aide during a couple of reading blocks.

6. Final step After showing a couple of the students how Ibook worked they collaborated to create an Ibook to present their findings. They shared their book with others in the syndicate and it now lives in the school library. The students discovered that Sunnybrae was already doing a lot and that learning this way could be a lot of fun.

7. WHAT ? Use still images to motivate students’ understanding of visually descriptive or figurative language and the impact this can have on their writing. HOW? Focus on similes. Work with one reading group. Explore, analyse and discuss a wide variety of imagery used by different authors. Complete a wide range of tasks in order to gain a sound understanding of similes. Use still images to motivate students to write their own similes.

8. This particular group, created a keynote presentation to share with the rest of the class.

9. This group shared their presentation with the rest of class which provided motivation and an interest to learn more about similes. The outcome was student led teaching of small groups and a whole class understanding of visually descriptive language. The outcome was student led teaching of small groups and a whole class understanding of visually descriptive language.

10. Project Two - Imovie (teacher) The contract UNI paper meant exploring some aspect of ICT. Finding out how to us video footage with Imovie was of interest so I started small, capturing the children making masks. It was fun for me using this software to maximise the impact of using live footage in a creative way. Uses: transactional writing record of events showing others how something is done

11. WHAT? Use a variety of still images in imovie to strengthen our sequencing and understanding of the narrative genre. HOW? Focus on a well known narrative and explore, analyse and discuss it’s features. Split the class into two groups, each to work towards making a movie based on own versions of the narrative. Students choose roles for movie making i.e. narrator, photographer, kidpix designer, title page artist, actor etc.

13. MANAGEMENT? Integrate as much as possible i.e. art, drama, reading, writing. Use templates for planning to save time. Regular conferences to keep on track. Use a visual of all learning intentions to keep others informed. Take extra photos behind the photographer to use for back up shots.

14. Use of video for student evaluations -

15. The outcome was DVDs sent home with each student of their group’s movie along with another project we had worked on. We also shared our movies with the rest of the syndicate. We also discovered that our weakness with narrative lay in writing endings for our stories and resolving the story’s problem. This set us up for our next project! Our property manager was turned into a superhero. Groups of students were given a story which introduced a problem. They then had to work together to write a conclusion resolving the problem in creative and exciting ways. We invited Mr Barnes into Room 16 to hear these. We also circulated the book through the rest of the syndicate for reading. We also circulated the book through the rest of the syndicate for reading. We also circulated the book through the rest of the syndicate for reading. We also circulated the book through the rest of the syndicate for reading. We also circulated the book through the rest of the syndicate for reading. We also circulated the book through the rest of the syndicate for reading. We also circulated the book through the rest of the syndicate for reading. We also circulated the book through the rest of the syndicate for reading. We also circulated the book through the rest of the syndicate for reading. We also circulated the book through the rest of the syndicate for reading.

16. He has made a laser colour copy of the book to share with his grandkids.

17. Project Three - Imovie (teacher led - student actioned) Went on syndicate trip to Tuff Crater at 6.30am one morning to watch native birds when most active. Used digital video camera to shoot footage. Teacher shot as terrain tricky and only one camera available.

18. Some students took notes of the trip to Tuff Crater. They were used to remind students about what they had seen and what they wanted to include in a documentary about the trip.

19. Students decided what they wanted as a narrative. They had to figure out how it would fit in with the footage they had watched.

20. There was so much footage students had to decide what to keep and what to lose. I worked with them to complete the basic editing but next time (after saving basic footage onto server) would let them do it after modeling the process.

21. Storyboard Using a storyboard printed off from the net meant they could put pictures in the order they wanted and add words.

22. The students had already been looking at aspects of the bush in an inquiry learning study so they were able to incorporate this information into their narrative.

23. Extras Abby and Callum were keen to take on the recording role and once they had mastered the basics of garage band I left them to it. We were lucky to have an empty classroom next door so they just went in there when they needed a quiet space to record sound. They were then able to drag and drop the sound bites into the timeline of the movie project.

24. Music was composed in our music time. We had been looking at sound pictures and students created some pieces that were inspired by their study of the NZ bush. Here are some students playing a piece they created for this theme topic. Can be used for: self-evaluation/sharing eg movie teacher assessment planning - sharing with other teachers

25. Artwork was created by Annie for the opening sequence on Kidpix.

26. Fourth project - Integration Started blog last year. Was able to share footage from teacher tube and students enjoyed this. For some reason I couldn’t upload my own footage onto teacher tube so it started as just a fun novelty. http://room18-sunnybrae.blogspot.com/search/label/Drumming%20fun

27. Then at about this time last year a new symbol appeared on the blog editing page next to images. This was what I had been waiting for...a chance to upload video footage direct from the computer to the blog. The great thing about this is you can use a regular digital camera and the footage comes through with sound. Keep them shortish to keep uploading/buffering time short. http://room18-sunnybrae.blogspot.com/search/label/Assembly http://wwwroom16sns.blogspot.com/

28. Now anyone can publish their work to the rest of the school community. It’s so simple If you have a blog and a digital camera you can do this to. Benefits Working parents - can join in too - ecommunity -extended family o/seas can feel involved Record of school events Memorabilia for students in future years Student teachers/visitors get a good idea of what school programme is about Creativity - IMovie is "open-ended active software gives children freedom to explore, reflect, problem solve, to be creative and direct their own learning. It provides tools children can use to construct with." (Talking about IT p27 - Patterson)