At the School of Education, Amsterdam, students use a digital portfolio to present their evidence of competencies. This year they started with video reflection. Video helps them to reflect on their behaviour and attitude towards the pupils in the classroom. Using video in combination with a digital portfolio supports students in their competency based learning. The added value makes the portfolio a powerful tool for the students, who are on their way to becoming competent teachers.
In this paper we will explain the workflow of video reflection by our students and show you the instruments used: a user friendly mini-camcorder, The Flip, in combination with a secure streaming video platform, SURFmedia. This platform offers every Dutch student 1Gb of streaming video space with the opportunity to give access only to peers, teachers or assessors. After embedding their videos into their digital portfolio they are reviewed and they receive positive feedback.
During this session we will focus on how this process effects learning.
Welcome, in this presentation Jeroen en I will focus on the way we’ll use streaming video in education at INHolland University. My name is Tom Visscher, I’m an advisor in using technology in teaching and learning. I’m working at the department of OKR & D ‘Education, Quality, Research and Development. I met Jeroen about 15 years ago when he was a student geography at INHolland University. Jeroen please can you please introduce yourself… My name is Jeroen Bottema. I’m a teacher trainer in geography and e-learning at the School of Education Amsterdam. It’s a new School, 3 years young. This year we started working with a digital portfolio, in which students show evidence of their competencies as a teacher.
In this casestudy we’ll tell you something about how we use video reflection in digital portfolio’s at the School of Education Amsterdam. Jeroen will show how students show their competencies in authentic situations in the classroom. After this educational setting I will focus on the tools we use, then Jeroen will show you an example of a student peer review and self-reflection. Finally there is some Q&A time.
Thank you Tom. In our projectm this year, every first year full-time student must present a digital video in his or her portfolio, showing the student in action in the classroom. This video is used as part of their first year assessment. There are a couple of challenges in this project, implementing a digital portfolio in the curriculum of our School. Our portfolio is not only a showportfolio , where the student uploads evidence proving he has attained a certain level as a pre-service teacher. It’s also a developmentportfolio , where the student shows his development, his learning process, over a certain amount of time. The student needs knowledge of competency based learning , has to gain critical thinking skills regarding his own learning process. Those are very abstract concepts, especially for first year students. The other challenge is ownership of the portfolio. The digital portfolio is the responsibility of the student, it’s his portfolio. The digital portfolio we use is a very formal learning environment, not a very inviting environment compared to the personal web students have. So that’s why we started working with streaming video. The assignment we give to students helps in attaining a deeper understanding of their development of competencies and insights in their learning process. And using digital video is sommething students are used of doing, with their mobile phones and YouTube. It’s their tool. So about that assignment. This slide shows you the workflow students follow. It starts at the top. The student prepares an authentic practice of a teacher. This can be anything: classroom management, giving effective instructions, ginving positive feedback, using ICT in the classroom, and so on. The student trains this practice in the classroom which is recorded with the Flip camera, edited in MovieMaker, then uploaded in SURFMedia and finally embedded in his digital portfolio, where the students asks for peerfeedback and completes his learning cycle.
The student prepares a authentic practice of a teacher (standard ap’s) It’s a practice in which the student wants to learn, develop. The student is motivated! Then it’s time to train this practice in reality, in the classroom. The student borrows a Flip camera from our service desk and asks his in-service coach to record the student in action. Immediately after the lesson, we ask of the student and the in-service coach to watch the video, using a video analysis checklist. This is very important for the student, who needs to look objectively at himself in action. The in-service coach is there to provide coaching, help the student look objectively and provide the necessary ‘ pat on the back’. The student imports the raw video in Movie Maker, where he or she edits the movie, selecting those clips that show points of strenght or learningpoints. This movie is then converted to streaming video format and uploaded to SURFmedia, which Tom will tell you all about later on.
This is a screendump of the video-analysis checklist. It helps the student to look objectively to himself in action. Using the checklist helps the student to see and discover certain elements about his way of teaching, the student may not have realized or seen before. It helps looking at the strenghts and weaknesses of the student with an objective perspective. A positive attitude. We’ve learned that the in-service teacher finds this checklist just as helpful. Let’s talk some more about the tools the student’s use to present his authentic practice in his portfolio. Tom?
Tools make the bird! Tools should be easy and easily accessible to each and every student. That’s why we use the Flip pocketcamera, Windows Movie Maker (which is a standard within our campus) SURFmedia, which is a secure video platform, and the digital portfolio custom made in SharePoint. Let’s take a quick look at the different tools!
The Flip is a very easy to use camera. No lneed of cables, no need to digitize. Just push the red button and Flip is recording. At INHolland we use the Flip Ultra because it produces AVI files. If you run a Apple environment, its better to use the Flip Mino or HD which produces MP4 files.
MovieMaker is installed on every INHolland PC.The AVI codec is present. MovieMaker is a very important step in the workflow. While editing the movie, the student is constantly thinking about what he sees himself doing? The student is constantly making choices about what he wants (others) to see. This is an exercise in critical thinking skills, it gives the student a deeper insight in his own learning process.
Tools are easily accessed through our portal
SURFmedia is connected by SURFnet federation, which means that your INHolland logon is automatically connected through our Active Directory with SURFmedia! This is also the place the student controls who gets to watch the video.
So back to the workflow the student follows. The digital video in SURMedia must now be embedded in the digital portfolio, where the student can finish his learning process.
The student can reach his porfolio easily via our intranet portal, the INsite.
This is a screendump of our digital portfolio. It’s a SharePoint portfolio. We are viewing Jennifer’s portfolio here. The student inserts a PageViewer webpart, where the SURFmedia ‘embedded video’ link is copied into. The students adds documents, like the video analysis checklist, a description of the authentic practice and learning goals, etc. A complete overview of the authentic practice. Maybe we can watch a few second of Jenninfer’s clip here?
The student invites another student to his portfolio, for peerfeedback. The other student uses the same video analysis checklist when watching the video of the student. The peer provides the feedback which the student uses in his own self reflection.
The student writes a paper, reflecting on the authentic practice, the learning curve and setting new goals for development. The student coach and, in the end, the assessor of the student are invited by the student to have a look in his portfolio. This is going on right now, as we speak!