We have recently purchased 6 Flip Ultras for use in the college. The website for finding out more info is here. They are very easy to use simple video cameras that can enhance learning in your classroom in a myriad of ways.

How to use:

Here is a link to the one page user guide that you can download and keep

flipultraquickstartguide

1. Turn the power on by sliding the switch on the side of the camera

2. To Record press the red button once and start filming. To stop filming press the red button once.

To View

The videos on the Flips can be viewed on the Flip itself (although the screen is way to same for showing a whole class) on a television (by using the supplied cables) ans by downloading the videos from the Flip to your computer (this is done through the ‘flip out’ USB connection on the camera)

To view on the computer just insert the USB connection on the camera into a USB port on your computer. The software should load automatically and you should then easily be able to transfer the videos accross. Once they are on your computer you can do all manner of things with them!

Teaching ideas….

So what can you do with one or more of these in your classroom? Here are some ideas

• Film any debates or plays so students can see themselves and give a critique for improvement
• Film students having a conversation to help improve their speaking and listening
• Film any exciting activities in your classroom E.g. Miss Mac filmed her Grade 1’s finding insects they were then able to watch as a class and gain even more insight into the insects in the school grounds other than what they found individually
• Film a science experiment then student can rewatch it to gain further insight into what is happening
• Students can make their own movies, commercials, speeches, presentations
• Interview students (could be good for goal setting?)
• Make a video to send to another school

I have included a link to a great slideshow by Tom Barrett which gives 35 great ideas for using the Flips for students and for staff learning.

Slide Show

If you have any other ideas please leave a comment on my blog so we can all share!

Delicious is a Social Bookmarking website. What does this mean? It allows you to organise all your favourite websites online so they can be accessed from any computer that is connected to the Internet. It also means that others can see your links and you can see theirs which makes it a very powerful tool for finding great resources. You can create a network of people who can all share their links together.

It has plenty of application for education from a new way to research an assignments to sharing resources among staff and with parents.

It all works around a concept called Tags. This is where you add categories to a website not unlike what you would do to a book in a library catalogue. For example if I was going to add The Age website I might tag it newspaper currentaffairs Australian broadsheet

The delicious website is www.delicious.com

Delicious provides two buttons for your browser that make saving a website to delicious easy. At school we have the delicious buttons already installed on the network. At home or on your laptop you will need to download and install them. It is a very easy process!

Activity One

• Go to the delicious website and sign up for a delicious account!

Activity Two

• Find a website that reflects who you are
• Bookmark it in delicious
• Write something about yourself in the notes section that you don’t mind being public
• Tag it with BCCWWW01

We will then be able to see everyone’s websites when we look for that Tag!

Activity Three

• Save away!!

Tip: If you highlight some text on the website you want to bookmark it automatically appears in the notes section. Cool!!