Tag: flip

Flippin' Nora!

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We have been using the Flip mino cameras in our school for just over a week. Yesterday I quickly gathered some ideas together about how teachers were using them. This is what I got back from our staff.

Nursery and Foundation
Used in the role play area in classroom and for speaking and listening activities
Useful for assessment and collecting evidence for Foundation Stage Profiling
Will be taken on trips to the farm and then review the footage to support with some writing back in the class.

Year 1
Recorded Victorian Day in school and used for recount writing.
Created a set of instructions for using the Flip cameras – instructional writing in literacy.
Staff / TAs have created talking stories.

Year 2
Filmed the children making salads (DT) which was linked to literacy and science – using the films to write instructions.
Used to film animals (pets) for use in describing animals in poetry.
Further filming of children in dance/drama lessons will support the animal poetry.

Year 3
Children filmed making 3D structures from Nets – watched back to support instruction writing.
Documented trip to Perlethorpe outdoor activity centre and Viking drama workshop in school.

Year 4
Used for drama roleplay and reviewing their performances.
Used as a recording method for a science experiment on the best insulating material – “How to keep snow cold” (!!!)

Year 5
Learning interviews during maths, by children and teacher/TA asking for children to explain their methods or strategies in their work.
To support DT instructions and sequencing of skills.
Documented trip to Perlethorpe outdoor activity centre, children given cameras to interview their peers during the day – footage used in Moviemaker back in school to make recount films of the day.
Recording and review of storytelling work in class – refining the process. Children record each other and then watch back, repeat and refine.

Year 6
Shape TV children interview each other in the role of a quadrilateral.
Filmed science experiements and the childrens predictions of the results.
Timed talks in literacy on a specific subject – practice interviewing each other.

And that is just 7 days.

Along with handing out the cameras in the last staff meeting I pointed them towards the growing Pocket Video Tips presentation that is currently up to 35 ideas. I hope you have found something there to make a start yourself, I know we have. 

One last idea I have had is to arrange a Film Festival type staff meeting, perhaps on a theme such as “Learning” (I know not particularly original!) – I will be inviting staff to choose one piece of footage to show the rest of the staff and to explain about their decision to share it. I might even get some red carpet and a tux. Beyond ideas for using video, it will just be a great way to share what is going on in different classrooms.

Solving the Flip Video Codec Problem

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Curiously I suffered the same problem today as a fellow Twitter user was having yesterday. I retweeted his request for help and was pleased to be able to forward some advice from my network to help him. Today I was able to put some of that collective wisdom to good use, when I had the very same problem of not being able to play an avi file created by our Flip Cameras.

It is a long standing problem and I have seen it mentioned many times previously – basically Windows Media Player lacks the video codec to unscramble the coded Flip films, all we got when we played them was the audio.

I knew that the actual camera bundles with software (which I generally bypass) and so must also include said codec. I found the file I needed in the System, Install folder on the camera named: “Windows 3ivx Installer” (there is a Mac version and a Leopard compatibility file too) After running this installer, which takes literally 10 seconds to complete (with no restart required), the files were viewable and Movie Maker could also import them correctly.

codec

I solved this with about 5 minutes to spare before the children were to come in and make some recount films of our trip to an outdoor centre yesterday. I copied the file to a network folder and then accessed it on each of our class laptops – I roped in a few boys, who with an enthusiastic “We love doing installs!” helped to update the machines before the afternoon began. With the codecs back in balance the children got busy creating their films.

If you run into the same problem with your own Flip Camera I hope this helps you out – if not you could always tweet about it and I am sure people will be able to offer some advice.

100 Interesting Ways

Interesting WaysPublished onUpdated on29 Comments on 100 Interesting Ways

In November 2007 I began the first of a series of Google presentations gathering together some ideas about the uses of different tools for the classroom. I thought that the easy manner of sharing Google Docs was ideal to collate thoughts, tips and suggestions from teachers and educators all over the world.

I began with interesting ways to use the interactive whiteboard and the family has since grown to include, tips for Google Earth, Google Docs and the most recent Pocket Video Cameras. It has been great to watch them evolve as people get in touch and I add them to the document and they make their own edits.

Here is the family photo 🙂

My intention from the beginning was that there should be many authors of the presentations and that teachers and school staff could happily take the resource and share it with their colleagues. As it is in a simple presentation format it seems to have been successful in doing that.

In total we have collated 100 101 suggestions, tips and ideas for the classroom! (I can’t type quick enough and people keep adding more ideas!) It is fantastic to be part of that collaborative effort to share what we do.

The most recent on pocket video cameras seems to have really hit a rich vein of classroom ideas – so far 29 ideas have been shared by people all over the world and I only started it 3 days ago. I haven’t had chance to add an idea myself yet! Perhaps this wealth of ideas illustrates the power and potential of video in the classroom – which isn’t particularly new but pocket video cameras give us, and the children we work with, much easier access.

Who knows what the next 100 ideas will be about but I hope that you can be part of it – please take some time to take a look through some of them above, let me know if you have used the presentations with your staff. If you want to add an idea to any of the above presentations just let me know your email address and I will add you as an editor.