Virtual Learning Network

Flick-It-On! is an annual film event where students collaboratively and creatively produce a digital narrative from across many different schools.

Our Aim is to operate an enriching film school project to:

• grow student learning through the effective use of film
• enable students communicate their ideas through digital literacies
• support collaborative teacher professional learning and sharing

Flick-It-On! How it works:

Different schools are grouped together to collaboratively create a movie in 3 rotations. Each school creates a silent movie based on their interpretations of a theme or concept. This silent film is “flicked on” to the next school in the rotation to add sound effects and voice over, then “flicked on” a third time to add music. In each rotation the students add credits at the end of the movie to say who has worked on that part of the project. 

Find out more at: 

http://kidzcanfilm.wikispaces.com/home

Thanks Fiona great response  

I totally agree with you - and love your class blog.  Thanks for sharing.

My next question is: How do you inspire other teachers to think along the same line!  

My class blog is: http://www.r4umo2012.blogspot.co.nz/

As lead e-learning teacher at my new school with the staff we identified that social media (blogging) was a good way to share our students' learning and to be the 'fifth' wall in our classrooms.  

We are off to a great start...but what makes a great blog?   My class and I have been discussing this and think that visual posts make a great blog - that includes a variety of multi media and frequent use of images and photos (preferably with multimedia/Web 2.0 tools chosed by and created by the students).   We also decided that regular posting and academic commenting (online conversations about our learning) would make our blog a great read and be sustainable.  

We want to spread these ideas across the school!  What are your opinions on what makes a great blog?  What student and class blogs would you recommend following to gain inspiration from?

I would recommend watching for both personal and professional learning:

Benjamin Zander on music and passion

http://www.ted.com/talks/benjamin_zander_on_music_and_passion.html

Amy Purdy: Living beyond limits

http://www.ted.com/talks/amy_purdy_living_beyond_limits.html

Wow Alice - it's great to hear about the fantastic learning your students acheived at the workshops :)  Yes by the end of 3 weeks a silent movie, roughly edited...no voice, music, no fancy transitions! Spot on!  

Workshop leader support – at the end of the day I initially thought it would have been great to have teachers who attended to stay in the workshop and help students as 'guides on the side' (I ran the emotive photography workshop) but after consideration I felt this would stop the teachers from being able to pop in and visit many workshops extending their own e-learning PD which would support them in the ‘Flick-It-On’ Film Project. 

So instead I had the brainwave that workshop leaders could bring ‘techsperts’ (expert students) from their own school to support students taking part – if the workshop leader felt this would be beneficial.  It would be a great way to promote student leadership.  OR students to be the work shop leaders and me the support/guide!  Even better!

I had planned to do so much with the students!  First emotive photography, then types of shot and finally tips on taking good photos / film footage with covered angles, panning and zoom!  I ended up covering emotive photography & whizzing through types of shot.  We had 2 sessions, I could have given students shorter times to experiment and share, perhaps choose only 1 or 2 favourite photos to share or give students a card stating the emotion they should aim to show (quite like that idea!) that would create more time, then could do same with other 2 aspects – might squeeze it all in!  Alternatively break it into to different workshops with another workshop leader.  Another aspect, which would have been good to cover, is the basics of how to hold the devices when taking photos or film footage in order to take quality images.

Evaluative sheet for teachers attending workshops - Identifying which workshops teachers attended, explaining what skills they learnt and what they would take back to the classroom (e.g. their goals).  This could in turn be evaluated at the end of the project to identify goals they have achieved.  Also to include feedback on what went well about the workshop day and feed forward on how we could improve the workshops for next year.  Also debrief at the end of the day after the students have left, so teachers can ask questions and address any concerns.   This would also support teaching as inquiry – the evaluative sheet could be added as evidence to teacher’s portfolios, appraisals, BT folders etc. as well as help support them through the project.

All in all I had a fantastic day teaching students form 7 different schools in our region - the verbal feedback that I gained from teachers throughout the day was fantastic, the enagement and behaviour of the students was stunning.  Thank you!

Add your reflections about the Flick-It-On! Workshop Day

• What did you and the students in your workshop achieve?
• How would you improve future workshops?

Thank you for taking the time to complete this feedback 

The engagement of the students was great!  Superb ideas, willingness to experiment, share and critique their work.  The vocabulary they used to describe their work and other’s work – just amazing!  I wish I had recorded some of their responses – next time!  

Our first task back in the classroom is for the students to share our brainstorm / ideas for our silent movie.  After that the students who attended the workshops will teach the other student (in small groups) what they learnt in iMovie, emotive photography, storyboarding and GarageBand.  This week we will storyboard using Comic Life - I'm going to embed this into reading and writing so it is not extra work!  Then the next 2 weeks will focus on filming again embedding into reading and writing!  My class is very excited about the project.

Add your reflections about the Flick-It-On! Workshop Day

• What did you and your students achieve?
• How and when will you implement it back in your classroom?
• Do you have any questions about the project? 

Thank you for taking the time to complete this feedback 

Blogging - it creates a unique insight into our classroom for families and whanau.  Students love creating posts during school and making comments from home.  They love it when parents and families make comments and the students have started to have 'virtual conversations' with each other!  It is incredibly exciting when someone outside of school makes a comment about our learning! 

Blogging helps to create realistic opportunites for connecting, communication and collaborating.  We have connected with local schools, schools nationally and even made some global connections. It also provides opportunities for discussion around digital citizenship and has been a great way to develop online academic commenting.

We use a wide variety of Web 2.0 tools to share our learning and embed them in our blog.  My students' current favourites are Voicethread, Storybird and Smilebox.  We've also been experimenting with iMovie & greenscreening and Comic Life, which again we embedd into our blog.  My Year 3 students are now beginning to suggest which Web 2.0 tool / e-learning tool to use to share our learning - the other week Ben said 'Let's do our class brainstorm on bubbl.us!'  Our class blog is our virtual classroom! Click here to view our blog! 

P.S. my students would love you to make a comment