The idea was alright - looking at producing some episodic TV series that we could publish online to establish a following for. It seemed straight forward at the time. Actually I have to admit this was first attempted by myself in the form of a TV studio program back in 2007. It failed miserably because I completed the first episode which was showed to great enjoyment by the students at the time, and then had all the release time that I was using to film the episode cut, rendering it impossible to complete. I kept the music file which I downloaded on a memory stick for years always thinking at some point I'd run with it. With a dual AP/DP role at school this year I did find myself with time on my hands. The time frame that I came up with to complete it was complete rubbish. I decided that if I did it for ten weeks then it would be realistic. Realistic my arse. I struggled hugely in building up an audience for a number of reasons - I was loosely calling it a homage but in fact there was a direct rip, the atmospheric music at the start was the biggest. I felt that I couldn't necessarily promote something that was in essence a steal, and I tried it without the music and it completly lost the impact - of course if I had wanted to involve more students then I could have had music created, but then it would still have lacked something.
Anyway the idea was for the first episode, we had four cameras rolling during that episode (to put it in perspective we had the entire video camera collection of school operating at that time, that was one video camera that we use to record everything, one with a broken view finder, one digital camera set to movie mode and then my personal i-pod touch. And it stank. It was terrible when I viewed it all back - I'd tried to get too ambitious, it was me driving it, rather than the kids... four cameras made a mess, cutting out the other camera people, it was rather ordinary. So following that we started scaling things back and that worked better. It still wasn't great, I think we were hitting our stride in the episodes in the middle. Then I ended up otherwise engaged when we should have been drawing it to a conclusion - we filmed five episodes back to back over five days, and then proceeded to eek them out over five weeks. Only problem was the weather went South and we had to cancel the last two planned activities, bring them inside and then have them really a shadow of what they had been. If you have ever bothered to watch the series, you'll see the presenter dissappears for the final two episodes and has to be replaced by the stand in. I would like to same one thing, the production crew was nothing if extremely resilient. The main presenter did the whole script from start to finish ad lib in every episode in one take (I abhor those sanctioned programs that are re-shot to take the energy out of them) and we effectivley after episode one ran off one camera).
The idea was to run it on the school network with the class emphasis building up a regular audience - well that never happened. The school network, and this is a very contentious personal viewpoint, isn't suitable for showing material in a reliable way, we put it online of course, and the response was okay, it wasn't great the kids themselves who were involved while they liked the concept, didn't even watch it all themselves and it just kind of dropped out... so it was a good idea, one that I think with refining could work well - I haven't seen it elsewhere, but the music would be a huge, huge part of any attempt to mass promote it. The music would have to be created elsewhere and then become part of the signature of it. And I'd work with a much more realistic time frame, so I'm not saying we'd never do something like that again... but it would be unlikely...
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Monday, December 19, 2011
Rehash of the Blogger Sites
I've decided to re-hash a number of the blogs that I run. Firstly the collaborative MIS School team blog that I tried to start in 2010 fell apart completely when it end up being solely my responsibility. I've been meaning for a while to create some sort of collaborative blog that concentrates on the cultural work my students have done, and looking at doing more collaboration for that. That's my thought at the moment - either redesigning that page completely or simply deleting the existing one. Furthermore the Literacy work with Skype that I've been planning or designing for nearly a year I have to run with this year. The logical home for it is this page - but I need to re haul this site completely. The reason being if its an official site to show work and demonstrate something worthwhile the 'fun' side of things needs to be toned down.
Its not something I take lightly. This site was intended just as somewhere that I could chart my personal work that didn't have a logical home elsewhere, I haven't really considered the implications of opening this site up is a logical consequence of it. Hopefully if it takes off, which I believe it will it will mean that there's a lot more
traffic through here. I've always had two sides to my work and I've always felt comfortable skipping between the two 'persona'. As an example when I set up my Twitter account I didn't really grasp the positive educational nature of it as much as I do know, so there was some irrelevant stuff that went through there. I think that tainted me a bit, I certainly think that some people read some of the Tweets and switched off about them, so that's limited my opportunities from time to time. I've always felt quite comfortable with that as I say, other people not so much. If it means that I need to delete a lot of work here then so be it, which is what Im about to do now. I don't want it judged in the context of what I want to do with the literacy project, so it has to go, which I've just spent about five minutes doing, effectively deleting nearly a years work.
Which brings me to the issue of awards and what not. I've never been someone to endlessly self promote (I can think of some shocking examples that I've seen since I've been online) and up until this year I've only nominated myself twice for two separate things. This year I nominated myself for a competition being run by Interface Magazine. They held two separate competitions best class blog/page and best use of a free ICT tool. Knowing someone who'd been overlooked for the Class Page competition and given that it was based on personal votes, something that I wouldn't be 'hawking' for, I through in my lot for free ICT tool. This year I've managed to get a couple of awards for the Maori Language work that's been done. The first one, to the left came completely out of the blue, it came as a result of the google search results for our class page, which have run consistently within the top ten for the past two years. We had a random email from the Race Relations Commissioner, who found us on Google. The other award which is one we've been nominated before in the past was an Edublog Award for best use of Video (although they've changed the criteria slightly over the past two years. We've been nominated the last two years and also my previous site was nominated in 2008 for the same thing. There's no secret to why we use video, its a matter of trying to get a lot of work up that's relevant to the students that engages them as well.
I've written on this site before about the technology and the reasons with it, so won't go into that again. Given the number of nominations and the wide range of nominated finalists, getting nominated has been significant in itself. We would defiantly do better if I was prepared to 'hawk' the site more, I've seen people using Twitter for instance to ask for votes for the categories or their sites, and its very common to see posts asking for votes. The concept of digital integrity comes into play here, and I don't think its worth degrading the work that the students have done in the classroom. There was one final thing that came up, but details of that are due in another post. Stay tuned.
Its not something I take lightly. This site was intended just as somewhere that I could chart my personal work that didn't have a logical home elsewhere, I haven't really considered the implications of opening this site up is a logical consequence of it. Hopefully if it takes off, which I believe it will it will mean that there's a lot more
traffic through here. I've always had two sides to my work and I've always felt comfortable skipping between the two 'persona'. As an example when I set up my Twitter account I didn't really grasp the positive educational nature of it as much as I do know, so there was some irrelevant stuff that went through there. I think that tainted me a bit, I certainly think that some people read some of the Tweets and switched off about them, so that's limited my opportunities from time to time. I've always felt quite comfortable with that as I say, other people not so much. If it means that I need to delete a lot of work here then so be it, which is what Im about to do now. I don't want it judged in the context of what I want to do with the literacy project, so it has to go, which I've just spent about five minutes doing, effectively deleting nearly a years work.
Saturday, April 23, 2011
ERO Visit to MIS 2011 - Term One.
The Education Review Office visited Melville Intermediate during Term One. The past visit had been a difficult one, it had been re-written, the final report that is, I believe five times. I can't comment on that because it was prior to my arrival at the school. With this years visit one of the advantages of working online for the past three years was that we had footage of every event, every major happening and proof of it. We were able to give a presentation to the ERO officers about what we'd done and link it to a post online. I don't know how effective it was, I think it went well, but in retrospect there was a lot to take it. I certainly thought that it was a useful tool to illustrate some of the work we've done, I stand by most of the material that's been produced, I've never claimed that it was particularly clever or earth shattering (in essences its the same thing for the last four years now so there's a significant amount of treading water, I think there has to be, otherwise I'd have burnt out). So its nice to be able to present it every now and then.
The Hands.
Students at Melville Intermediate have considerable opportunity in a number of areas including digital e-learning. Classrooms have a minimum of 10 computers at Melville Intermediate School although most have 14, in addition to this we also have a fully operational computer suit available with 30 computers and secondary rooms with a further dozen computers. In total we have 220 computers available for the use of students and 304 students at present - at any one time we have potentially computers for 70% of the students of Melville Intermediate School. We make computers available to students to increase engagement and motivation. This year is the first year that new students in the classroom of Melville Intermediate School have been born in the 21st century.
During the past three years Melville Intermediate School students have begun to become increasingly active as digital citizens with their work being published online for a national and international audience. Our work has been viewed in 113 countries or over half the world. In 2011 our aim is to have half of the classrooms at Melville Intermediate School regularly online in some formal capacity. Our class page from Room Eight has had over 30,000 visitors since it was created in 2009 and we're in the top ten in the world for google searches involving the keyword/phrase 'Mihi' and 'How to Make Poi'.
We've had some exciting events since 2009 which can be higlighted through our online work. Our CPA, Cultural Performing Arts Groups have put on a huge number of shows, one of the highlights was the Wintec Graduation performance last year. Our students performed at this event in front of hundreds of graduating students. We also performed at the Founders Theatre and various local schools and events such as our end of year Hamilton rest home shows.
Our students compete at sports to a high level. Last year students from Melville Intermediate School competed in 17 out of 18 Waikato Inter Intermediate Sporting Codes. In addition to competing at the Winter Olympics competition for a week each year, since 2009 we've also entered Swimming, Hip Hop, Football and Basketball at a national level at the annual AIMS tournament in Tauranga. Our school was extremely proud of our Girls Basketball in 2010 who came fourth in New Zealand, and our 2009 team that won the national finals.
One of the opportunities for students at Melville Intermediate school is our Options modules of work on Thursday afternoon. These electives allow students to develop their skills and talents in a range of lessons in extra areas of the curriculum, this Thursday we sent two students from our school around with a camera to film Options so that you could have an insight into whats available for our students.
Each year the two years of a students time at Melville Intermediate School culminates at an extremely important event Y8 School Ball which is the final formal occasion for our departing students. We also have numerous other highlights from the year for our students including Y8 School Camp which is being held shortly at Finlay Park Adventure Camp. Students have a significant opportunity in performing arts in the annual School Talent Quest and in 2010 we staged a School Production.
Recently we have Avis Leeson at our School to promote the use of our school garden. She was extremely impressed by our school and students and Room Eight took the opportunity to interview her which you can watch here.
Melville Intermediate School students have digital opportunities at our school that stand out. We encourage students to see opportunities with computers as a learning tool to engage them and motivate them in school.
We're proud of our success and recognition that E-Learning has brought Melville Intermediate School. We've received recognition from the Ministry of Education through the TKI Middle Schools Website as an example of Pedagogy. We've been featured in publications, nominated for online Educational awards such as and featured on TKI Software Learning Snapshot.
Melville Intermediate School students have using the culture of our students to educate across the world about New Zealand and our culture. We've also found a niche tutoring other classrooms in New Zealand with language, you can see examples of our work on Maori Mihi, Broadlands School or our 2011 work here.
Using Language, relating to others and participating and contributing.
Finally we've also produced numerous tutorials and examples of work for the world to see, this video is a class of students in Califorina, using Maori Rakau sticks to play a game, based on Melville Intermediate School students video work. And finally we'd like to finish with a very special video this video is of a student in Krasnoyarskiy kray, Siberia performing a Maori Mihi based on work of students from Melville Intermediate School. Melville Intermediate School students have a real impact on the world.
The Hands.
Students at Melville Intermediate have considerable opportunity in a number of areas including digital e-learning. Classrooms have a minimum of 10 computers at Melville Intermediate School although most have 14, in addition to this we also have a fully operational computer suit available with 30 computers and secondary rooms with a further dozen computers. In total we have 220 computers available for the use of students and 304 students at present - at any one time we have potentially computers for 70% of the students of Melville Intermediate School. We make computers available to students to increase engagement and motivation. This year is the first year that new students in the classroom of Melville Intermediate School have been born in the 21st century.
During the past three years Melville Intermediate School students have begun to become increasingly active as digital citizens with their work being published online for a national and international audience. Our work has been viewed in 113 countries or over half the world. In 2011 our aim is to have half of the classrooms at Melville Intermediate School regularly online in some formal capacity. Our class page from Room Eight has had over 30,000 visitors since it was created in 2009 and we're in the top ten in the world for google searches involving the keyword/phrase 'Mihi' and 'How to Make Poi'.
We've had some exciting events since 2009 which can be higlighted through our online work. Our CPA, Cultural Performing Arts Groups have put on a huge number of shows, one of the highlights was the Wintec Graduation performance last year. Our students performed at this event in front of hundreds of graduating students. We also performed at the Founders Theatre and various local schools and events such as our end of year Hamilton rest home shows.
Our students compete at sports to a high level. Last year students from Melville Intermediate School competed in 17 out of 18 Waikato Inter Intermediate Sporting Codes. In addition to competing at the Winter Olympics competition for a week each year, since 2009 we've also entered Swimming, Hip Hop, Football and Basketball at a national level at the annual AIMS tournament in Tauranga. Our school was extremely proud of our Girls Basketball in 2010 who came fourth in New Zealand, and our 2009 team that won the national finals.
One of the opportunities for students at Melville Intermediate school is our Options modules of work on Thursday afternoon. These electives allow students to develop their skills and talents in a range of lessons in extra areas of the curriculum, this Thursday we sent two students from our school around with a camera to film Options so that you could have an insight into whats available for our students.
Each year the two years of a students time at Melville Intermediate School culminates at an extremely important event Y8 School Ball which is the final formal occasion for our departing students. We also have numerous other highlights from the year for our students including Y8 School Camp which is being held shortly at Finlay Park Adventure Camp. Students have a significant opportunity in performing arts in the annual School Talent Quest and in 2010 we staged a School Production.
Recently we have Avis Leeson at our School to promote the use of our school garden. She was extremely impressed by our school and students and Room Eight took the opportunity to interview her which you can watch here.
Melville Intermediate School students have digital opportunities at our school that stand out. We encourage students to see opportunities with computers as a learning tool to engage them and motivate them in school.
We're proud of our success and recognition that E-Learning has brought Melville Intermediate School. We've received recognition from the Ministry of Education through the TKI Middle Schools Website as an example of Pedagogy. We've been featured in publications, nominated for online Educational awards such as and featured on TKI Software Learning Snapshot.
Melville Intermediate School students have using the culture of our students to educate across the world about New Zealand and our culture. We've also found a niche tutoring other classrooms in New Zealand with language, you can see examples of our work on Maori Mihi, Broadlands School or our 2011 work here.
Using Language, relating to others and participating and contributing.
Finally we've also produced numerous tutorials and examples of work for the world to see, this video is a class of students in Califorina, using Maori Rakau sticks to play a game, based on Melville Intermediate School students video work. And finally we'd like to finish with a very special video this video is of a student in Krasnoyarskiy kray, Siberia performing a Maori Mihi based on work of students from Melville Intermediate School. Melville Intermediate School students have a real impact on the world.
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