As I expected many of the students did not have a webcam in their computers at home, however, they took time from their recess to develop their task. I ask them if they were not happy about being recording this in recess, but they responded that they did not feel like it was homework, and for them they were just playing. The following checklist helped them develop their task and give feedback to their classmates:
Mashface Checklist
Aspect
Check
The video addresses what you wanted to know about your interest.
The picture you used is logical with your topic.
The voice recorded is understandable. (For this you need to check pronunciation and grammar)
The mouth recorded does not move too much.
The video uses different tools given by Mashface.
I sent the video to my teacher and to my peer corrector on time.
The following video is a sample of their work with Mashface
The work of the students with Xtranormal was great! They did not need extra-tools to create it, all they needed was their computers with Internet connection and their prewritten scripts. Even though there are still some punctuation mistakes they seem to know that they have them, but I must remind myself that this project is not for improving language skills, but for motivating an autonomous learning behavior. However, this does not mean that I am to forget my role as a language teacher. The following is an example of the students' work:
After talking with the students about their experiences developing task two, I gave them task 3, the last task of this project. This project was carried out using Mashface, for this task they'll need a webcam and a microfone, depending on the students availability to this I will lend them my computer ONLY during recess. I'll do this in order to test their autonomy and responsibility.
The following video is an example of what they are required to do.
For this task they are required to answer the question that they propose for their last task. What would they like to know about their interest? Then, they are to look for a representative character of their interest, E.g. if they chose music, they choose an important singer, or band. Then they will have to find a picture of this representative person of their interest, and add their voice answering the question they had.
For this tasks the students, trusted much more the guidance of their classmates, they looked for my help only when they could not find the solution to their problem. They demonstrated organization of their work by assigning a time to develop their videos. The following is the checklist they used to self correct and peer correct their task:
Xtranormal Checklist
Aspect
Check
The video addresses the four questions given for the task.
The video uses more than 4 cameras shots.
The video has logical pauses.
The video is understandable. (For this you need to check punctuation, spelling, and grammar)
The video uses different tools given by Xtranormal.
I sent the video to my teacher and to my peer corrector on time.
The following is an example of the first task, Where the students used Animoto. The example shown demonstrates that the students are able to work independently in order to achieve their tasks.
The students were very motivated to create this task, they showed a great ability using the tools provided by Animoto. After doing this I presented the next task. We worked creating a script for Xtranormal. The script contained 4 questions: What is your number one interest? Why is this interest important to you? What would you like to learn/find out about your interest? and Invite your classmates to get involve with your interest. The task is explained in the following Xtranormal video I created:
Today I gave my students their checklist for analyzing their Animoto videos. The learners understood the intention of self assessing their tasks, and giving feedback to a classmates. In order to do this, I asked them to review the video of a classmate based on the check list, and then answer the following questions: What did you like about the video? How can the video be improved? According to the checklist what aspects are missing?
The following is the checklist I gave to the students for checking their Animoto videos.
Aspect
Check
I used original pictures for my Animoto presentation.
My video is organized in a way that is easy to understand.
I have no grammar, spelling, or punctuation mistakes.
I sent the video to my teacher and to my peer corrector on time.
The feedback the students gave demonstrated help for their classmates, they commented that the feedback helped them improve their work. They are demonstrating motivation for Cooperation, an autonomous learning behavior basis of this project. They were motivated because they wanted to see the video of their classmate.
Today I taught my students how to use Animoto. First, I showed them a video I created and they were very motivated into doing their own videos. Here is the video I showed them:
Then I gave them each an access login and password, this is because animoto does not allow underage users, so I am like a supervisor. They were very motivated to create their video but there were some problems that I did not take into account.
The biggest problem is that they cannot create different videos at the same time with the same login. In this case there are two solutions that I thought of, the first one which is a bit difficult is to direct them to create their own Animoto account. And the second one is to precreate 5 videos for each account which might allow them to manipulate the videos without interferring with the others.
Tomorrow I am starting to apply my data collection instruments with my students. I decided to use the Computers class I teach to my fourth graders to show them how the first online video-making tool works: ANIMOTO. We will use Animoto as an introduction to the topic that I want them to be encourage with, their Interests. After the computer class of tomorrow I will apply the survey that was planned for the previous week but it was not possible to do because of extracurricular activities. On Wednesday we will start talking about the video they have to bring for Friday and discuss with a partner.
