Reflective Practice can be defined as the capacity to reflect on actions so as to engage in a process of continuous learning (Schön, 1983).
In 2018 visual communication is a natural and effective form of human social interaction. Photographs and video capture key events in the world much more powerfully than any writing can do. Thing 3 -5 has confirmed this for me.
I found PhotoFunia wonderful and have to admit that I am slightly obsessed by it. I have spent the last several years editing photographs in word removing backgrounds and superimposing objects, props in order to make what I thought were witty posters. It took hours!! and was not the most efficient way of managing my time - in a one person library! Photofunia is great for creating photo collages,
flyers, posters. I really liked that you
didn't have to sign up. It has hundreds
of effects and filters. I liked that you
can add shadows, age your photographs or render them black and white in the
filters category. I also liked that you
can add features such as an astronaut or a witch’s hat which will be handy when making materials to support the many themed weeks and holidays marked and celebrated in the school environment. There are endless options such as writing on sand, putting graffiti text on walls, or creating your own road sign using text effects. The
program is so easy to use pick the effect and upload a photo. I liked that you can save it to your
computer or email it to yourself. I have used postermywall to produce promotional materials however it requires you to register with the website and when it comes to downloading and printing materials there are several steps.
Most of the photo effects appeared appropriate for use in the school environment I had only one concern over a photo effect "the fat maker."
Most of the photo effects appeared appropriate for use in the school environment I had only one concern over a photo effect "the fat maker."
I am not an artistic person but this website appealed to
me I was able to transform photos into amusing images. You can also adjust the image’s colour,
intensity using the filters option. This would
be helpful to edit photographs to fit with a styles of photos for example with a history project or to set a mood.
Photofunia will save me loads of time and my student volunteers will enjoy using it! You can see how much I enjoyed it from my post!!
https://jcspperspective.blogspot.ie/2018/01/thing-4-communicating-visually_1.html
Image Banks
https://jcspperspective.blogspot.ie/2018/01/thing-4-communicating-visually_1.html
Image Banks
Most images used in my school are found through google images with the general attitude among younger students "I found it on the internet, so I can use it!" Teachers I think are under the impression because they are educators the rules are more flexible - "Fair use". Telling Teachers that using copyright materials leaves them open to copyright infringement is usually met with an attitude that I am being a little uptight.
Initially when student arrive in First year I have tended to guide them to Pics4Learning.com and imagebank.ie . They are copyright-friendly image libraries for teachers and students. The Pics4Learning and imagebank collections consists of images that have been donated by students and teachers. Unlike many internet sites, permission has been granted for teachers and students to use all of the images donated to these websites. All images are reviewed to ensure they are student-friendly before they are uploaded to the library. The downside of this Pics4learning is the content is American based and searches need to be broad rather than specific, for example searching for Irish flag yields no results, while searching for Ireland, the flag comes up in the results. Also the images tend to be quiet flat. Imagebank focuses on providing photos of Irish places but other subjects are included. Imagebank is a supportive resource for students and teachers in Irish Education and is a growing resource. Creative commons licensing is used to allow sharing of photos.
I welcomed the opportunity to look into Flickr and Pixaby as a possible solution to google images. Flickr is an excellent source of creative commons images however like google images you have to refine your search to get free copyright images that you can use. My students will not narrow their searches take that extra step!
I couldn't quantify how many images students and teachers download every week. This task has made me reflect on how I provide information on copyright to teachers and students and how regularly I update /remind them. Maybe I need to get the guidelines on usage into the Teacher /Student Diary? On doing a search around the issue I was surprised at how little guidance there was on the PDST websites. There was one support document for primary teachers but I could not find the equivalent for secondary teachers. Maybe the impression is that primary teachers make more resources than secondary school teachers.
http://www.pdst.ie/inspectorate2015 - powerpoint presentation slides 11 - 16
I welcomed the opportunity to look into Flickr and Pixaby as a possible solution to google images. Flickr is an excellent source of creative commons images however like google images you have to refine your search to get free copyright images that you can use. My students will not narrow their searches take that extra step!
I couldn't quantify how many images students and teachers download every week. This task has made me reflect on how I provide information on copyright to teachers and students and how regularly I update /remind them. Maybe I need to get the guidelines on usage into the Teacher /Student Diary? On doing a search around the issue I was surprised at how little guidance there was on the PDST websites. There was one support document for primary teachers but I could not find the equivalent for secondary teachers. Maybe the impression is that primary teachers make more resources than secondary school teachers.
http://www.pdst.ie/inspectorate2015 - powerpoint presentation slides 11 - 16
http://www.pdsttechnologyineducation.ie/en/Training/ICT-in-Classroom-PDFs/ICT-in-the-Classroom-PDFs/Copyright-Primary-13-20.pdf - information sheet from 2013
Quik let me assemble a video and share it
quickly and easily without needing to know the complex process of video
editing. I choose photographs from my
photo library and used one of the many templates on offer. These templates contain particular titles,
effects, transitions and filters. Each
video style also has music from Quik’s own library. I liked that I could just let Quik do its
thing. I like
the fact that you can have some degree of control over the editing process and
add your own music, choose the clip order and select video format (square or
cinema). I am not a natural when it
comes to using apps. I liked the Quik
Help documentation it is clear and talks you through each step required to
select video clips, apply video styles etc.
I think it is great for short videos, memories, and recollections and
digital storytelling. I think Quik would be good for learning situations that
benefit from short creative pieces. For example, Leaving Certificate Geography
students could combine still images and video clips they took on their mobile
devices on a field trip. It would be really useful
when writing up their geographical investigation project for recapping and prompting this process. I used it to make a promotional video for a reading streak. https://quik.gopro.com/v/finn2JWjUt/ As I become more familiar with this app I would like to take more control of the editing process and not be restricted by the templates.
I didn't like Ripil - Social Media for Good. Kindness Tracker, all a little cheesy and disingenuous for me. It had the feel of facebook "See follow and gain followers to increase your GOOD influence." "World deed population meter" etc. However although not for me, I could see it working in a school setting using it for Social Innovators, Friendship, healthy/wellbeing weeks in school. I didn't like the menu either I didn't feel it was helpful in setting up. I managed to upload photographs and give it some text /context. But it was fairly basic. Although I should like this in theory - positivity and celebration of all things good. It didn't work for me. I need to put together short videos for assemblies, to promote events, to help students present their work. Social networking component likely to derail my work and students work.
Having said that it was interesting to see that Facebook in recent days has decided to change how its news feed works. Posts from businesses, brands and media are to be less prominent. Mark Zuckerberg on his page said "instead, content that sparks conversations among family and friends who use the site will be emphasized". He also went on to say "We've gotten feedback from our community that public content - posts from businesses is crowding out the personal moment that leads us to connect with each other." He went on to say that he and his team felt a responsibility to make sure Facebook was good for PEOPLE's WELLBEING." By making these changes Facebook hope that time spent on it will be more valuable!
I am not sure how useful these apps will be for me at work as we are not an ipad school and we have a very strict mobile phone policy. No phones. But this may change and I am glad I have some insight into these app. I need to investigate them more.
Video For Social Media
Quik & Ripil
Quik let me assemble a video and share it
quickly and easily without needing to know the complex process of video
editing. I choose photographs from my
photo library and used one of the many templates on offer. These templates contain particular titles,
effects, transitions and filters. Each
video style also has music from Quik’s own library. I liked that I could just let Quik do its
thing. I like
the fact that you can have some degree of control over the editing process and
add your own music, choose the clip order and select video format (square or
cinema). I am not a natural when it
comes to using apps. I liked the Quik
Help documentation it is clear and talks you through each step required to
select video clips, apply video styles etc.
I think it is great for short videos, memories, and recollections and
digital storytelling. I think Quik would be good for learning situations that
benefit from short creative pieces. For example, Leaving Certificate Geography
students could combine still images and video clips they took on their mobile
devices on a field trip. It would be really useful
when writing up their geographical investigation project for recapping and prompting this process. I used it to make a promotional video for a reading streak. https://quik.gopro.com/v/finn2JWjUt/ As I become more familiar with this app I would like to take more control of the editing process and not be restricted by the templates. 
I didn't like Ripil - Social Media for Good. Kindness Tracker, all a little cheesy and disingenuous for me. It had the feel of facebook "See follow and gain followers to increase your GOOD influence." "World deed population meter" etc. However although not for me, I could see it working in a school setting using it for Social Innovators, Friendship, healthy/wellbeing weeks in school. I didn't like the menu either I didn't feel it was helpful in setting up. I managed to upload photographs and give it some text /context. But it was fairly basic. Although I should like this in theory - positivity and celebration of all things good. It didn't work for me. I need to put together short videos for assemblies, to promote events, to help students present their work. Social networking component likely to derail my work and students work.Having said that it was interesting to see that Facebook in recent days has decided to change how its news feed works. Posts from businesses, brands and media are to be less prominent. Mark Zuckerberg on his page said "instead, content that sparks conversations among family and friends who use the site will be emphasized". He also went on to say "We've gotten feedback from our community that public content - posts from businesses is crowding out the personal moment that leads us to connect with each other." He went on to say that he and his team felt a responsibility to make sure Facebook was good for PEOPLE's WELLBEING." By making these changes Facebook hope that time spent on it will be more valuable!
I am not sure how useful these apps will be for me at work as we are not an ipad school and we have a very strict mobile phone policy. No phones. But this may change and I am glad I have some insight into these app. I need to investigate them more.
Video Presentations
Powtoons & Screen-O-Matic
In thing 5 I looked at Powtoon and Screen-O-Matic. I was automatically drawn to Powtoon, I liked the creative aspect of this website. I like video style apps. However Screen-O-Matic is probably a more practical app for the school environment. It's function to deliver clear concise information/instructions is useful for giving basic help for using websites creating presentations step by step the visual audio aspect is very useful. Screen-o-matic is a good alternative or complement to written pdfs/ handouts. But like any instructions they need to be constantly reviewed and updated for relevancy. The school is involved in Age Action's Getting Started Program - Transition Year Program where TY students teach older adults how to use the internet, set up email accounts etc. This would be a great addition to the program to be able to put onto the learners laptop for their reference between classes.
The presentation tool of choice in our school is PowerPoint. We have tried introducing other presentation tools such as prezi in the past with little success. I think Powtoon will appeal to the creative student, the animations and graphics are appealing if somewhat limited in the free edition. I wasn't particularly quick at creating my presentation. I found having to edit each slide so characters and objects appeared and disappeared fiddly. It was a bit like movie maker, more involved than I thought it was going to be. Your presentation needs to be planned before you start working with Powtoon. I need to use it more. Definitely could see it being used as an option for the Junior Cert Short Course on Animation.
Being digitally literate and using social media to communicate will be an integral part of the new Junior Cert. At present my students are creating and sharing media all the time. It is an important feature of how they communicate and engage with each other. I need to harness these skills to engage them in self-directed learning. This will require us to work together to understand and discriminate between multiple sources of information and to use tools to participate safely and effectively in an online educational environment. It will also require me to engage with social media and to use social media something I have been cautious about.
In thing 5 I looked at Powtoon and Screen-O-Matic. I was automatically drawn to Powtoon, I liked the creative aspect of this website. I like video style apps. However Screen-O-Matic is probably a more practical app for the school environment. It's function to deliver clear concise information/instructions is useful for giving basic help for using websites creating presentations step by step the visual audio aspect is very useful. Screen-o-matic is a good alternative or complement to written pdfs/ handouts. But like any instructions they need to be constantly reviewed and updated for relevancy. The school is involved in Age Action's Getting Started Program - Transition Year Program where TY students teach older adults how to use the internet, set up email accounts etc. This would be a great addition to the program to be able to put onto the learners laptop for their reference between classes.
The presentation tool of choice in our school is PowerPoint. We have tried introducing other presentation tools such as prezi in the past with little success. I think Powtoon will appeal to the creative student, the animations and graphics are appealing if somewhat limited in the free edition. I wasn't particularly quick at creating my presentation. I found having to edit each slide so characters and objects appeared and disappeared fiddly. It was a bit like movie maker, more involved than I thought it was going to be. Your presentation needs to be planned before you start working with Powtoon. I need to use it more. Definitely could see it being used as an option for the Junior Cert Short Course on Animation.
Being digitally literate and using social media to communicate will be an integral part of the new Junior Cert. At present my students are creating and sharing media all the time. It is an important feature of how they communicate and engage with each other. I need to harness these skills to engage them in self-directed learning. This will require us to work together to understand and discriminate between multiple sources of information and to use tools to participate safely and effectively in an online educational environment. It will also require me to engage with social media and to use social media something I have been cautious about.
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