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Because they deserve it
Deserve? Deserve what? While planning an event at the school level that gave students the opportunity to show digital projects that they made throughout the school year I began to wonder and doubt if anyone else would be interested, or if anyone would come. I almost stopped the plans. One of the teachers caught the vision and said, "We have to do this because they deserve to show off their projects!" That was it. The students deserve a greater audience. The students will rise up and add excellence to their creations when they know they have a wider audience than just their teacher. I stopped doubting and started planning for a great opportunity to give our students an audience that just loved their creative influence. This "tuesdays" is dedicated to venues for showing student digital projects.
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I attended a great training for presentations and digital media a few years ago and I was profoundly touched by a format for giving presentations called Pecha Kucha. It is the Japanese word for chit-chat and was developed to give new, upcoming executives the chance to present their innovative ideas in a format that made sense. The basic premise is that each speaker gets 20 slides that last 20 seconds long to make their point. (That's a total of 6 min. 40 secs.) The impact has been so great that Pecha Kucha Nights are popping up all over the world to give an opportunity to share ideas through presentations. I am jazzed to bring this to the school level. The planning and condensing of student's focus and ideas would help hone their presentation skills and make them much more aware of a potentially wider audience. I would love to model this on the school level to see its effectiveness. Anyone game? |
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Student digital projects always present the dilemma of "How do I grade all of these?" or "How can we possibly watch the whole class of projects without getting bored?" Using the Pecha Kucha method of presentation, each student knows ahead of time that they have 20 slides with 20 seconds each to make their point. When it comes time to present, students are more attentive when they understand a beginning and an end with a time limit. They become well-versed at valuable content, humor, and presentation style. They can easily pick out introduction, body and conclusion. All their writing process steps are met through the planning and design process. I would really like to encourage you to investigate this Pecha Kucha method. I would like to begin with teacher autobiographies for the first day of school.
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How can you give your students a wider audience that is rewarding and engaging for everyone? There's always a web presence, classroom presentations and gallery walks but nothing beats the opportunity to bring parents and family in to let the students show the things they've created. I am most fond of an evening event that I designed called The Digital Share Fair. Students are invited to bring family and friends to an evening of open sharing in three formats: Gallery Walks (12), Hubs of Learning (6) and a Sandbox. The students and parents have a passport that is stamped as they travel throughout the 19 venues. Gallery Walks were student digital creation projected on SMARTBoards which can includes all curriculums, animation, business and more. The Hubs of Learning are mini-lessons taught by students and the Sandbox was a fun area to "play" with SMARTBoards, iPads, tablets, FLIP cameras or other technologies available. Showing students digital projects is so rewarding because they deserve to have that wider audience.
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| What is "tuesdays with Karen"?
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"tuesdays with Karen" is a weekly newsletter/blog designed to encourage, equip and empower teachers to be creative with educational technology. Please add your technology comments to my "tuesdays with Karen" blog. |
