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Senin, 19 Agustus 2013

Day 30 – Creating Screencasts and Flipping the Classroom with the Surface RT

30 Days with a Surface RT for Teachers

Teaching and Learning with a Windows 8 Tablet

Well, we made it!
Day 30.

Thank you for being a reader of the 30 Days with a Surface RT for Teachers blog series. I hope to have helped in some small way to answer a few of the questions I have been getting about using the Surface RT in the classroom. This innovative device has been misunderstood by many and my posts over the past 30 days have given me a new insight and appreciation for this new class of device.

I have embedded a YouTube video I created on the Surface RT at the end of this blog post showing my final app pick in action.

Going into this blog series I really did not expect the Surface RT to even be a contender with producing multimedia content, but I have been proven wrong over the past week. The Surface RT is a great creation device with the ability to easily create and share content via the built-in USB port or other cloud services like SkyDrive.

As a follow-up to yesterday I put my ideas to the test and produced a short little video using the Surface RT back-facing video camera and the Movie Edit Touch app. I have posted an example video to YouTube so you can see how you might use the Surface RT to document a field trip. This took me about five minutes to shoot and edit and another 20 minutes to render to a 1080P video. I could have cut the render time significantly if I encoded it to 720P but was curious if the Surface RT could handle the 1080P processing, it did. Below is a YouTube video of my first multimedia project I created on the Surface RT.

So, it is indeed impressive that we now have the Surface RT device that currently is at an educational price of $199 that can produce video content from the field and have it available on YouTube in well under an hour. Amazing times we live in, what will you teach the world today with your Surface RT?

At less than half the cost of other tablets on the market the Surface RT has a lot to offer educators. In addition to many valuable apps in the Windows Store it can run the Office 2013 applications of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Excel and OneNote. It also has expandable storage to easily move content on and off the device, perfect for easy classroom sharing. The Surface RT offers tremendous value and is a worthy choice for teaching and learning purposes.

After being impressed by the video editing capabilities of the Surface RT I thought I would finish this series with one of the hottest trends in education circles today that also requires the production of videos, the flipped classroom.

Screencasting on the Surface RT - Record Voice & Pen

One of the remaining challenges for the Surface RT is if it can easily produce screencasts for flipping the classroom. The answer is…. yes it can.

A screencast is simply a recording of everything you write on a touchscreen along with your voice. Think of it as recording everything you do on a whiteboard except you are now using the touchscreen of the Surface RT.

The best app I have found, to date, for screencasting on the Surface RT is Record Voice & Pen. This app also works on other Windows 8 tablets and comes in both a free and paid version. When you first open Record Voice & Pen you will be presented with a whiteboard screen with a few annotation tools available for you to use in your recording.

There is a Pen tool and a palette of color choices if you want to change the color of the Pen as you record your lesson. You can change the color and thickness of the Pen tool at any time in the recording. You can also hide the tool choices if you need to draw in an area of the screen that they cover up. The recording process only records your pen annotations so do not worry about the overlay on the screen, it is just there so you can change Pen colors or if you want to add an image to annotate on top of. Changing colors during the lesson can draw the students attention to an area of the screen that is pertinent to the lesson.

The free version will place the word PREVIEW across your screencast recording if you use images. If you purchase the app this PREVIEW watermark will not show on your recordings.

I like Record Voice & Pen so much that it was one of the first apps I purchased from the store. I also went ahead and purchased the Movie Edit Touch and ShowBiz apps after yesterdays blog post. After 30 Days with the Surface RT I have only purchased 3 apps.

Record Voice & Pen also offers the ability to record multiple screens in one recording setting. If you purchase the Record Voice & Pen for $3.49 in the Windows Store you can also add JPG or PNG images to your screencast and annotate on top of the images. This is great if you already have a prepared PowerPoint made as you can just save your PowerPoint slides as image files and add them to Record Voice & Pen BEFORE you start your recording. By prepping the slide images in advance you can easily move from one slide to another when you make the recording to keep the flow going.

I created a very fast-paced screencast of Record Voice & Pen and uploaded it to the EIU ITC YouTube Channel available here:

Believe it or not, I have more to say about the Surface RT but it will need to wait a couple of days as today is the first day back-to-school. If you asked me 30 days ago if I would have needed more than 30 days to answer my questions about the Surface RT I would not have believed it.

The Surface RT still has a few secrets left to discover for teaching and learning.

So there you have it, the finale of the 30 Days with a Surface RT for Teachers is the Record Voice & Pen app for all of your screencasting needs.

Surface RT Rocks!

Until next time...
Keep on Learning,

Tom Grissom, PhD

Follow me on Twitter

@tomgrissom

Interested in Teaching and Learning with Technology?
http://www.eiu.edu/itc/

Please subscribe and listen to the TechTalk4Teachers Podcast:
http://techtalk4teachers.blogspot.com/

Minggu, 18 Agustus 2013

Day 29 – Video Editing and Movie Making with the Surface RT

30 Days with a Surface RT for Teachers
Teaching and Learning with a Windows 8 Tablet

I have been experimenting with creating short videos on the Surface RT for the past couple of days. Going into this blog series I did not think the Surface RT would be useful at all for video editing projects for the classroom. I have been pleasantly surprised to find a few video editors that do make the grade for classroom use. Let’s explore.

Movie Edit Touch App

The first app I tried out was Movie Edit Touch and I think this app may ultimately be my app of choice for short classroom video projects. Movie Edit Touch by Magix offers a free trial in the Windows Store but if you want to do anything productive you will need to purchase this app ($5.99 in the Windows Store). If you are wanting to edit videos on the RT downloading the trial version is worth it so you can see if it meets your needs before purchasing.

The trial version is crippled in that it will only export out 10 seconds of video. If you are into Vine-style videos that are all the rage right now this trial version may work for you but you will need to purchase the app to have practical export capabilities.

I have not purchased this app yet (or any other app) in this blog series but I most likely will purchase Movie Edit Touch so I can explore its true potential. Movie Edit Touch is very easy to use for basic video editing. It uses the touch interface of the Surface RT effectively and is very easy to use. If you or your students are familiar with the basics of video editing you should have no problem using this app, even if you have no experience with video editing it is easy to learn the basics.

The major difference with the Movie Edit Touch app compared to other video editors is that you slide your video timeline underneath a stationary scrubber marker located in the center of the timeline. In many video apps the video timeline stays stationary and you move the scrubber to position it where you want to make edits. This is a small adjustment and you will quickly get the idea when you first start to use Movie Edit Touch. The touch motion is very fast and is quite easy to position the video to the frames where you want to edit.

Movie Edit Touch also supports adding transitions, titles, and audio (it has a separate music track). You can adjust the volume separately for the video track and audio track which is really nice when you want to add background music to your videos but need to have music softly playing in the background so it does not overpower the sound on the video track. You can also easily add other video clips, photos, music, and even take a live camera shot (still picture or video) within the app. Talk about a live video editing experience, my mind is racing with all kinds of classroom possibilities!

With the Movie Edit Touch app and the Surface RT with its two built-in cameras you have everything you need to create basic classroom videos. You can use the kickstand on the Surface RT, set it on the table, open the Camera app and select the front facing camera and record a quick video chat for your students.

Another example, say you are going on a field trip, you can use the Camera app and back-facing camera on the RT to take still snapshots and/or videos of things of interest. When you get back you can import the photos into Movie Edit Touch, add some background music, and you have created a video montage of the fieldtrip!

Once you export the video you can save it to a flash drive and share it easily with others or upload to SkyDrive. Just imagine the possibilities… all with a sub $200 tablet, Wow! (The current education price of $199 for schools/universities is a limited time offer).

ShowBiz Video Editing App

The other video editing app I discovered that shows promise is ShowBiz by ArcSoft. This too is a very easy to use video editor that provides basic editing capability. It also uses a stationary scrubber and you move the video underneath the scrubber marker to the place you want to add or make edits in your timeline.

ShowBiz also has a paid version ($9.99 in the Windows Store) for more functionality. The trial version of ShowBiz is a little more useful than Movie Edit Touch as you can at least export out low resolution (VGA – 640x360) quality videos. This lets you get practice with the app to see if you would like it and if you do purchase it you will be able to export to a higher quality video format.

Another benefit of using ShowBiz is that it also allows you to record audio to add narration either to still photos or videos in addition to adding a music tack. This gives you a video track, music track, and narration track. To add a narration position the video underneath the scrubber marker where you want to begin the narration, then press + Add and select “Record Audio”. You will see a microphone icon under the preview window. Just click on “Start” to begin recording your narration and press “Stop” when finished. You will see an audio track under the video segment on the timeline. I can think of many useful student projects for this feature as students narrate slideshows or videos that they have taken, pretty cool!

Cinelab

The last app I will mention is cinelab and it is a very, very, simple video editor app that basically lets you easily trim videos and combine them into one video track, that’s it. No titles, no transitions, no soundtracks. If you do go into settings of the paid version it does have the ability to rotate your video ($1.49 in the Windows Store) but this comes in handy if someone mistakenly recorded a video in portrait mode (like many do with cell phones).

Cinelab will be good for very fast trimming or when you have a series of videos you want to string together quickly. If you like this quick interface you could use it to put together clips then you could export out the compiled version and use it with Movie Edit Touch or ShowBiz to add transitions and titles. There are many ways to put together a movie project and the Surface RT has surprised me with the video editing possibilities.

So there you have it, three video editing apps that turn the Surface RT into a capable video editing machine.

Surface RT Rocks!

Until next time...
Keep on Learning,

Tom Grissom, PhD

Follow me on Twitter

@tomgrissom

Interested in Teaching and Learning with Technology?

http://www.eiu.edu/itc/

Please subscribe and listen to the TechTalk4Teachers Podcast:

http://techtalk4teachers.blogspot.com/

Sabtu, 17 Agustus 2013

Day 28 – Audio Recording and Editing with the Surface RT

30 Days with a Surface RT for Teachers
Teaching and Learning with a Windows 8 Tablet

It is a Saturday and today I am writing this at home on my Dell XPS laptop that is running Windows 8. I just signed into this laptop with my Microsoft Account after about a week of non-use and I just opened up Word 2013. It was great being greeted by my blog post from Day 27 (yesterday) in the recent documents section of Word.

Since I save the blog postings I am working on for this series to SkyDrive it is convenient to have them immediately available to me from any trusted device I use with my Microsoft Account. This syncing of content just happens without me even thinking about it. I did not have to sign-in to SkyDrive, go to the file manager and find my file in SkyDrive. My most recent Word documents from SkyDrive were just there waiting for me in Word 2013, nice!

Like many teachers I use Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote regularly and often create multimedia content. Today I would like to explore the audio creation side of the Surface RT and have a couple of audio app picks.

Pocket Recorder

The first audio pick for the Surface RT is Pocket Recorder. Pocket Recorder is an extremely simple to use audio recording app. When you open the app you will see a big icon with a microphone that is labeled “Start Recording”. Just click this icon and you immediately begin to record.

There is a timer that begins to keep track of the recording time and you simply press the stop icon to stop the recording.

When you are finished recording you can swipe up from the bottom of the screen (or press Windows Key and Z) to bring up the app bar for additional choices. From the app bar you can Search, Group by Category, Delete, Edit, Export to MP3, Clear Library, and Pin Start Recording Task.

If you Pin the Start Recording Task a Tile will be placed on the Start Screen that is for instant one-button recording, just press this tile and you immediately begin to record audio. It doesn’t get much simpler than that.

Pocket Recorder also has the ability to Share a recording using the Charms bar to SkyDrive. If you want to have access to your recordings from any device you use with your Microsoft Account this is an easy way to access your recordings across multiple devices.

I also use the Pocket Recorder app on my Windows Phone and it has similar functionality. Having a phone app is often times more convenient because I almost always have my phone clipped-on to my belt. When I want to make an audio note on the spur of the moment I just use my Windows Phone and Pocket Recorder. These short audio notes are great for reminding me about things I want/need to do.

Files are saved with a date and timestamp. I am not sure what the recording limit is as I have been using this app for quick recordings under ten minutes. Going much more than this is probably pushing the Surface RT, especially when it comes to the audio editing process of larger files.

Lexis Audio Editor

Speaking of audio editors I have been using the trial version of the Lexis Audio Editor for some small editing jobs on the Surface RT. This is a very nice editor for single track audio edits. There is also a paid version in the Windows Store but I am not sure what additional functionality is provided, if any beyond removing ads.

I really do like the Lexis Audio Editor as it is pretty intuitive to use. Below is a screen shot with the app bar showing the different capabilities for editing.

I still have not found a suitable replacement for Audacity for my audio editing needs. Audacity is a fantastic multi-track editor and I need multi-track editing capabilities for producing my TechTalk4Teachers podcast.

Since the Surface RT has a USB port it is easy enough to copy my recordings from the Surface RT to a USB drive and edit the audio files on a x86 computer that will run Audacity. Or, I could also save my audio files from the Surface RT to SkyDrive and access them on any x86 computer running Windows 8 that supports Audacity.

These are workarounds but I am still looking for a good multi-track audio editor that works on the Surface RT similar to Audacity. If you know of a good one that is in the Windows Store please let me know.

When I have an audio recording I want to keep after editing with Lexis Audio Editor I select Export to MP3 to save the recording out to a folder of my choice and with a filename that makes sense to me. Having a file management system helps me keep track of all the projects I have going on.

I have been using the Surface RT more and more and while I would not say that the Surface RT is a full replacement for my laptop, it is getting close. The Surface RT is handling about 80% of my needs but there are occasions that require a different device for the job.

It will be no shocker that I need a more powerful computer to handle heavier video and audio editing duties but the Surface RT can handle many of the smaller audio and video editing jobs.

Until next time...
Keep on Learning,

Tom Grissom, PhD

Follow me on Twitter

@tomgrissom

Interested in Teaching and Learning with Technology?

http://www.eiu.edu/itc/

Please subscribe and listen to the TechTalk4Teachers Podcast:

http://techtalk4teachers.blogspot.com/

Jumat, 16 Agustus 2013

Day 27 –Sketchnotes with the Surface RT

30 Days with a Surface RT for Teachers

Teaching and Learning with a Windows 8 Tablet

I discussed a computer-based app yesterday for mind mapping on the Surface RT. Today, I would like to discuss a more organic approach that is also loosely based on the mind mapping idea using something called sketchnotes.

Learning is Messy

Perhaps it is just me but when I am learning something new learning feels messy. I feel awkward like a baby trying to learn how to take those first steps. It would be really nice to create a perfect mind map the first time I learn something new but learning does not work that way. We have gaps in our knowledge that need to be filled and a mind map is a great way to expose some of those gaps.

I am the type that likes to doodle as I think about and learn new things. When we learn something new by definition we do not have control of all the knowledge and facts needed for mastery. Sketching helps me connect the knowledge I already have with new material. There is something about the hand and eye working together that provides the conditions necessary for learning AND remembering new things. Making associations from the known to the unknown is how we learn.

Tony Buzan is one of the leaders in the field of mind mapping and has conducted years of research into its effectiveness. He has written many books on the subject and has a system based upon his research. Buzan is one of the experts in the field but many others have used the mind mapping concept going back hundreds of years. I have provided a more general link below to a Wikipedia article about mind maps if you want a quick overview.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_map

There are many different ways to use the basic premise of creating mind maps. You generally start with an idea or concept in the middle of the page and branch out from there.

Sketchnoting is a little different take on mind mapping and is not as structured.

A new trend in attending some conferences is to invite an artist to create something known as sketchnotes. As the name implies this is just a sketch about a particular topic that transforms the spoken word into a sketch that is usually done on a large sheet of paper taped to a wall. Here is another link to the Sketchnote Army that provides hundreds of examples.

http://sketchnotearmy.com/

There is no one right way to create a sketchnote, do what works for you. Some use colors others use monochrome. Some use more sketches, others use more words. The important thing is for these notes to help you learn and remember whatever content you are trying to master.

Now, how can we use the Surface RT to help us create freeform mind maps and sketch notes? There are actually many ways but I will mention a couple to get started.

The first app that works very well on the Surface RT is Sketch Book Express. I purchased a capacitive stylus to help me sketch more precisely than just using my finger and this works OK on the Surface RT. I say “just OK” because my experience on the Surface Pro with active digitizer Pen is much, much better. Since the Surface RT uses a capacitive touch screen it is similar to the iPad and is not meant for precise work. It feels like finger painting so you do not have a lot of control.

Yesterday, I used M8! app to create a detailed mind map about the Surface RT, below is my sketchnote example with a similar Surface RT theme. I did not sketch many symbols but wanted to represent the big features of the Surface RT.

Both the Surface RT and the iPad feel limited with precision compared to the superior drawing and writing experience on the Surface Pro. Having said that, it is quite workable if you do not need precise control and will do fine for most classroom work.

Below is another sketchnote example I created on my Surface Pro, notice there is a lot more detail and I did sketch some symbols to help me associate the material because the digital Pen is easier to use.

Yesterdays M8! example was computer-based and all neat and tidy but my sketchnote today is free-form and messy. One is not better than the other, just different. The M8! app and the sketchnotes I created above represent the same information but in two completely different visual presentation styles. Some may find my sketches hideous and prefer the neat M8! computer-based app and that is fine, but for me I find value in associating my handwritten notes in a colorful sketchnote form. The good news is that the Surface RT is a flexible tool and you get to decide how to use it best for your needs.

OneNote for Sketchnotes

You can also use OneNote to make your mind maps and sketches. This is one reason I am such a fan of OneNote for teaching and learning. You can type your notes or you can use handwriting (or both). You can draw symbols and sketches at any time in OneNote. Best of all since you are doing this work in a OneNote notebook you can share it immediately with your students if you would like.

Instant access to a teachers notes sounds like something of value to a student learning new things.

Or...... if you want to do it old school you can just use regular paper and colored pencils and sketch things out the old fashioned way with no need to be limited by the digital touch screen. When you are finished with the paper sketch you can use the camera on the Surface RT to take a snapshot of your paper notes and insert the picture into OneNote..... and since OneNote has Optical Character Recognition it can search for words within the sketch.

Taking the cognitive burden of notetaking away from students learning complex subjects frees the learners mind to concentrate on the new.

Maybe the students would not need to frantically worry about copying down everything you say to their own notes... maybe they could be freed to concentrate more on the material being presented rather than expending their energy on notetaking... maybe later they could regenerate your notes after class when they are studying into a mind map or sketchnote form, hmmmm, multi-pass learning :)

Think outside the box, there are a million ways to teach something new. The Surface RT has a lot of out of the box thinking going into its creation. This out of the box thinking is why I think some people do not get the Surface RT and deride it in the press. If you take the time to learn some new things about the Surface RT you will be rewarded with a very capable and affordable device for teaching and learning.

Until next time...
Keep on Learning,

Tom Grissom, PhD

Follow me on Twitter @tomgrissom

Interested in Teaching and Learning with Technology?
http://www.eiu.edu/itc/

Please subscribe and listen to the TechTalk4Teachers Podcast:
http://techtalk4teachers.blogspot.com/

Kamis, 15 Agustus 2013

Day 26 –Mind Mapping with the Surface RT

30 Days with a Surface RT for Teachers

Teaching and Learning with a Windows 8 Tablet

In my adventures with the Surface RT I have been trying to find apps that will be useful for teachers. If you were lucky enough to get one of the free Surface RTs from Microsoft at the #iste13 conference I think you will find much value with the Surface RT in the classroom. The other day I found a great mind map tool called M8! and works great with the Surface RT.

Mind mapping and flowcharting are common activities that teachers and students routinely do. While I am a fan of freehand note taking and sketching some prefer to have a more ordered and readable format, M8! fills that need.

M8! is available for free in the Windows Store and also has a more full-featured paid version. M8! is an app that will help you with easily creating mind maps.

Mind Maps

With mind mapping you start with a central idea and branch out from there. This helps you visualize your ideas and thoughts in a fast and efficient way.

I very quickly put together a mind map using M8! about some of the key features of the Surface RT. This mind map barely scratches the surface (sorry, another pun).

M8! uses the touch screen very effectively and as a teacher you can easily zoom in and out of the mind map using the pinch and zoom gesture. This is great when the mind map becomes cluttered and you want students to pay attention to a particular area of the mind map.

You can touch and drag items from one branch to another and the mind map will make the reconnection automatically. It really is an intuitive program to use and students will catch on quickly.

Because it is a Windows 8 app M8! takes advantage of the Charms bar to let you share your mind maps with others. I have mine setup to Share using my email or to Share it (upload) to my SkyDrive. The Share Charm makes this very easy to do. When you are finished you can export the mind map to a file but it saves to a .m8 extension so you will need the M8! app to open it.

To get around this I just take a screenshot of my mind map as screenshots are saved to the PNG format on the Surface RT. If you want to take a screenshot on the Surface RT just press and hold down the Windows Flag icon and at the same time press the Volume Down rocker. You will feel a slight vibration when you press the Windows Flag button to let you know you pressed it. This is haptic feedback since it is not a physical button. When both the Win Flag and Volume Down rocker are pressed at the same time you should see the screen go dim as it takes the screenshot.

Note: If you accidently press the Windows Flag and the Volume Up rocker at the same time you will turn on Narrator and you will hear a voice. To turn Narrator off just press the Windows Flag and Volume Up button again.

Screenshots are saved to the Pictures Folder in the Screenshots sub-folder on the Surface RT.

Since a PNG file is a standard graphic format you can edit it with other image editing apps like Fotor or Skitch Touch on the Surface RT.

M8! is available for free in the Windows Store and also has a more full-featured paid version. M8! is an app that will help you with easily creating mind maps.

So, there you have it another extremely useful app for teachers and students using the Surface RT.

Until next time...
Keep on Learning,

Tom Grissom, PhD

Follow me on Twitter @tomgrissom

Interested in Teaching and Learning with Technology?

http://www.eiu.edu/itc/

Please subscribe and listen to the TechTalk4Teachers Podcast:

http://techtalk4teachers.blogspot.com/

Rabu, 14 Agustus 2013

Day 25 – The Serendipity of the Stars and Surface RT

30 Days with a Surface RT for Teachers

Teaching and Learning with a Windows 8 Tablet

A couple of nights ago I was out gazing at the stars trying to catch a glimpse of the annual Perseid Meteor shower that puts on a celestial show this time of year.

I have long been a star-watcher and the Perseid event got me to thinking about if there were any apps on the Surface RT I could use to help me navigate around the night sky. Turns out there is!

I downloaded the free Star Chart app on the Surface RT from the Windows Store. Most apps I install take only 30 to 60 seconds on the RT but this one was different and took about 20 minutes to install. Turns out the Universe is a big place and the database requires approximately 500MB of space (pardon the pun).

The Perseid Meteor viewing was a bust for me as the clouds rolled in during the peak viewing hours between Midnight and 3am but I had the Star Chart app to keep me company.

One of the best features of this app is a night-time mode that turns the Surface RT screen all red. This keeps your pupils from dilating from a bright screen and lets you keep as dark of viewing experience as possible to see the stars clearly.

With Star Chart you basically have an entire Astronomy course with just this one app!

There is also an explore view that lets you navigate around the Universe with pre-made tours of the Solar System. Pinch and zoom works well and the graphics are astonishing. There is even a simulated Celestial Sphere you can put into motion to see how the stars rise and set on the horizon.

Star Chart has categories for Planets, Stars, Constellations, Messiers, Satellites, and Comets, but the Satellites and Comets cost extra as an upgrade.

This is a pretty amazing app and should be enough to keep any Astronomy fan busy for quite some time.

Until next time...
Keep on Learning,

Tom Grissom, PhD

Follow me on Twitter @tomgrissom

Interested in Teaching and Learning with Technology?
http://www.eiu.edu/itc/

Please subscribe and listen to the TechTalk4Teachers Podcast:
http://techtalk4teachers.blogspot.com/

Selasa, 13 Agustus 2013

Day 24 – Khan Academy and Flipped Learning with the Surface RT

30 Days with a Surface RT for Teachers

Teaching and Learning with a Windows 8 Tablet

Today I would like to continue with a video related post of using the Surface RT in a flipped classroom learning environment. The way that the Surface RT plays back video has been a surprise to me. With all the reports of the slow RT ARM processor I was expecting a sluggish viewing experience, this has not been the case at all. The Surface RT has been a champ at video playback.

Yesterday I laid out the possibilities of using expandable storage with the Surface RT and how I have been watching full HD MP4 files without issue. This experience has made me think that the Surface RT might make a great device for those classrooms interested in flipped learning.

Flipped learning has gained notoriety over the past five years as a different pedagogical method for engaging students in the classroom. In its most basic form teachers assign students to watch videos as homework. When students come to class the next day the teacher will have the students work on homework in class, thus the name the flipped classroom. If a student has a question they can watch the instructional video again or ask the teacher. Better yet, have students help each other and dive deeper into the homework problems together. Research has shown significant gains in student understanding when peer instruction is used.

Of course, you can make your own video screencasts and the Surface RT can help with that too, but when will you find the time?

You may be surprised to find there are already thousands of educational videos already available on the Internet. The best known site for K12 instructional videos is the Khan Academy, and as they say, there is an app for that for the Surface RT.

Sal Kahn, the originator of the Kahn Academy has become the best known advocate for flipped learning in the classroom. He has created the non-profit Khan Academy website that has thousands of videos on just about any subject imaginable for K12. These videos are typically less than 10 minutes each and build upon each other.

There are videos for Basic Math, Algebra, Geometry, Calculus, General Science, Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Finance, English, Social Studies….. you get the idea.

This is where the Surface RT comes in. I installed the Khan Academy app from the Windows store and the best thing about this app is that it lets me download videos that I am interested in directly to the Surface RT.

In this area of the State of Illinois our Internet access is limited. This is especially true for our K12 students as many parents do not have access to broadband Internet. You really need to have reliable Internet connection to watch videos online and this has been a deterrent to flipped learning. But, if you download them locally to the Surface RT you can watch them anywhere WITHOUT an Internet connection!!!

This has been a big stumbling block for teachers in this area wanting to implement the flipped classroom approach to teaching. The Surface RT is capable of solving this problem. If you have a central computer to download the videos you now have a reasonable way to share legal content with other students thanks to the Surface RT’s USB port.

With the Khan Academy app on the Surface RT students literally have access to an entire K12 curriculum in bite-sized video chunks. If you are lucky enough to have broadband Internet access you can just watch the videos when you are online, no need to download.

Another great feature of this app on the RT is that the videos are Closed Captioned and you can read the captions along as he speaks!

The Khan Academy has also added learning analytics that make it possible to track student progress if students login with a user account. If you download videos locally the Khan Academy will not be able to track video viewing, but at least students have the content available at home.

I have provided a link below to an overview of Sal Khan explaining how he created the Khan Academy and how it can help students. It is an interesting story on how he used a Tablet PC and screencasting software to tutor his cousins who were living on the other side of the country. That was the birth of the Khan Academy.

There is much more to flipped learning and you do not even have to include videos to flip your classroom but that is another discussion. Many start with the video approach because of the success others have seen with the Khan Academy.

So, once again the Surface RT has me thinking about what students can do with this device, the list is growing.

Until next time...
Keep on Learning,

Tom Grissom, PhD

Follow me on Twitter
@tomgrissom

Interested in Teaching and Learning with Technology?
http://www.eiu.edu/itc/

Please subscribe and listen to the TechTalk4Teachers Podcast
:http://techtalk4teachers.blogspot.com/

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Recent Post

Day 30 – Creating Screencasts and Flipping the Classroom with the Surface RT

Day 29 – Video Editing and Movie Making with the Surface RT

Day 28 – Audio Recording and Editing with the Surface RT

Day 27 –Sketchnotes with the Surface RT

Day 26 –Mind Mapping with the Surface RT

Day 25 – The Serendipity of the Stars and Surface RT

Day 24 – Khan Academy and Flipped Learning with the Surface RT

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