Making Videos with Power Point and Office Mix

When I bought my new laptop, I also bought the new Office.  It turns out that Power Point 2015 can be used with Office Mix, which is a free download.  It makes it easy to turn Power Point slides into a video.  I did just that and made a video introduction to the idea of the flipped classroom.  Here's what I did:

1. I created a Power Point slide show that described how a flipped classroom works and the advantages of the flipped classroom for students.
2. I created a set of questions for students to answer in response to the video.
3. I decided on a format for the video.  My daughter and I would engage in a question-and-answer format, and I wrote the questions I thought my video should answer.
4. Office Mix lets you record video and audio right in the Power Point program.  My daughter and I used it to record our question-and-answer session.  Note: You don't record the whole video at once.  You record it one slide at a time.
5. I was able to export it to MP4 format with a couple of clicks.  During the video export process, the slide show is turned into a video.  That is, it turns the slideshow into a continuous video that plays the video or audio clip on each slide before automatically moving on to the next slide.

Some observations:

• I like that the environment is so familiar.  Office Mix may be new, but Power Point is certainly not.  I enjoyed making the slideshow, which also served as my outline while I recorded the video or audio for each slide.
• I like that the Office Mix buttons are so easy to use.  I am not a professional videographer, and I don't need to be one with this add-in.
• I like that you can screencast with this add-in.  I included a screen capture of one of my documents in the Power Point, and I was able to draw on it while I was recording the audio for this slide.  I plan to make use of this feature often in the future.
• I think it's great that I can choose whether to include video, audio, or neither on a slide-by-slide basis, rather than forcing me to choose one for the whole slideshow.
• I was somewhat dismayed by the fact that you can't edit the video or audio once it's made, but that didn't bother me much.  In actuality, you're recording the video or audio for one slide at a time, which makes them small clips (usually less than a minute each).  It is very little trouble to redo them.

Overall, I'm very pleased with the ease of the recording and publishing experience, and I am quite happy with the product.  This is what I will use to record all of my videos.

Back in Business, So to Speak

In the last few days, I have come to the sad realization that my trusty little netbook is dying a slow, painful death.  Since my desktop is still in need of repairs, which I intend to make during the next week, I got a replacement for my netbook, going with a full-size laptop this time, and I am ready to get to work making videos.

I am going to try the video-making software that came with my laptop and some other software that I already own to see if it will be useful.  I will make a full report when I have come up with a satisfactory video-creation solution.

I am experiencing technical difficulties...

I thought now would be a good time to try creating a video, since I am not yet under the pressure I will be once school starts.  I'm sure glad I tried it now!

I am currently using a netbook while I wait for my repairperson (me) to get off her butt and fix my big desktop computer.  This netbook has both a built-in web cam and a built-in mic.  I thought I would sit at my netbook and create a beginner's video.  I did, using Windows Movie Maker.  Everything worked, but I forgot about the amount of noise produced by my old netbook's hard drive.  There is a very loud buzz in the background, no matter what I do.

My desktop does not buzz.  I think it's time to fix my desktop.

Ten Questions

On his website, author and flipped learning guru Jon Bergmann recommends that anyone who is setting up a flipped class answer 10 questions.  They can be found by clicking here.  I have paraphrased the 10 questions and included my responses:

1. What will you flip?  I am teaching 5 classes this fall: 2 seventh grade English, 2 eighth grade English, and 1 public speaking class.  I will flip the 4 English classes.
2. Who will make your videos?  I will make them myself.
3. What software will you use to make your videos?  My budget dictates that I use free software for the time being.  I have narrowed it down to two programs: Jing and Educreations.  I intend to try them both and use the one with which I feel most comfortable.  (Someday, I would love to use Camtasia.)
4. Where will you place your videos for student access?  I have decided to use at least one of the following four options: my school LMS (learning management system), Google Drive, YouTube, or Edmodo.  My school is in the process of moving to a new LMS, and I have to wait until I return to school to determine if it is capable of meeting my flipped classroom needs.  Fortunately, there are many free or low-priced options available if my school's new LMS is not satisfactory.
5. How will you monitor student interaction with the videos?  I think I'll start low-tech and print guided question pages for students to use while watching the videos.  I may switch to using Google Docs in the future.
6. How will you communicate to your students how to access your videos?  I will demonstrate how to do access them in class as part of an introductory lesson on how Flipped Learning works.  I will also provide the students with the printed steps for accessing videos on the LMS that we end up using.
7. How will you teach your students to watch your videos for comprehension?  I will demonstrate how to interact with the video and answer the guided questions that I will provide.  I can differentiate this for each of my classes.  If most of the students in a class understand how to watch the videos, then I can move on to flipping the class.  I can work with any students who need extra help understanding how to watch the video in a small group while the rest of the class is working.  If most of the class needs extra time to make this adjustment, I can model this for several lessons, until most of them understand how to watch the videos.
8. How will you communicate to your students how flipped learning will change their experience at school?  I will communicate this to them verbally during the first video-watching lesson.  I will remind them of how often they understand something in class but struggle with it while they are doing their homework.  Flipping the class will mean that the video lecture and guided questions will be part of their homework, and that the majority of what is usually their homework can now be done during class time with the teacher and their peers available to help build or deepen understanding.
9. How will you communicate to your students' parents how flipped learning will change their child's learning experience?  I will either send a group email or a printed letter (possibly both) to my students' parents.  In it, I will explain what I explained to the students.  I will also include benefits for the parents: knowing exactly what their child is being taught, understanding their child's specific difficulties, and being better able to discuss their child's specific difficulties with the teacher.
10. How will you reorganize class time, now that lecture will not take up part of your time?  I intend for students to work either in groups or independently on assignments.  I will be able to circulate and assist students who need help, and I will be able to pull guided groups.  I see this becoming highly differentiated very quickly, so I think there will be time devoted to helping students set and reach goals.

So I've Decided to Flip My Class

I have had a problem that all of the teachers I have met have: I know that the best way to teach is to provide each student with differentiated, one-on-one instruction, but I don't know how to accomplish that with the amount of time I have in each class period.  If you also consider the number of standards I have to "cover" in a year and the number of students who need various types of remediation, there is no way to make the typical classroom setting work for everyone.  I was beginning to feel bewildered by the task I had been set.

I am, according to my husband, an irrational optimist.  I just couldn't believe that there was no way to consistently reach all kids at their own levels.  After all, my husband would frequently tell me about his favorite teacher, the one who inspired him to become a teacher (well, a professor of medieval history, but we won't speak about that).  This wonder teacher taught at a one-room school in Michigan.  Just like I used to watch on Little House on the Prairie, his teacher taught K-8 in one classroom.  Talk about needing to differentiate!  She couldn't teach the same things to a Kindergartner as she did to an Eighth Grader, and often there was only one student per grade.  (My husband was in a densely occupied grade, which meant he was one of three students in that grade.)  So, here's the picture: there were 13 students in 9 grades at this school.  Yet, she was acknowledged to be the best teacher in the county, producing students who could out-perform all of the other students.  She was teaching each student at his or her individual level.  She had the answer to my problem, but what was she doing differently?

I decided to analyze my husband's teacher's teaching methods.  She did many of the things teachers do now: small group instruction, individual practice, peer support, and student conferencing.  She wouldn't have used these terms, but she did these every day.  The one thing she didn't do was lecture.  She never needed to make time for lecture, because she accomplished her purposes, and exceeded educational standards, every day without it.  Lectures were unnecessary.  I filed this information away for future reference.

During the second half of last school year, when the teachers at my school were up to their eyeballs in special events, we were encouraged to try flipping our classrooms.  I was intrigued, but the administrator who explained flipping did not explain it well enough to implement it, much less understand it.  (It is interesting to note that he did not present it in a flipped atmosphere, either, which would have helped me understand it better.)  Teachers heard a lecture about methodology and software, were put into teams, were instructed to flip a lesson, and  were told to report the results.  We were told that this would work some kind of educational magic.  The few teachers who participated (remember all those special events?) reported that the students and parents were greatly confused by the process and the teacher's planning for that lesson was also increased.  There was no magic.  In fact, it was more of a burden for all involved.  Still, I remained mildly interested in flipping lessons, so I filed this information away for future reference, as well.

One day, while shopping at one of my local bookstores (I love bookstores!!!), I came across the book Flipped Learning, by Jon Bergmann and Aaron Sams.  In spite of my previous encounter with flipping a lesson, I couldn't help myself.  I picked up the book and started thumbing through it.  There was a chapter in there that was all about flipping an English classroom.  I skimmed that chapter a little more thoroughly than I had been, and I was convinced that I needed to buy the book.  So, in my typical fashion, I bought the book, took it home, and put in in a stack of books on my dining room table, where it promptly got buried.  I didn't look at it again for about a month.

Finally, a few days ago, I started reading the books in the stack.  I read Flipped Learning and realized that I had found my solution to the problem of reaching every student, the 21st-century version of the one-room school.  Removing the lectures from class time would enable me to work with every student every day.  It will eventually lead to a classroom that is differentiated to meet the needs of each student, no matter what their needs.  My choice was clear: I have decided to flip my classes and begin the journey toward flipped learning.