Today's topic for BYOD4L is creating. This is the final topic for our open online course which had take place over the last five days.
I have been blown away with the creative approaches people have taken right from the start. From photographs of hand drawn images and mind maps; audio and video clips capturing their reflections of the day before; to a whole host of ways digital apps and tools can be used in place of simply text.
Prior to the course starting each of the Facilitators created an 'about me' video clip. Let me tell you this was not an easy task for any of us! Many procrastinated before finally 'having a go'. The important thing is we all did it and these were then shared on the course site. It was our way of bringing a little something of us to introduce ourselves. Yes it may have taken us out of our comfort zone but once done I for one really enjoyed listening to my peers talk about what they hoped to get from BYOD4L!
My experience as a student
Over the last 2-3 years I have been a student on the MSc Technology Enhanced Learning Innovation and Change course. During the taught element of the course we were introduced to some great ways to create and share information. As a short activity, rather than write a side of A4 about what change and technology meant, we were asked to summarise this in a short Animoto clip. This is what I created. During the next class (which was online) we shared our clips and then engaged in conversation about them in more detail. The artefacts provided a visual focal point to get us questioning what we we thought. It made the learning fun.
BYOD4Lchat - a creative activity
For our final TweetChat facilitated by Chrissi and Alex, we were encouraged to reflect upon what we would take away from the course and create an artefact that we had drawn or made! My takeaway was that despite BYOD4L only being a 5 day short course, it had become more than that. We had between us developed a learning ecology; a social open community who enjoyed learning together; a lifewide learning community; a network who have the opportunity to continue learning together.
Using creativity for learning
Having listened to a number of Sir Ken Robinson's talks, I can hand on heart say he is an engaging speaker and someone I could sit and listen to for long periods. For me the lecture still has its place in learning and can engage the learner. Granted a lecture can also disengage you when the speaker is talking at you rather than to you. Ken Robinson is a joy to listen to, managing to tell a story but at the same time speckle this with questions that gets my mind racing and curious to explore more.
In recent years RSA Animate have taken some of these talks (and other speakers) and animated them. If you have not had the opportunity to see any of these then I urge you to do so! The opening up of TED talks (a conference with a very high price tag) through videos, give us the opportunity to listen to excellent talks about a whole host of topics. Two of my favourites are:
- Changing education paradyms (animated version)
- How schools kill creativity (TED talk video)
You can follow the RSA Animate playlist of videos on YouTube and TED talks on their website where you will find over 1600 talks to choose from.
I rather like the animated versions and often recall an image from a talk as I reflect upon what was said. Visual recall for some is an important part of the learning process. Mindmaps which can be hand drawn or digitally created are useful ways to break up information into chunks.
Below is a short animation I created to promote the BYOD4L course using Explee. This is a very clever tool which provides simple templates that you can customise with text, pictures and sounds and create a short animated message. Its fun to experiment with the free version.
My Edshelf collection of tools for CREATING
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