Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You-(Tube)

An education-myth that has been thoroughly debunked over recent years is the view that IT is inherently engaging to young people. Many would argue that this has never been the case; I disagree, remembering the way that my pupils sat up with genuine interest when my first data projector was installed in 2001, and the tangible increase in concentration and attention engendered as I nonchalantly swept through some poorly-phrased lesson aims on my fledgling powerpoint. 'Well would you look at that,', they may have thought, 'Sir's board has got a scarf thing running down one side, and the letters are flying in from all directions! Look – there's another one!'. Exciting times indeed, although I recall with regret that approximately twelve minutes later, the novelty had worn off and we were back to normal, which is to say me hyper-actively prancing around at the front, trying to persuade groups of reluctant students to apply themselves to writing PEE paragraphs.

Whilst on this IT-related nostalgia trip (aaah... NOF training), I also recall that the light emanating from my first projector was quite pathetically feeble, about the intensity of the average entry-level smart phone these days. This necessitated my spending a weekend obsessively blacking out my classroom with black display board paper; a difficult and dangerous venture, particularly as I was in a newly-built block, replete with high ceilings, long windows and skylights, all designed to let in as much natural light as possible. Heroically, and through wanton contravention of every health and safety regulation the school held dear, I managed it, and ended up with a classroom like a coal bunker (but a coal bunker with a PEE paragraph hypnotically shimmering on one wall). Some light-deprived students would fall asleep, all would leaving the lesson blinking like moles... colleagues delivering lessons following mine would complain at the twenty minutes it took for kids to regain the ability to focus their eyes properly. Was it any good? Did it improve student engagement and behaviour? Difficult to say really – couldn't see them. I'm tempted to re-create the environment for our next OFSTED though, if only for the sake of listening to the poor inspector chap stumbling his way around bashing his shins, and the grunts of startled adolescents being awoken from deep slumber to be asked what level they are at in AF5...

However, in recent years, I've been experimenting with some perhaps more useful uses of ICT, which, belatedly, brings me to the point of this post. I've found great value in the practice of creating videos of key teaching points, either through filming teachers in front of a green screen, or making screencasts (meaning recording voice-overs of whatever is being shown on a computer screen). These are then stored on YouTube and accessed by students as and when required - here's an example from our site of a playlist dedicated to the now infamous AQA English Language exam:


It's difficult to know what to call this approach exactly – the TES this week refers to 'blended learning' and it sounds like it's along these lines – using a blend of conventional classroom activity and videos stored on the web. It could also be said to be a variant of 'flipped learning', but in honesty I can't quite bring myself to use that phrase – I do regard myself as fairly open to technical language, and don't share the sometimes alarmingly furious responses to 'jargon' exhibited by some, but even so, I can't help feeling that 'flipped learning' sounds a bit vacuous. Maybe I'll get used to it. Anyway, I think it's good for these reasons:

1 – These resources change student-teacher dynamics, fundamentally and positively. More than anything, they put the focus on their learning, rather than my teaching. The instruction itself is provided through film, not from me – now it's up to the kids to learn it, and me to make sure that happens. Let's say I'm teaching students to vary sentence structures – an important but potentially slightly dull teaching point. There are loads of teacher-made films on this, such as this from a teacher at our school:

 
 If a student then shows in their writing that they aren't yet varying their sentences, my job becomes helping them to understand what went wrong in their learning – did they concentrate? What strategies did they use to learn the stuff? What are their notes like? How's their motivation? What do they need to do as they watch again to make sure they retain it? If, as happens from time to time, they can't do it because they weren't really listening and couldn't be bothered, then I can get them to repeat the activity without any further energy or input from me – my role is focused on working out the best strategies, including discipline, to get students to learn, rather than droning on, yet again, about how to vary sodding sentences.

2 – Making and sharing these films can provide rich professional development. I didn't really clock this one until I'd made a few. Basically it gives us a chance to watch ourselves teach in a way that can be reviewed at leisure – if you watch it and don't like it, you can always re-edit or re-film. Further to this though is the value of getting colleagues to watch each other, or be there when they are being filmed – I remember being challenged on an early film that I made by a colleague who thought that an aspect I was teaching them was inaccurate – he was right, and corrected a misconception that I had held for years. Working with colleagues to make the films is like doing a non-scary lesson observation, with the advantage that dialogue on quality goes on all through the experience, and if either of you don't like it, you can change it and do it again!

3 – It's time-efficient – and that's important given the workload of teachers at the moment. I won't pretend that it doesn't take a while to learn to do (although screencasting is increasngly a doddle), but once the resource is there, it's possible to get great value for the work you've put in. Here's me in what I call the 'air-traffic controller' years, dossing around at school during the hols and on a whim putting together a resource on poetry that has been accessed over 20,000 times – that's a lot of engagement for a resource which was ten minutes in the construction. It gets to the point where, whenever anyone sends around a decent looking lesson, it's worth making a voice-over of it - to do otherwise seems a waste of work and expertise that could be stored, shared and re-used.

4 – It's democratic – I like the fact that anyone with internet access can access this stuff; fair enough, our stuff on the AQA English exam isn't exactly the Khan Academy, but we've had some really lovely comments from kids literally all over the world who've found them helpful. It's also incredibly useful to use some of the fantastic work from other schools – sharing expertise in a really effective way. Sometimes, when there are a few teachers on YT teaching the same thing, we can have a 'teach-off' – groups of kids using the different teachers and competing to see which one is most effective.

5 – It's great for AFL. In particular, I've found it helpful for providing effective feedback activities. After a set of mock exams, for example, it's relatively straightforward to identify the three things that the class aren't getting, and make films targetting those points. When marking, being able to say 'watch video 1' or whatever, makes a nice rich alternative to laborious target setting in books – it gives them something to do, with the teacher's role being monitoring that they've learnt it. This 'storage' of content allows us to provide detailed, quality explanation of key points, without exhausting ourselves by having to go over and over the same old stuff.

6 – Some kids – you may have noticed this – get distracted easily in classroom situations. Clearly it wouldn't be desirable not to work on this with them; nevertheless, it can also be helpful for key bits of learning to have headphones on, a shiny screen in front of you, thereby cutting down audio and visual distraction and helping them to concentrate, particularly later in the day.

These are only some of the benefits of this approach; there are many more, such as the impact on students who are exluded or absent, the unlimited chances it gives to students to access learning, the flexibility in time and place, the potential for mucking about (Santa hats on for Xmas specials-type thing), the involvement of parents, cross-department fertilisation etc etc. I'd even venture one further 'etc', such is my enthusiasm for this way of working, as evidenced by the fact that we've now started experimenting with providing CPD in the same, flexible format; on the recent INSET day our teachers could choose to either attend a live training session, or defer their training to a time and place of their own choosing, using this playlist:


So, to finish, here's some starter tips and thoughts in case you wanted to have a go.

• Prepare to feel like a complete tool on the first couple of times you do it – presenting to camera is very much a learned skill, and this stuff can make teachers feel vulnerable through exposing their own practice to scrutiny – so be prepared to get firmly out of the comfort zone – the strangeness will decrease over time. Nobody likes the sound of their own voice – yours is fine (probably) – don't worry about it.

• Remember that this strategy is an enhancement of, rather than replacement for, creative, exciting classroom teaching.
• Plan what you are going to say in advance and keep it short and focused as far as possible.
• When swearing (which you will definitely do, usually starting at 'Take Three' of your first attempt), try to avoid the worst obscenities if possible – you are, after all, being filmed
• Do take opportunities to refilm segments if you aren't happy, but equally don't try to be word-perfect; a natural delivery, imagining your class in front of you, tends to do the trick.
• Men – do your tie up.
• Don't wear green before a green screen, or you'll end up a bizarre disembodied head.
  @tomboulter