Learn how to remove the background of a photo in the Canva photo editor.
This week we looked at creating digital stories using screen casting and video editing. We introduced HP5- a program that allows you to create a video and allows you to add an interactive element to it as well. You can add multiple choice questions, surveys, true or false questions anywhere in your video. This allows you to see if the people who are watching your video are actively engaging in it and understanding what you are sharing. For practice, I created a video that explains how you can remove the background of a photo using the Canva Photo Editor program. Maybe not the most useful tool, but I think it could come in handy for students wanting to make collages, adding their photos to a different background… there are many things that students or people using Canva could use this tool for.
I want to teach middle school… the earlier years of middle school I would say might be to early to introduce screen casting and HP5 to, especially given the fact that we as university students had a hard time doing it, I couldn’t imagine grade 6 students doing it seamlessly either- which isn’t the point, but I do think that it could be complicated. Something that I really like about HP5 was that when the questions pop up on the screen, the video stops so whoever is watching doesn’t have to work over time to listen to the video and answer a question about previous information. This element to me I think would work well in a middle school classroom if I were the one making the videos and asking my students to watch them. However, maybe grade 8 students, with the right explanation and instruction, could potentially use this kind of program to complete tasks or projects in class. Especially in French I feel like students could maybe make a video or do a skit or something and have verb tenses of some kind built into it and ask multiple choice or fill in the blank questions about wether the tenses used in the video were correct or not, or what other tense could possibly work, or for PHE they could perform a certain fundamental movement skill and questions could include wether or not they were performing it properly, using the right technique or considering the safety precautions. I think there are many positives with this program, but for older ages for sure. Something else that is really nice about this kind of program is that there are so many options- ones that I haven’t even explored yet, that no project will be the same from my students. It also will give students a feeling of autonomy when completing their own assignments.
I think the most important thing to think about when considering a flipped classroom for middle schoolers is taking into account their attention spans, access to technology and relationships with each other, family, and you as the teacher. In my experience in middle schools, students like hands-on activities where they can work in small groups and get their work done, so I think a flipped classroom could adapt well to this style. Maybe even have them watch a screencast video the teacher created and have them answer the interactive questions so you know they watched the video and them have them complete their assignments or homework in class with their peers. A flipped classroom allows for more collaboration between students, more time for them to ask the teacher questions or get help with things they aren’t sure of, and it also is helpful for students who may be absent, they won’t fall to far behind. The down fall of this method is some students may not have reliable internet or an adult to support them at home. They also might forget to watch the videos and maybe not engage with it as much as they should. Overall, I believe it could work, if it it structured well 🙂