Some exciting teaching experiences

I'm now marking my graduate students' descriptions of their teaching practicum experiences using e-learning tools. There are some really innovative things going on. Here are two:

1. Graphics and Design class
This student teacher was teaching the concept of perspective and vanishing point. Normally, he would use a blackboard/whiteboard, but it would mean his back would obscure part of the drawing. This time, he mounted a webcam directly above a drawing board that was exactly the same that the students were using. It was made from melamine so he could use white board markers as pencils. The webcam then projected whatever he was drawing through his laptop and projector onto a big screen. His drawing desk was angled so he could see the class and the screen, so it was a bit like having a horizontal interactive white board. With a mouse he could also draw digitally over the top of his live drawing in the laptop screen to emphasise areas of importance. He said that he "had total student engagement so management was a non issue and the standard of work students were doing had risen and understanding of the work doubled".
Now that's a creative way to support learning using readily available tools.

2. English class
This class was creating a number of things: writing lyrics, creating a static image, film analysis (Pirates of the Caribbean). Instead of doing the lyrics on Word, printing them out and laminating for the classroom wall, the student teacher did the following. She got students to take images of images of themselves in a pose that represented a big idea they wanted to portray, plus an image of the static images they had created on paper. They did so using the computer's webcam. These two things, plus the lyrics, became part of a DVD cover task they created as their interpretation of the movie. In order to present this to the class, each student created 3 presentation slides containing their product items. She reproted that student engagement was high, collaboration (sharing how to do things technologically in particular) was high, and commitment to completing the work to a high standard was also obvious.

And all of this was from a student teacher who, at the start of this year, was personally challenged by the PICT (pedagogy & information communication technology) class.

Don't you just love it when people experiment with new ways of doing things, and they have such a great effect?