Age: 12-15 years

In this lesson, centered in any practical activity implemented in the classroom, students must present their report through a vodcast. (Vodcast = podcast with video)

1. Gain Attention

This time, after doing your practical work, you will try a different way of presenting the process and discussing the results: vodcasting.

To complete this activity you will have to:

• Work in a group of four students.
• Capture the different phases of your practical work with a digital camera or a mobile phone.
• Edit the content.
• Publish the content to a blog (e.g. using Posterous).

2. Inform learners of objectives

In this activity you will

• do some practical work.
• learn how to use digital cameras or mobile phones to record photos and videos.
• learn how to build a blog to present and discuss both the process and the results of the practical work.

3. Stimulate Recall of Prior Knowledge

The prior knowledge will depend on the topic of the practical work.

4. Provide guidance for learning

• Organize your group members in order to collect photos and videos during the different phases of the practical work.
• Decide a structure and the content for the vodcast.
• Edit the vodcast combining videos, photos, sound and subtitles. You can use Movie Maker from Microsoft, iMovie from Apple or other available video editing software.

Use the Posterous’ e-mail address given by your teacher to publish your vodcast in the class blog. Remember that to post in the blog you just have to send an e-mail:

• the subject of your message will be the title of your post; the text of your message will be the text of your post; the attachment (vodcast, in this case) will be embedded in the blog.
• Be attentive to the feedback given by your teacher about the vodcast you are preparing. Use that feedback to make some changes that you consider important.
• Each student must comment the vodcast of at least two different groups. Try to choose the vodcasts that have less comments.
• The members of each group must answer to all the comments to their vodcast.

5.  Present the material

All the material will be published and discussed in the Posterous’ blog.
Before publishing the vodcast, each group must discuss with the teacher ways of improving it.

6. Elicit performance

The performance will be elicited during the vodcast’s development and publication.

7. Provide feedback

During the entire process, students must receive teachers’ feedback about the process and the product. The final feedback will be published in the blog as a comment.

8.  Enhance retention and transfer

At the end, each group answer to the following questions in the blog:

• Did you like this activity?
• Why or why not?
• What did you learn with this activity?