My previous blog post was the first in a series in which I will be describing how I put together my online video resources and how I produce and upload them.  At this point I thought that I would show you an example of the sort of products I enjoy creating.

I have another site where I upload science revision videos, and to date my videos have been watched nearly 16,000 times – not bad for a channel that has only been up and running for a short time.  I have offered to make revision videos ‘on demand’, and it has been really rewarding to receive requests from viewers for specific topics.

The video ‘Valence electrons’ was recently requested, and from beginning to end must have taken me about three hours. The majority of this time is spent putting together the various Powerpoint slides – the recording phase is relatively short (except today when anything that could go wrong did go wrong!).

The final product is then uploaded to YouTube, and shared with my other sites as required.

I’m continuing to experiment with my Waco bamboo tablet  – one day I’ll be as proficient as Salman Khan (of Khan Academy fame) – but it’s another skill that I need to master.  I’ll keep you informed as to how it’s going.

Watch out for the next video in the ‘Create Your Own Online Teaching Resources’ series when I’ll be telling you what tools I use for video production, and I’ll be sharing with you where you can get most of the software absolutely free!

Until next time,

Graham

Do your students find it difficult to take in and retain the facts that you’re teaching – I’ll bet they do!  Schools invest a lot of time and money encouraging their students to effectively revise.  As a teacher I find it frustrating that even though I may have flagged up a forthcoming test over and over again, I can guarantee that only a handful of my students will actually make any effort to revise.

Throughout my teaching career I have looked for better ways to encourage revision, and I’m still in search of that holy grail.  Recently I came across a reference to ‘spaced learning’ so I thought I should investigate in more detail and give it a try.

My initial search came across a link in Baroness Susan Greenfield’s site:

http://www.susangreenfield.com/assets/Uploads/Spaced-Learning-Guide.pdf

Spaced learning depends upon creating neural pathways which results in the development of long-term memories.  Constant stimulation did not result in the required linking of cells, but the important factor was the gap between stimulations.

Monkseaton High School embraced the concept of spaced learning, and came up with a structure for a lesson to help develop memory retention.  Each lesson consists of five key parts:

• Teacher input of key facts / information
• 10-minute break
• Student recall of key facts / information
• 10-minute break
• Student application of key facts / information

The breaks involved some form of physical activity that avoided stimulating the memory pathways being formed.  Monkseaton recommended activities such as origami, play-dough modelling, or even ball handling games.  Teacher input involved the use of Powerpoint presentations to the whole class.

At my own school I decided to develop spaced-learning lessons following a similar method to Monkseaton.  One key difference however was the way in which the information was delivered.  To my way of thinking, it was so important that students were focused for the entire 10-15 minute period of knowledge acquisition.  My students are of average ability, and concentration is not necessarily a strong point!

I therefore decided to produce videos that students could watch individually.  With their own computer and headphones they could watch the material in their own little ‘bubble’ without distractions from others.  I also wrote short questions for completion at the end of the session.

Does spaced-learning work?  I’m not sure yet as the exam results will not be available for a couple of months.  However, students have commented on how useful the sessions have been, and staff have noted the benefits.  I have also made the videos available for use at home, and there is very clear evidence that a significant number of students have made the effort to engage in their own time.

The advocates of spaced-learning claim that it is possible to cover a whole module of work in one session.  I have tried to achieve this, and my videos have been summaries of key facts – I am indebted to the excellent module summaries in the Collins Revision Guides for content!

In the resources section in the left hand panel of my site I have included some examples of the material I have produced – I hope you find it of interest, and why not give spaced-learning a go?

Until next time,

Graham

Hi, and welcome to my first post on this new blog.

The ‘About’ page gives you a brief outline of who I am, what I do, my family and my interests.  Suffice to say here, I am a science teacher and have been so for over 30 years (I stood in front of my first class in January 1983!).  So I have vast experience of teaching, and have been leading successful science departments since 1991.
I decided to develop ‘Online Science Teaching’ following many months of hard work and late nights.  Let me give you the background……      

A little while ago I was asked to tutor a student in a nearby village.  Having tutored many students in the past, I was in no rush to take on another one.  But the mother was persistent, so eventually I agreed to become the girl’s tutor.  The student in question was being home-schooled, and during our first session it became abundantly clear that she had little basic knowledge of science – there was no way that we would be able to cover the specification in sufficient detail in the time available.

In a rash moment I offered to do something that was to occupy many hours of my time in the months ahead.  I decided to produce video courses that would cover the entire specifications!  The plan was that I would deliver a video every week, my student would watch the video in her own time, and during our tuition slot I would go through any problems and also use prepared questions and past papers to check her understanding.

Time was limited, so we decided to concentrate on Biology and Chemistry, and the materials were prepared following the Edexcel iGCSE specifications.  I chose the iGCSE courses because there were no practical assessments involved.  In a future blog post I will describe the various options available to homeschoolers and their exam entries.

Each video was about 20 minutes in duration, and took about 6 hours to prepare.  I managed to condense the Biology and Chemistry courses into about 20 videos each, and within eighteen months I had covered everything.

As development of the courses progressed, more and more people showed interest in what I was doing, and I received requests to make the courses available to others.  So, to cut a long story short, I developed a site where interested parents, students, tutors and establishments could purchase the videos.  The site can be found at:

http://www.igcsesciencecourses.com/

I decided to develop this blog in support of my main site, and also to ‘showcase’ other materials as and when I develop them.  I’ll also be introducing you to other resources that could be of interest.

So, many thanks for reading my first post on this new blog – I hope you like what you see!

Until next time,

Graham