Kids Teaching Kids by Eric Marcos

These are my notes from Eric J. Marcos‘s luncheon keynote, “Kids Teaching Kids” at the 2012 Mobile Learning Conference in Phoenix, Arizona, on April 12, 2012. MY THOUGHTS AND COMMENTS ARE IN ALL CAPS. Eric is a 6th grade math teacher who has flipped his classroom in a different way: THe kids are the teachers. Their website is mathtrain.tv: Videos by students, for students. Videos are educational and entertaining. Eric’s presentation also features students Tiana “Paul” Kadkhoda and Andrew Rothman from Lincoln Middle School in Santa Monica, CA.

Students create these videos in my classroom after school because they want to
– they don’t get grades or extra credit for making these videos
– students use mostly computers that I have purchased and brought into my classroom, many are tablet PCs

At ‘some’ schools there are cell phones which also require teachers not to use mobile devices at school “to set a good example for students”

Our entire project started when I brought a TabletPC to our classroom and decided to make it “our computer”
– this was a BIG deal: trusting students

My biggest message to teachers: “Let students touch the computer!”

Tablets are a real game changer: Students being able to draw directly on the tablet

Alan November is very important to this story
– I shared one of my student videos

When watch other people get excited and fired up about work we’ve shared, that makes a huge impact both on me as a teacher and on my students
– this shows what a big ‘thing’ we are on to

MY COMMENT: REMINDS ME OF 7TH GRADE TEACHERS MORGAN CUTHBERT AND MIKE HAGERTY IN YARMOUTH, MAINE, WHOSE 7TH GRADE STUDENTS ARE ALSO CREATING MATH TUTORIAL VIDEOS. SEE MY MARCH 2012 POST, “Serving or Delivering does not equal Teaching or Learning” FOR MORE DETAILS.

The same Math Train video is featured in “TEDxNYED – Alan November – 03/05/2011” – advance to 11:15 to see it:

MY COMMENT: IN THE EDUCATION WEEK LEADERSHIP FORUM / GLOBALSCHOLAR VIDEO CLIP WHICH ERIC JUST SHARED, ALAN MENTIONED THAT “IF YOU GIVE YOUR STUDENTS PSYEUDONYMS WHEN YOU PUBLISH THEIR WORK ONLINE YOU WON’T BREAK FERPA OR CIPA, OR LOSE YOUR ERATE FUNDING. IT’S IMPORTANT TO NOTE WITH PARENT AND STUDENT PERMISSION, STUDENT WORK CAN BE PUBLISHED WITH NAMES AND NOT VIOLATE U.S. LAW. SEE BALANCEDFILTERING.ORG AND THE UNMASKING THE DIGITAL TRUTH PROJECT FOR MORE ON THIS.

Students in many cases spend hours and hours on videos because they wanted to make it right
– lots of effort, high levels of motivation

Tiana:
– my teachers know the answers, but my classmates don’t
– When you explain it in a video, you are learning how to teach it
– “In order to teach someone, you really have to learn it”

Quotation from Alan November: I show other kids kids work
– “my teacher doesn’t have a rewind button”
– “my teacher explains things as if you’re supposed to understand it the first time in class”
– “kids I talk to universally say, I want to learn that way”

MY COMMENT: IT’S VERY INTERESTING TO NOTE THESE PURPOSE FILLED ACTIVITIES ERIC’S STUDENTS ARE DOING ARE TAKING PLACE AFTER SCHOOL. WE NEED TO GET PURPOSE FILLED ACTIVITIES LIKE THIS TAKING PLACE DURING SCHOOL TOO! IT’S OFTEN INTERESTING TO SEE HOW MUCH VALUABLE LEARNING CAN TAKE PLACE WHEN LEARNERS HAVE AUTONOMY / FREEDOM.

UPDATE: ERIC AND HIS STUDENTS DID A GREAT JOB CLARIFYING AND EMPHASIZING HOW IMPORTANT THE ‘AFTER SCHOOL’ AND ‘NOT FOR A GRADE’ ASPECTS OF THEIR WORK WERE AND CONTINUE TO BE.

Tiana: Everything we do should have purpose
– these videos have so many purposes
– I remember spending 3 hours on a single math video because they were so fun to do, and because I cared so much about them
– we get a lot of ‘kid language’ when we share and view these kinds of videos
– vocabulary used by kids can be different, also kids don’t always skip steps like some adults do with more life experiences
– When a kid teaches something, sometimes we can understand it better
– It was a big deal because it was “on my own will” not for extra credit, I spent much more time on these videos for this reason

Who has read “Drive” by Dan Pink?
– if you have, you’ll ‘hear’ almost exactly what Tiana just said
– what motivates people
– people are more motivated when they are NOT getting a grade, when there is not extrinsic rewards / carrots

Tiana: When all these people are viewing the videos, it puts some pressure on
– don’t ‘pressurize’ this process if you do this with your kids
– the natural spontaneity of this is important

I discovered Camtasia Studio software one day and I LOVE their product
– I don’t work for them, they are not sponsoring us
– such a big deal to be able to

Our Mathtrain.tv site is setup with Moodle
– was originally created pre-Facebook

Tiana: These videos helped us understand ‘the why’ of math, not just how to work the problems and get the answers

Remember: It’s NOT just the A students / gift students who make these videos and benefit SO much from this work!

Tiana: When you give us a Tablet PC, be patient with us [as students] when we want to play and draw hearts

THIS IS GOOD WISDOM FROM A YOUNG STUDENT: SAME ADVICE WE GIVE TO TEACHERS USING MATH MANIPULATIVES IN THE CLASSROOM

“Bob and Paul” videos inspired “Ben and Jerry” to create videos: Example – “Probability by Ben & Jerry”

No Camtasia Studio software
– use Jing, Screenr or ScreencastoMatic

iPad Apps for Screencasting
– ShowMe (free)
– ScreenChomp (free)
– ReplayNote ($5)
– Educreations (free)
– Explain Everything ($3)

Doceri (free app, but software to put on your computer costs $)
– is an app for remote controlling your computer
– has a special pen that you can flip over, one side is an eraser and the other is a ‘normal’ stylus

Reflection App ($15)
– share your iPad screen on your Mac computer connected to a projector

I do not have a blueprint of what to do
– students like Andrew drew art, organized content, did all the work which made Mathtrain great

MY COMMENT: JUST SAW SKITCH (FREE) ON ERIC’S IPAD! I NEED TO DOWNLOAD IT! THE DESKTOP VERSION OF SKITCH IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE MAC APPS

OVERALL GREAT PRESENTATION BY ERIC, TIANA AND ANDEW! I HOPE WE’LL SEE THEM AS ISTE CONFERENCE KEYNOTERS SOON!

If you enjoyed this post and found it useful, subscribe to Wes’ free newsletter. Check out Wes’ video tutorial library, “Playing with Media.” Information about more ways to learn with Dr. Wesley Fryer are available on wesfryer.com/after.

On this day..