56 tech talk knovio

Tech Talk Using Knovio to promote reflective learning through practicing, editing and recording presentations Lucius Von Joo Lucius Von Joo currently teaches at Kanda University of International Studies, Japan. He graduated with an EdM in Comparative and International Education and has taught deaf education, elementary education and EFL/ESL in California, Japan and New York in the past 10 years. His research interests include computer assisted learning, film and documentary content based learning, discussion skill pragmatics, teacher training origins and application of lessons, student educational backgrounds and learning approaches, video-cued multivocal ethnography, and family and communities as educators.

A publisher friend of mine was mentioning to me the other day about how he has noticed more and more digital publishing appearing. He mentioned that the digital process allows many less funded projects to get published in a much faster time span. There are plusses and minuses about this process but regardless of the debate the digital publishing process got me to thinking about an easy way to validate my students’ efforts through publishing. I searched through many options and I settled on an online program called Issuu. Issuu fit best with my group due to ease of use, look of finished product and the ever enticing price tag of free.

Issuu publishes the paper in a flash format that you can flip through as if you are actually reading a book.

Most digital publishing work the same some in flash and some in HTML 5 the latter usually is a pay program. If you are not familiar with those terms if you are looking for programs that can be used. The online format allows validation for students I will explain how start an account and upload finished works into a digital library using Issuu. I will also litter in a few tips and tricks that I found enabled the the digital publishing process to go quick and smooth.

A Step-by-Step Guide to Setting up and using Knovio for prerecording presentations

Go to issuu.com. From here you can see many other publications from professional and ammature writers which as a side note is a great resource for students to have access to magazines in English that match their interests. Avoiding any further sidetracking back to setting up your class account. Go to create account.

In my case I wanted the entire class to publish works into a joint library. So I made the account and password something easy and public that the students could remember. If you wanted to have separate accounts and libraries for each student you would just have them follow the below steps to make unique accounts versus one that the class shares. In the name section you can put our own as this will never be public on the account.

Next in the profile name section pick something easy for you and your class to remember (as noted you can not change this name after it is picked) now pick a password that is also easy to remember. The email can be yours as students can just use the profile name when logging instead of your email. Fill in the encrypted words accept the terms and agree. You will get an email to confirm the account with and then your set. It is a good idea to do this before class so that you have the account ready for students when they sit down to publish.

Issuu is a digital publishing platform that puts pdf or document files into a sleek flash based book reading platform. Students can write their books in any wordprocessing program and then digitally publish their work.

My students took multiple unrelated pictures as a scavenger hunt warm that they later had write a story around. The students put the photos into a word document and then wrote the story around the pictures.

After that they found free domain book cover images through google images and which they uploaded into their word document as front and back covers.

After the students had formatted the books to how they wanted them we saved the word document as a pdf.

This is a really helpful step as it will control any reformating that can often happen in. Doc format.

Now each group would log on and upload their saved pdf book.

1. v v v

Before starting this program you will need three things: A saved slideshow (made in any slideshow program) Internet connection Microphone and/or Webcam I found that it was easiest to set this up with my students on macs because the camera and microphone are already built in. However any computer with a microphone and/or webcam would work great and as webcams are becoming more standard it should not be too difficult to find a computer or have students use their home computers. I always explain the program in person. However, the program is intuitive enough that students could figure it out on their own at home.

2. As mentioned earlier, to use Knovio you need to have an already existing slideshow prepared in PowerPoint, Keynote, Google presentation or any other slideshow software. Saving the slideshow as image files or in the classic ppt. format works best.

When making the slideshow it is best to keep it simple to just standard slides. Knovio will not upload any of the transitions or effects such as fly in text or moving flash images. I found that this restraint helped my students focus on the speaking portion of their slideshow as opposed to the effects they could add that may be distracting.

3. Go to knovio.com

4. Click on Sign up free and enter in all the information for a new account. You can do this step with students in class rather quickly because there is no confirmation email they have to respond to in the regular email accounts.

Once the account is set up you can start using the software right away.

5. Next click on New Presentation. You will be cued to load a slideshow.

6. Click on upload slides. Navigate to where you have the slideshow saved and click open.

7. You will then have to wait 2-3 minutes while the program uploads your slides. At this point there is a how-to video that you can click on and watch while you wait for the slides to upload. Having students watch this video is

a really big help, because if they have any questions later on they know where to watch a video that will probably answer their questions.

8. A tone will sound when the slides have uploaded successfully. You can view your slides to make sure nothing was lost in the uploading process. If anything has changed you can click on the troubleshooting not satisfied with your slides on the upper left of the screen. This will take you to a screen that explains how to save slideshows as image files which fixes any problems with changed formatting. If you forsee this being a problem for your students it is easier to teach them about this before and have them upload their slideshows in this format.

If

everything looks good click on >Next Step: Record video in the bottom right corner of the screen.

9. An Adobe Flash Player Settings box will pop up click on allow. This is a very important step that will make the program work.

10. If your webcam is connected, you should see yourself appear on camera in the upper left corner. If you would prefer to record your voice only for this presentation you can change record webcam to record audio only. I have done both methods with students. For one of two reasons; if students are focusing only on their pronunciation or if students have access to computers with microphones but no webcams.

11. Now you are ready to record your presentation. Click on record and move through your slideshow presentation just as you would do in a live setting. You can advance through slides by clicking next slide or with the arrow keys on your keyboard.

12. After you have finished recording your slideshow presentation, click stop recording. You can now view and edit your presentation. Click on play to watch and listen to your presentation.

13. At this point you can rerecord the entire slideshow or just one slide if you would like. For this step I often have students write about what they wanted to change about their recording followed by a plan to improve it.

Entire slideshow

One slide only

14. After all the edits are done and you are pleased with the recorded presentation, you can share it. On the bottom right hand corner of the screen click >Next Step:Share. If you would like, you can give your presentation a Title and a description or just move on to the next step.

15. At this point you are ready to share your Knovio presentation. There are multiple outlets to share the finished presentation. It can be emailed, posted on facebook/twitter/linkedin, embedded into a website or you can use the Knovio’s Private Spaces to share it amongst an invited group. I have tried multiple approaches and Knovio’s Private Spaces is probably the easiest way to share presentations as a class. You invite every class member by inserting the email they signed up to Knovio with and, after confirmation, they are part of your private group and can drag and share slideshows with other members.

Knovio will save all your presentations that you have completed on the home screen and these presentations can be revisited and edited at any time. I have used this feature for students to go back and edit slideshows after they have received feed back from their peers.

Here is an example of what you will see and how you can send feedback to the presenter online.

The Overall Benefits: 1. This is a great tool to allow students to record themselves and reflect on their presentations skills as well as familiarizing them with online communication. The platform is pretty simple to follow and I find that after the students have gone through the process once, it is very easy for them to use the software again.

2. I have had students who choose to use this software as a tool to prepare for live presentations as it is much more reflective than practicing in front of a mirror. The program combines many presentationpracticing tools into one place as it is a visual and audio recorder and an editor all in one place.

3. Recording the presentations outside of class is an excellent time saver and allows for each student to have their own presentation—though I have also had students do Knovio presentations in groups as well.

The feedback given to peers can also be given outside of class through email, which saves time and establishes an online network for the class.

4. The presentations are always there for students to look back on and save as a portfolio to share or learn from as they continue to study language.

Possible Limitations: 1. Knovio requires a microphone and/or webcam which may not be available at every facility. Also if you try to record the Knovio presentations in class, there is a major problem with sound from other students speaking at the same time.

2. Students should also be warned that if they choose to rerecord their presentations, the previous recordings are replaced with the newest one. This limits student’s ability to compare takes unless they upload the slides again and publish as a separate slideshow.

3. Knovio is a flash based software which means it cannot be used on an iPhone or a iPad however it can be used on any platform that can handle up-to-date flash.

Final Remarks: This program has been very popular with my classes. I have had students take upward of ten takes on one presentation, pinpointing aspects of the presentation they would like to work, setting personal goals. It has helped my students and I reflect and keep track of presentations so I am very pleased to have a place to share the program with others. I have put a couple of ideas on how to use this program in this column, and due to the simplicity and online nature of Knovio, I am sure there are many more ways the program can be utilized by teachers, students and in also other professional settings to improve and reflect on presentations and language skills. lucius-v@kanda.kuis.ac.jp