Student Tutorial Designer

WAP - Student Tutorial Designers 

Hand washing is listed as one of the goals on the assessment that I fill out for
each of my students twice per year.  As a result, I have been wanting to find
ways to improve the hand washing skills of my students. Since I work with 3-4
year olds, it is the perfect age to emphasize the importance of proper hand
washing.  Keeping hands clean is one of the most important steps we can take
to avoid getting sick and spreading germs to others. Many diseases and
conditions are spread by not washing hands with soap and clean, running
water.  As the weather changes and cold and flu season is upon us, I really
want to make this a priority in my classroom.  

I currently have some students that get the soap and rinse it off before they
even rub their hands together, others that think they only have to wash one
hand and not the other, as well as those students that do not shake the water
off their hands when finished washing and then proceed to create a puddle on
the bathroom floor.    

We do have posters hanging in the bathroom that give the important steps to
follow for hand washing, but even though we review the steps often, it is helpful
to have other ways to teach children to become effective hand washers.

The only access to technology we have in our classroom is an iPad.  Therefore
one of my students could use this technology to create a student tutorial on
hand washing.  I have one student in my class who is especially adept at hand
washing. He told me his dad taught him and he really takes his time and does
a thorough job.  I would tell him that I have a very important job for him and that
I need him to teach the other students in our classroom how to wash their
hands. I would ask him if he has any ideas how he could show the other
students, both girls and boys, the proper way to wash their hands.  I would
point out that he could use the iPad in his teaching and see if that sparks any
ideas of how he can present his information to his peers. Since our students
are so young, they will require some degree of help with the becoming student
tutorial designers. I would also need to ask his parents permission for him to create a video that

we would share with the class. 

Although my students are young, I would not be surprised if many of them
already know how to make a video or at least take pictures on an iPad.  

I feel a video would be a great learning tool as I often notice that even using
simple technology such as listening to a book on CD seems to hold the
attention of my students longer than when a teacher reads a story (not sure
that is a good thing, but an observation nonetheless).  I also see value in it
being one of their classmates teaching them so they feel like they can also
succeed in becoming thorough hand washers and that they could have a turn
to make videos in the future about things they do well.

For the purpose of sharing on this blog, I have enlisted the help of my daughter
to make a video similar to what I would want my student to create.

Using the iPad video would probably be what my students might be able to handle on their own in terms of being student tutorial designers, but I did search around for easy to use Apps that may allow the to improve their videos and make them more exciting to watch.  I found an App called Animoto which may be something the students would enjoy using although they would need some assistance from a teacher or other adult.  Animoto allows you to make videos using storyboard templates or to start from scratch, it allows you to adjust colors, fonts, music, and to produce and share your videos in minutes.  The free trial only allowed me to use 5 seconds of the video I created, but you can make longer videos for a fee.  

Click on the link below to see a short example of how you can enhance the video from your iPad.

https://animoto.com/play/gGka85yMrwj0r004sS8AYw

With added features like music and text, it could make the video more exciting to watch and to look like something they would see on tv or on their iPads.

REFLECTION:
I am excited to begin making videos with my students as tutorial designers.  I am confident that many of my students are capable of using the iPad to make a video of their classmate's tutorial.  Kids learn so much from each other and this is just one example of how I am going to implement this learning into my classroom.  I will be on the lookout for other apps that allow us to enhance our videos without having to pay a fee.