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Working with tutors to create immersive and effective elearning for SEND students
Now that the development phase is passing into review, first with an SEND tutor and then with SEND studens themselves I am learning:
- Value of Video Demo: signing in to a the resource centre, logging in to a computer.
- Importance of talking them through things we may take for granted.
- Pick out key things, in this case opening and closing times.
- Add a quiz to this to give it emphasis and to engage them.
- Tell them often. They love repetition and will return regularly to something for a reminder
- As Immersive Reader provides, best to have text on blue, yellow or green background and use Comic Sans as their favoured font as it is less ‘harsh’ than others.
- Not all have Smartphones, say 5 out of 14 have no phone.
- 360 headsets would be fun to use if we had them, but proper ones!
- 85% are auditory, or visual/auditory learners
- Though my learning from the OU is that these learning preference categories are a nonsence unfounded in any science. Rather in this instance it is a medical aid surely? Someone who cannot see, or cannot hear will have a preference away from seeing or hearing – naturally, with it having nothing to do with learning.
I am delighted to share this with the OU community and my followers. Thoughts and comments please!
I was delighted with the course tutor’s response, though I’m mostly awaiting for a response from a number of the SEND students themselves. It has to work for them, and be adjusted, even reinvented so as to appeal to and to work for them!
https://www.thinglink.com/mediacard/1244284378704510977
“Slick, professional … and a lot of clicking which they will love!”
Covering Student End of Year Shows in 360
Continuing coverage of the summer at GB MET show at Durrington.
The pattern that is emerging is to cover the ground, each exhibition room and some corridors with a 360 still image, then return to take mid-shots and extreme close-ups. As I find the language for covering an exhibition I also use 360 video.
The pattern is to cover a room, on the self-timer at 5 to 10 seconds, then return first with a standard lens and then using a close-up lens for fine detail. Everything is manually set to try and negotiate very different lighting conditions. Much of the lighting is mixed source, between bright, low or no sunlight, with neon or other artificial lighting. The 360 camera offers various White Balance settings. Shutter speeds are generally kept low so that if someone wanders into a shot (rare) they will be out of focus in any case. Exposure is therefore adjusted by the ISO.
All the images using the standard digital camera are RAW.
All the 360 images are transferred to an iPad mini which operates the 360 camera remotely. All the images on the iPad are backed up in Google Photos. All these images, those chosen to use at least, will then be colour corrected in Adobe Lightroom, then uploaded into ThingLink and stitched together into a Virtual Reality Tour.
Some ‘establishing shots’ or just reminders of the rooms or corridors I am in are shot on my iPhone. It might be better to use the iPad for these and keep the images saved on a college device and in my college Google Gallery.
‘Hotspots’ will feature a random mixture of mid-shots and close-ups. The issue with VR is that the ability to zoom is lost as soon as you overlay ‘tags’ and ‘hot spots’ and the definition is reduced with the zoom too which counters the way we step in to take a closer look to see greater detail, not to have it obscured.
The coverage is somewhat random as I am not in position either to be comprehensive (cover all items in all sizes) or to be selective (I don’t know the student, the tutor or the department).
The simplest guidance I get is to cover the Degree graduate programme. Armed with a plan of the site I pick all of these off over two days. The Richoh Theta 360 camera runs for around 6 hours, but can overheat and shut down. It takes 4 hours to charge. At times a second 360 camera would be handy. With the self-timer I can get well-out of shot though I have learnt to leave the iPad within a 4m range so that the link is not lost. Once activates the camera will still take a picture however once lost the signal has to be reset via the WiFi connection, or sometimes by turning the camera on and off again.
Mind Bursts 