Each year, the Biology department at BHS has students explain the mitosis process in a unique way. Over the years, the idea as to how students would complete the task has evolved. Mrs. Morrissey explained to her students how students used to create physical flip books, demonstrating the mitosis process, many years ago. Then, students used PowerPoint to have an 'animation' of the mitosis process through replicating slides and 'flipping' through them quickly to get the movement effect. At times, students finished product would turn into 300 slides to make this happen. Fast forward to the year 2014, and students are now using Keynote to help make actual animations on slides.
It is important to note that in many instances, students had actually never used Keynote prior to this project. PowerPoint, yes, but Keynote, no. I am a firm believer that it is always good for students to be aware of different software and tools so that they are exposed and knowledgable in different situations. This project most certainly helped students understand Keynote. In order to help make sure that the technology did not get in the way of learning, a couple of resources were created for the students to help them in their adventure of explaining the mitosis process.
The project was explained to the students as well as a quick introduction to Keynote - how to add 'animations' to slides on the first day. Students referred to the Keynote Hints Documentation. Students were also reminded that if their questions were not answered in this documentation that Google was another great resource to ask the question. (It is amazing sometimes that students forget that they could do this even though they use Google to help answer content questions they might have).
Recording, Exporting and Uploading Keynote Presentation:
After day 1 of introducing Keynote, I began to think about the submission process that the teachers used in past years and wanted to come up with a more efficient way. Thus, we came up with a process for students to actually record their Keynote presentation and make a true animated video. Several benefits result in this new process:
- Students could choose to speak as the presentation was being recorded.
- Students would export a .mov file, which would allow them to upload that file to their Google Drive account (a keynote presentation cannot be viewed online even if it is uploaded to Google Drive)
- Students could easily change permissions of video to anyone with link and provide the teacher with the link to the video (Teachers no longer needed to rely on the Community Folder - Teacher Drop Box that we have at school on our network)
- Teacher could watch and grade the animated videos anywhere that teachers had internet access (best to use Chrome)
Students were given several additional days to work on the project. During this time, students were told that they could actually record their presentation to make it an animated video. The documentation, linked below, walks students through the process of recording, exporting and uploading their file to their Google Drive account. Recording and Exporting a Keynote Presentation Documentation
* Students used Chrome to upload the non-Google file online to their Google Drive account.
Receiving Files:
Teachers created a Google Form for students to submit their link to their project so that they could easily grade their project. This link below walks teachers through how to treat a Google Form as a 'Dropbox'. Creating Teacher Dropbox with Google Forms.
Student Examples:
Student Examples:
Now the most important part - actually seeing some student work. They created some great animation videos! (click on the student name to actually view the animated video)
If you have questions regarding using Keynote in your own curriculum, just stop by and we can chat!
Happy Learning!
