Evidencing and documenting learning using audio, video and blogs

How exciting is it to read this chapter, because Silvia directly references a project that the two of us (along with two other educators) were involved in when I worked at a school in Switzerland ... to find out more read on!

Audio Documentation

The focus of documenting learning is on words, phrases and sounds.  Being able to communicate is fundamental to reading and writing, though in today's world being literate involves conveying meaning through text, visual and audible communication - and in some cases combining images, video and audio to convey thinking.  Audio is well suited for emergent readers and writers and is an excellent documenting alternative if students are not allowed to publish photographs and videos.  Interestingly, I've taught a child who was an elective mute at school and yet was happy to record her voice at home using VoiceThread to talk about her learning.  

Video Documentation

People are sharing videos all the time, and in schools video is a great way for students documenting both FOR and AS learning.  Video allows playback, records changes over time when video clips are strung together, and also allows slow motion and time lapse.  Screencasting is one type of video documenting I've used with students who can also record either the audio playing on the screen while they record or their own voice-over using a microphone, talking about the learning and discussing how he or she is moving towards or perhaps exceeding their learning goals.  

Blogging

A blogging platform allows learners to document in a variety of formats - it can be a hub for a multimedia artefacts and can show a wide range of evidence of learning.  It allows students to share their ideas with a global audience.  

Ten years ago, Silvia and I worked with two other teachers in a quad blog, which she mentions in this section.  You can find links to what we did here and here.  

Looking back at these posts now it's clear that blogging enabled us to embed many artefacts into our posts including videos of the students talking about their learning.  Audio and video is very engaging for most students and as Silvia writes, a blog can be the "glue" that holds the documentation together (including links to past documentation as I've just illustrated).  A blogging platform also supports the sharing and amplifying in the documenting of learning.

Photo Credit:  Gerd Altmann on Pixabay