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After reading and listening to a number of sharing from my course mates on TikTok, I realized that I should continue to be resistant. I should at least try it out to see what it is about. I should at least be in touch with what the students are using and maybe even leverage on it.

After using it for a while and googling a little, my impression of TikTok has changed.

There is actually quite a bit of educational accounts on TikTok!

Such as these:
https://edubirdie.com/blog/educational-tiktok-accounts

I am sure that I will be able to find more useful content on TikTok and maybe even introduce them to the students!

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TikTok is a video hosting social media platform with more than 800 million active users worldwide. With content presented in the form of short videos, often with background music, the platform became extremely popular almost right after its launch on the international market in 2017.

A large percentage of the TikTok audience, namely 41%, are young people ages 16 to 24. And while a lot of content created by the users is comedic or focused on current app trends, that's not the only thing you can find on the platform. There is also an abundance of educational content, which TikTok supports with its #LearnOnTikTok initiative. Let's take a closer look at the most interesting and enlightening educational accounts on the website.

Best Educational TikTok Accounts

Math

This math teacher from London offers tips on solving math problems. Ms. Chang also shares interesting problems you might not have seen at school.

The person behind this account is an algebra teacher from New Jersey. Through fun videos and memes, they are teaching basic algebraic and geometric principles.

The Jax Tutor is an online math tutor that has decided to bring the most common and interesting problems to TikTok. He uses his trusty whiteboard to describe various mathematical concepts.

This account focuses on the preparation for math SATs, so, if you're planning on taking this test, you should definitely visit this account.

Science

Besides posting funny videos about science, this content creator describes interesting concepts from physics and math understandably and concisely. It is interesting to watch, no matter how good or bad you are with physics.

Dianna Cowern is a well-known educational content creator on YouTube. Fortunately, she has embraced TikTok as well, and now posts absorbing and enlightening content about physical processes in a shorter format.

Bill Nye is a well-known science popularizer; he has been explaining scientific facts to kids for decades. And, according to his TikTok account, he doesn't intend to stop, he continues to entertain children and adults with unexpected scientific occurrences.

Mrs. B is a science teacher that has joined TikTok to help her students to study during the pandemic. She demonstrates fun and easy to do at home experiments that explain various scientific concepts.

Steve Spangler is a well-known television host and a STEM teacher. On his TikTok account, he loves to show fun scientific experiments and share the facts behind them.

One of the most well-known and trusted physicists in the world, Neil deGrasse Tyson expands his science popularization work to Twitter, sharing his quick takes on discussed scientific questions and misconceptions.

Self-certified mad scientist, Drake Anthony posts a lot about fascinating scientific occurrences and his machines that help to replicate them. If you want to learn more both about science and engineering, this is a place for you.

Discovery Channel is a well-known educational network, so it's no wonder that they follow the modern trends and extend their reach to TikTok. Here, you'll be able to learn about all kinds of stuff, from the animal kingdom to technological advancements.

Chemistry

If you'd like to see fun reactions between various substances, this channel is just for you. Cool Chemistry Guy shows off the most interesting interactions materials have, while teaching you about their properties in the process.

If you want to learn more about the properties of different materials, NileRed is the channel you should go to immediately. He will teach you more about interesting materials, their properties, and their interactions.

Phillip Cook does amazing chemistry experiments. He also explains the science behind them in a charismatic manner, as well as creates scientific meme content.

Medicine and Human Body

If you want to learn more about the human body, the Institute of Human Anatomy account is the first place you should visit. The person behind it tells fascinating facts and answers common and interesting questions about the human skeleton, muscles, and organs.

Medicine Explained account does just that - explains medical facts and debunks common misconceptions about the human body. They also do that in a bright and unique way using cutouts from colorful paper.

The person behind this account, Kelvin Fiagbe, shares enthralling medical facts about the rare diseases. He also often includes clips and discusses the portrayal of the medical industry in movies and TV shows.

Jake Goodman makes his entertaining content educational. Not only does he talk about the human body, but he also tries to encourage and help med students and future doctors.

Animal Kingdom

AquariumofthePacific account follows the lives of marine animals that live in this aquarium in California. It also features their caretakers that can tell a lot of interesting things about wildlife.

Jay Brewer loves his reptiles. This man shares amazing facts about all types of unusual animals, including snakes, lizards, spiders, monkeys, and many more.

Finances

Mark Tilbury is a CEO and a self-made millionaire. On his TikTok account, he posts educational content on how to manage your funds and what you have to do to earn more.

Humphrey Yang teaches all about personal finance. This material is what is often overlooked at schools, so you should visit his account to find out more about how to properly manage your money.

Languages

English with Geet is one of the biggest channels that teach American English to foreigners. It goes beyond basics and contains a lot of helpful tips for English learners on how to understand and sound like an English speaker.

If you want to learn Spanish, there is no better place for you to go than to SpanishTeacher. She has two degrees in Spanish teaching and provides helpful tips to all the language learners.

History

History Avenue posts about some of the most unusual and overlooked history facts. This means that even the biggest history buff will learn something new from this channel.

History Time is an account, filled to the brim with interesting historical facts, videos of important events in recent history, and unique outlooks on how history shaped the modern world.

Different

The team behind the successful Minute Earth YouTube channel has decided to come to TikTok as well. They tell amazing facts about our planet and science using fun and beautiful animation to appeal to adults and kids.

If you're into learning about the technological processes and you enjoy watching someone create intricate machines, this account is just for you. They cover everything - from day-to-day familiar activities to the newest technological advancements.

Blondiebytes tells her audience about a world of software engineering and programming as a whole. As a woman in an industry, she answers the frequently asked questions about the intricacies of her job, as well as the ones on basic topics.

There's one more account we'd like to recommend you as a bonus. Guess what? Yes, it's EduBirdie's own channel! We've got everything related to student life in one place: educational hacks, college memes, and student trends. Subscribe to get some fun and enjoy special discounts for your next order!

TikTok Educational Hashtags

If you don't want to search for specific creators, you can find an abundance of educational content on TikTok by simply looking through these hashtags:

#LearnOnTikTok

#Education

#LearnFromHome

#School

#TikTokEducation

#ToSumItUp

Whether you like the platform or not, you cannot deny that TikTok has an amazing potential for education. Multiple teachers and scientists are using it to connect with their students, so start learning with TikTok as well!

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TikTok is a video hosting social media platform with more than 800 million active users worldwide. With content presented in the form of short videos, often with background music, the platform became extremely popular almost right after its launch on the international market in 2017.

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Having heard the different platforms on making the introductory video by the course mates, it kind of sparked interest in wanting to explore these platforms or to use the ones I tried before again, e.g. Powtoon, iMovie. However, these thoughts shall be put on hold.

Through the creation of e-porfolio, countless thoughts were popping up in my head, e.g. how can I make the page informative, easily understood yet interesting at the same time. It is still a work in progress... until I can figure out how to align those thoughts I have.

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I refer to Hwee Lee's post about TikTok. I agree that we need rethink about how we can make use to this too to incorporate it into our lessons.

However, for me, I believe that this is a tool that allows students to express themselves creatively. It is not just for educational purposes. I have a personal TikTok account and posted some videos to explore the available features.

For me, having my presence in that application allows for a better rapport among my students. Most importantly, it serves as a reminder to the students that they ought to be careful on what they are posting because they will know that I could be their "surveillance camera" monitoring their posts.

This is also an opportunity for me to educate them on the safe use of this application so that they do not misuse the application for something that is inappropriate.

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The hot topic in the class this week must have been about TikTok and I must say it has never really crossed my mind that this app can be effectively used as one of the teaching and learning resources. Indeed, Tiktok has been highly popular amongst my students but I have never been keen to jump aboard this wagon. Nonetheless I have no doubt using this platform can be used to create meaningful learning content which might make learning more interesting for them, and perhaps even helping with knowledge retention better than a stack of notes. This is especially true for students who may prefer visuals rather than simply reading off texts. At the same time, it might be safe to say most people may not remember what they have written or read in great details but the memory of a funny video for instance may stay on for very long. I can still remember many of the old TV commercial that I have watched and interestingly I can even recite the jingles after more than a decade. I am starting to see how videos, if done in an interesting way, can capture the attention of my students and above all help them to remember important formulas or concepts. Now that’s indeed an AHA moment for me.

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TikTok is a social media platform for creating, sharing and discovering short videos. Over the last few years, TikTok has become one of the largest platforms in the world: It’s available in over 150 markets, 75 languages and is one of the most downloaded apps in many countries.

To me, TikTok has always been an app used by young people as an outlet to express themselves through singing, dancing, and allows users to create videos and share them with their friends.

This week’s session really get me to see TikTok in a different light. I will need to rethink about how we can make use of TikTok in our lessons. TikTok is easy to use and is a convenient place to share knowledge and skills with a wide audience, popular among the students. We can thus make use of this platform to bond with the students, using TikTok to liven up lessons, making them more engaging, brisk, and easy to digest to better motivate the students in their learning.

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After reading and listening to the sharing by everyone last session I was able to reflect how I actually used photos and videos to support my students' learning especially those with low literacy skills. I had also used videos to teach writing skills - to invoke generation of ideas. Honestly it has been a great strategy for me as I observe better engagement and participation from students as compared to me verbally discuss ideas with them. Same goes to the topic on VMI that my group was assigned to read. I was introduced to this few years back when I was working at a clinical setting. It really is a powerful tool and strategy if it is done properly especially in giving feedback to students with ASD. I was able to do an adapted (simplified) video modelling with my students with MID and ASD with their parents consent. Such discussion and reading affirms me of some of the things I tried out without knowing it is a form of tech tool.

My self-intro video has made progress. I managed to type out my script and do my recording. I spent hours to just do recording. I was very prepared about all the logistic matters but what took me hours was the product itself. Creating video is not something new to me as I do it a lot for my own personal sharing on my IG, from cooking, lifestyle, memories and hobbies. However, this time was really different as I realised the focus is just on me and my script (my personal ones are never scripted). I was very bothered about how my hands move, how much I use my eyes to emphasize on some points, how my body is angled, how I want to smile and look at the camera. I retake my videos so many times in a day with so many breaks in between until I was satisfied with one. As for my video editing tool, I am using VLLO. This is something I am very familiar with and even paid for the subscription as I used the app for all my personal videos to be uploaded on my personal IG.

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Our group put together a presentation on the benefits of the use of videos. While we know how videos are engaging and a great component to include to entice our learners, it was interesting to note how some institutions have incorporated progress monitoring checkpoints into their videos as well. Viewers are able to pace themselves and attempt questions again after re-watching the chunk of content. This can be very encouraging for our learners who need a bit more time to grasp content.

Self-intro video: Still a work in progress.

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After the various insights shared by coursemates during the session last week, I felt a bit overwhelmed as I had yet to look into creating my introduction video. I was aware of some of the video-creation software and services around, but my work had not required me to record videos as of yet.

I thought my best option was to turn to youtube to learn how I could create my first video. I found the video above (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-_yOjHUg_E) really helpful and clear, and I enjoy how Prezi seems quite easy and intuitive in its usage. I also learnt how Prezi could be used during zoom presentations, but that is something that I will explore at a later date.

I was in the group who discussed about the benefits of using videos in our teaching, and I certainly will be using some of the tips my groupmates have shared to come up with the content for the video. With the tips and videos on youtube, the task does not seem so daunting anymore. It will definitely be an interesting new experience.

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I really enjoyed the sharing done by my coursemates on the use of photos, videos and Tik Tok videos as a source of teaching resources and their benefits.  Photographs and videos create a more engaging sensory experience, and it helps them to understand the material being taught better and also helps in better knowledge retention. The latest and trendiest social media platform is Tik Tok and I am amazed how much Tik Tok evolved to provide viewers with content including educational resources, however, with that being said, we have to also be aware of what our students are viewing on social media platform. The more time the students spend time on social media, the more their thinking will be influenced by what they see and comprehend, be it being positive or negative. One of the groups shared the concerns such as bullying, privacy and age-appropriate content, so this is where we need to also step in and inform our students about cyber safety.

For the self-introductory video, a few of my coursemates have shared on the different types of tools you can use such as Animaker, Pretzi, Imovie, Powtoon, etc.  Thanks for the suggestion guys.

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I could never have imagined that Tik Tok could be used as a teaching resource until session 8! :) My previous impression of Tik Tok was that it was just a fun video recording tool that trends entertaining short videos that have the potential to go viral quickly. I guess the negatives of Tik Tok blindsided the positives in my opinion. I’ve learnt that Tik Tok has multiple benefits in the classroom. It can be used as a 'lifeline' resource which can be re-watched for those who require reinforcement but are too shy to ask for help in class. It can also be used for building TSR, encouraging student interaction and increasing instructional engagement. I’ve just created my first Tik Tok account and have learnt how to create videos using the app. After downloading the app in my phone, I logged in using my Google account, clicked on the + button, selected a suitable music clip, selected 60secs and I was recording my first clip demonstrating the 2-times table concept using a Math balance. It took up to 4 takes to get it right for a newbie like me 😊

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Aisyah and Faisal both recommended Mindomo a couple of weeks ago. I've been wanting to test it out and I'm glad I finally did. Aisyah actually shared choice-mapping with me a few years ago and I have been doing that with an ancient whiteboard and markers. Based on the social chain reaction found in the Social Behaviour Mapping tool from Social Thinking and the idea about choosing an action that makes everyone feel comfortable from Stop Think Do!, I made a generic map to spell out choices, with the end result being 'How I would feel about myself'. I can replace the text with other choices/reactions/consequences/feelings for individual situations that I go through with students. Mindomo is indeed easy to use and I think it will be a go-to tool for me when teaching skills for social awareness.
Post Script: Unfortunately I must retract my comments about Mindomo. My map was totally distorted when I logged in again this morning. :( I am just fortunate I saved a copy in Google Slides.

I use YouTube video clips a lot in teaching social skills to my students. Videos bring a life-like quality to characters. You can pause the video, paste post-its to write down what the character might be thinking/feeling. In teaching my students with ASD, I particularly like the use of 'silent' video-clips. This makes them look for clues in the character's body language instead of only relying on the words they speak. The presentations on photos and videos were refreshing as they provided new video repositories such as Tik Tok which I will investigate further.

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Mindmap-The Chain Reaction of Making Choices

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TikTok has been the trendiest social media platform for some time but I have been slow to warm up to it. I watched videos on it, found it entertaining but that was about it, I have not posted a single video on it yet.

But after the last session, where quite a few of us were speaking about the daunting task of doing a video recording for our e-portfolio as well as the sharing on TikTok as an educational platform, I began to see how TikTok can be a viable tool for us educators.

- Too daunted by video recording? TikTok allows 15s video — a very much lower barrier to entry. In fact, nobody wants a video that is too lengthy on the platform. This is not YouTube 😁.

- Don't want to talk or hear your own voice but have information to communicate to students with problems reading? Turn on the text-to-speech feature and choose from 5 voices to represent you in the video!

- Do you have students who are hard-of-hearing individuals, students who can't watch a video with sound as they are studying in the library or in the night when their family is asleep, or do you just want students to understand the content better as you speak? Turn on automatic (but still manually editable) subtitles! This is a feature that TikTok is gradually rolling out to its users.

Because it is a popular platform, features will continually be added. I am sure seasoned TikTokers can point out the many more benefits of TikTok and its features to education. But so far, TikTok has been and is actually a low barrier to entry for us educators and its accessibility features will benefit a diverse group of learners with learning needs.

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Reflection on Session on Photos and Videos in Classroom Practice

It was an intense but fruitful session 8 as we explored the use of videos and photographs in the classroom. Videos and photos are indeed important resources for our lessons and programmes.  In the recent AED LBS symposium, I did a presentation on how we had to adapt our SEN awareness programme to adhere to Covid-19 SMM. The activities that required physical contact couldn't be used, so I had to spend some time sourcing for alternative activities that can be conducted using personal learning device. Thankfully, there were various websites and videos that I found that could be used for the programme. However, it can take hours to go through the videos to decide on a suitable one. When my group was assigned to curate the videos and categorise them so that all of us can refer to this repository, I felt that this will be definitely be very useful for us in future. It can save us a quite bit of time if we need to find suitable videos in future. Hopefully all of us can continue to expand on this repository.

My self-intro video
I finally uploaded my self-intro video. I settled on using Prezi after reading all the comments in the past Padlet sharing. I did encounter some challenges though. It kept prompting me while I was recording that my browser is experiencing some issues and suggestion is to install the App. However, I am using my school laptop, I am not able to install anything without the school administrator's approval. In the end, I just have to bear with it. It also prompted that my screen is too small, not that I can do anything about it though. :P Took me quite a few tries to finally finish a recording that I am more satisfied with despite it being raw and amateurish.
I like the App and I signed for a 7 day trial so that I can get to use the presenter notes. Other than that, I think it is quite sufficient to use the free version.

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While creating my introduction video for the e-portfolio, I started off with Animoto because I was attracted by the ready-made templates for self-introduction. But as I was editing, I found that Animoto (free version) came with its own set of restrictions, and that held me back.

I then turned to Canva. I have used Canva extensively for card designs & infographics, but never utilized its video creation function. I realized that Canva suits my needs more in terms of creating a self-introduction video. Templates are ready-to-use and pretty simple to edit (similar to Animoto), but I really like how extensive their media library is for photos and videos (unlike Animoto) and how easy it is to upload your own media & quality of your media is not compromised.

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Reflections on Session 8 lesson (Tiktok)

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After going through the group discussion on Tiktok, it helps me to consider the alternative ways to use Tiktok as a tool for teaching. I am intrigued at the amount of creative ideas that teachers around the world has and the possibilities are endless. I used to be resistant towards downloading the app as I'm worried about my level of self-control and did not want to be unproductive through excessive consumption.

During the discussion, my group came to a consensus that instead of merely blocking the ways our children could access the different social media platforms, it is essential that we could educate them on how they could interpret the information that they encounter and select appropriate materials.

It is also important for us educators to speak their language and harness the benefits and mitigate the negative effects of tiktok and other social media platforms.

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Unsplash
My group presented on the use of photos in Session 8. Other than using photos in teaching, we are also likely to use photos for aesthetic and illustration purposes in our e-portfolios, group project presentations, CLASS sessions, and staff training workshops. Unsplash offers images covered by the Unsplash license, which gives downloaders the right to copy, modify, distribute and use the photos for free, without asking permission from or providing attribution to the photographer or Unsplash. With Unsplash, I can incorporate images into my resources without worrying about copyright issues.
TikTok
I have a TikTok account but have kept my distance from this app as I did not want to fall into the trap of spending hours scrolling through countless videos. I also blame it for our shortened attention span nowadays. An aha-moment in Session 8 was when I found out that TikTok can also serve as a source of educational videos. The bite-sized information presented in short videos might actually be the right "dosage" for students who have difficulty processing and retaining lengthy complex information. While still being wary of TikTok's addictive power, I'm starting to see it in a new light.. Whether the benefits of technology outweigh the risks really depends on how it is used by us.

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Beautiful Free Images & Pictures | Unsplash

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Beautiful, free images and photos that you can download and use for any project. Better than any royalty free or stock photos.

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Junainah (Creating E-Portfolio)

As I was planning and looking through good examples of e-portfolios, I get more ideas on how to design it more aptly and make it more distinct at the same time. The process in developing i.e. how/which/what information to include, is itself, a reflection exercise. It's a self-assessment of my learning progress, goals, achievements and what I aspire to be.

Also, I plan to include a timeline of learning progression - to keep me in check for continuous learning. I like that e-portfolio is timeless not just a tool to showcase, but when created  with good intention, I am able to share resources and knowledge that may be applicable to anyone : )

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Reflection on S8

While I know that TikTok is all the rage now, I do not really follow and explore it as the impression I have of the posted videos is that their content is trivial and some borders on silliness. After all, how much meaningful content can one pack into a max 3 min video clip? However, through the sharing of my coursemates on TikTok, my perception has changed. I am surprised to find that there is actually educational content that we can use in our teaching. That is when I got interested and googled to find out more. Indeed, TikTok has made a conscious move into education, in recognition of the huge demand from Generation Z for educational content on the platform. Instead of dismissing it, it is time for me to tap it as a source of bite-sized quality learning content and a means to connect with my students who follow the trends.

Everyday Speech

Video modelling is an effective approach to teach social skills to students with ASD. One website that is recommended is  Everyday Speech (https://everydayspeech.com/) where it hosts a good collection of videos that help students learn and generalize skills with realistic situations, relatable actors, and thought bubbles that reveal each character’s perspective. It is subscription-based but you can sample some of their videos on their Youtube channel (https://www.youtube.com/c/EverydaySpeech).

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Session 8 Reflection
My group was assigned to look into a curated list of videos. We grouped the videos into broad categories such as social skills, social and emotional and awareness. We rated the video and the recommended target group audience that will benefit from the video. From the sharing from other groups. I learnt how I can use videos and photography to address the different learning or behavioral needs. The examples and information shared during the class activity was very enriching. I learnt that short and quick videos can be just as impactful. The sharing on the ‘how tos’ in creating a video for lessons was very helpful as well.

Clipchamp

This week I was introduced to Clipchamp by a colleague who was compiling Children's Day videos and wishes. It is a tool to create video presentation or montage. You can incorporate pictures, videos, include text, animations and there are even free templates. Although I used the free version, I was able to make use of the tools to create a short video in a very short time.

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Reflection on Lesson 8

My group’s task was to curate a list of video repository. It was interesting to see the list of videos that is so useful in our area of work and how useful it is to have a list so to refer to when planning a lesson or an awareness session with teachers or students. It is definitely a good start to build up this resource for myself to be more efficient in my work.

As social media was never in my list as a resource for teaching and learning, it is really refreshing to learn from the group which presented on Tik Tok. I find the sharing on “HOW” to be especially useful. But as I am teaching primary students, I do not think my students can have a social media account as the legal age to have is 13 years and above. But ideas such as creating TiK Tok videos to explain concepts and giving a project for the students to make the video is very doable.

Positive AHA moment

I am in-charge of Children’s Day Celebration as part of my duty in the CCR Committee. Due to Covid 19 and HBL, a virtual concert is held with Form Teachers facilitating the concert through Zoom with their Class. In preparation of the virtual concert, I had many first-hand experience with some tools.

(1)    Windows 10 Video Editor

As I am not able to video the Children’s Day Wishes from the teacher due to the sudden announcement of HBL, I requested the teachers to self-record their Children’s Day Wishes. I did some research on video editors online and most need to be paid. Thus, since the video editor is already installed in my laptop and it is free, I decided to try it out. It was easy for me to place all the submitted videos by the teachers and export as one video file. I can adjust the volume for each video submission to ensure that they have similar volume played during the video. To add in text in video, I feel that it is a bit troublesome as I would need split the video according where I would need to insert text.

(2)    Wordwall

I had a game incorporate in the middle of the concert to ensure that the students can have fun as a class and also be more engaged rather than just watching videos. The response from the whole school was that all student enjoyed the game session and were busy shouting out the answer while the teacher was facilitating the game. It was also easy for me to select the top scorer (Class) of the level based on the result table in wordwall to be given a prize.

(3)    Powerpoint

As the concert flow include video and a break in between for a game, Powerpoint became most ideal in presenting the concert flow without the teachers to be mindful of the event flow to toggle between videos and game. It was my first time doing voice over the slides as host for the concert with my fellow team mates. I like that I can just record the particular slide without the need to record at one try as mistakes is bound to happen during recording. I can also skip slides that are not ready to be recorded to be done later. Ultimately, the slides will connect on its own and runs automatically. The teachers were appreciative of the minimal facilitation of the concert due to the voice overs.

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Thanks to the sharing by Jumiati on Padlet, I got rather curious to check out Powtoon. Within the first ten minutes of signing up and experimenting with a few templates, I found myself, in spite of my high adversity to new technology, already tweaking and amending one of the available templates that I intend to use for my Introductory video. To be very honest, I do find the process rather taxing. What's more, at this very point in time, I am not even exactly sure how it would turn out. Likely not so good, in which case I would just resort to the traditional PPT slides with my voice-recording embedded. Nevertheless, I just take this experimentation process as a learning journey!

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Our group had to create library categories of the various YouTube (YT) video resources and curate the sources and information while rating them and highlighting how they could be used. This activity got me reflecting on how I have been categorising the YT videos that I have come across thus far.

The idea to include a short write up of the video, how it can be used based on the different purposes or needs, has never come to mind. Not only is it more organised, but time is also saved! By doing this, I can straight away look for the category and make a quick decision on which video to use based on its suitability or relevance to the lesson.

I am considering 'spring-cleaning' my video collections, adopting and adding to this curated list during the school holidays. Like what Dr Ow Yeong had mentioned at the beginning of the lesson, "There is progress the moment you start thinking about it." :)

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Using Kinemaster to create introductory video!

It can be found in your app playstore and very easy to use. Accessible to everyone (and it is free!)

My suggestion is to just do your recordings in your phone camera. You can make as many bloopers as possible (haha) and later on...you can just upload and edit on the app! Crop, speed edit functions are all available. If you have pictures from your phone, that is also fine to input into the video.

Another suggestion is to record a few sentence per time from your phone (chunking your intro vid!), and use the app to mash the video clips together. This is less daunting (not many of us may be confident to speak for 3minutes recording straight because 'camera shy').

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For my group presentation, we were given links on articles on the effective use of photo in teaching and learning. Our first question is why using photos is beneficial for SEN students in teaching and learning. We discovered that it improves engagement as Students will gain flexibilities in their thinking (improves their communication skills as there are other ways to express themselves other than verbals). Students’ creativity and unique perspective are valued and empowered because of students’ “outside of the box” thinking. Photos enhances curriculum in a variety of ways as most SEN students are visual learners (learners love to observe, contemplate and visualize ideas). Visuals also enable learners to absorb information faster and better. Photos provide the learners with a graphic or iconic representation that supports brain work, normally engaged in a search for the essentials within the flow of the world, scaffolding the learner to work on a simplified scenario.

We explored way on how to use photos in our sessions with SEN students like dialogues and storytelling (eg; asking student to tell a story based on the pictures), practising oral presentation using pictures that students have taken, memes and fun (use as ice breaker, classroom rules etc), creating visuals biographies by talking about themselves (Blogs), searching photos related to current events to demonstrate understanding of a given topic or current affairs.

Overall, it was a fruitful session as we gained valuable insights not only from preparing our presentation but others as well like using video and Tik Tok.

Video recording:
For recording video, I used a Swivl robot to attach my phone with the downloaded the Swivl app in my phone.I will use the wireless handheld mic as an audio input when recording the video.Without the proper audio tools, recording will not achieve its intended impact. I use iMovie app to do my editing. I can also insert text below to describe the nature. I also used iMovie to do my editing for my self-introduction video. It is a user friendly tool that allows the user to customise the video according to our intended requirements.

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"A picture is worth a thousand words!" This old cliché tells us that pictures are more detailed than words. An according to Zadina in her book "Multiple Pathways to the Student Brain", individuals remember pictures more easily than words and "recall is more than 6 times better" when pictures are presented with words.

I have also learned from my fellow LBS that students respond better to pictures than words. They slow down processing so students can grasp situations more deeply and accurately. They help activate associations and analogies, as the use of familiar situations or photos on the topic being taught allows the unfamiliar to be understood, stimulating cognition. Pictures also promote engagement and facilitate generalisation to the real world.

Photographs can also be used to encourage flexible thinking in learners. Students can learn to look at things from multiple perspectives to gain different perceptions and thus develop empathy. As they also learn to use photographs to express themselves other than verbally, this improves their communication skills.

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Tik Tok is something I would mindlessly scroll through recipes, makeup tutorials etc . I know my students are actively on it, learning from dance videos etc. Never would I have thought that I would use it to teach my lessons in the near future...
Educators can also use TikTok to create short videos on specific subjects that students can watch. This is great for explaining lesson concepts. Not only does it mean a short and to the point video, but one that can be watched multiple times so students are able to revisit the guidance when working on the task. I could probably use it for lesson recap too!

These videos are also great for highlighting key points from a lesson, as an after-class resource that students can view from home to help reinforce any points made in the lesson. Students also don't need to be distracted by taking notes when they know these videos will be available afterward, allowing them to concentrate more in the moment so ideas are assimilated more consciously.

But in today's session, we also discussed the cons of TikTok. Contents have to be appropriate since anyone can access them. Students might get distracted too, by checking out other videos in the midst of their learning.

Overall, I really enjoy today's session, exploring popular social media platform and embedding TikTok video in my presentation.

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Videos
Today's lesson was very apt - as in, we have to create a self-intro video of ourselves for our e-portfolio. So it's really good knowledge to know before creating the video. So some things I can think about:

1. Who are my target audience?

2. What info do they want to know about me?

3. Which video format would be interesting for my viewers?

This will make it easy to create my script and make my video.

Powtoon
When I realised that we had to make a video, I kind of panicked (hahaha). But... this shouldn't be a problem since the school likes to make videos for a lot of contents. Just that, like what the others have mentioned, we seldom make videos of ourselves - maybe only selfies!
So, I decided to give Powtoon a try! though I haven't tried it, the tutorial video on Youtube looks manageable. I'll give myself some time to try it out once I have finished the assignements that are due and done up with my script.