Recently, I organized a successful EDTech day for teachers at my Board and instead of a Keynote, I took a chance and facilitated IGNITE presentations by our own teachers. I got the idea from the ISTE conference which always has powerful and engaging IGNITE sessions. An IGNITE is basically 20 slides, 15 seconds/slide for a total of 5 minutes. The topic? Anything about which you are passionate.
As I prepared for my own IGNITE on being a Connected Educator, and then when a grade 9 student at one of our high schools agreed to present an IGNITE alongside her teacher, I began to think about this format as a great Oral Communication tool for students.
When George Couros (@gcouros) invited educators to post a teaching idea using #EDUin30 for week 1 (#EDUin30w1), using IGNITE to replace the speech–an oral communication task we’ve had our students do for the past million years–was the first thing I thought to share:
Why an IGNITE?
- short and succinct
- requires planning and practice
- allows kids to express a passion
- builds upon oral fluency and digital literacy skills
- helps students create visual aids for their speaking
- provides support for students with working memory issues
If you’re already doing this or if you are going to try it out in your class or school let me know, I’d love to hear how it goes.
