Videos in Education

Video has proven to be highly beneficial in my classroom. As a foreign language teacher, I use videos frequently, they are part of the textbook curriculum. The videos that go along with the text include snapshots of various Spanish speaking countries (as well as cities within the U.S.) and highlight Hispanic culture in those areas. They also show short dialogues using the vocabulary from each chapter so students can see real Spanish conversations in relatively realistic situations. It helps them to hear accurate pronunciation of the language, hear how it's used in context, see images of the vocabulary words as they're being spoken, and partly experience Hispanic culture, all in about 15 minutes per video segment. In addition to the textbook videos (which are highly beneficial, but at times cliche), I've used videos to teach concepts that are better understood visually. For example, when I taught a short unit on Frida Kahlo, I showed a video which included many examples of her art. My students found this far more engaging than just reading about her. The video was much easier for me to use than if I had shown photocopies or printouts of her artwork. The video also incorporated her life story, as well as that of Diego Rivera, and did so in a much more organized fashion than I think I would have been able to have done without hours of preparation. I've also, more recently, used videos I'd found on unitedstreaming(discovery education), which I discovered during this class! The videos were a little difficult to convert to a DVD (which I had to do since I don't have a digital projector), but it was worth the extra effort on my part. I had explained the conjugation of a certain verb as many ways as I could think of to my students. I taught from the textbook, explained it the way that I had learned it, and even found supplemental worksheets to reinforce the concept. Many of my students were still just not getting it. I used a unitedstreaming video which explained the verb in an engaging way--lots of visuals and a little bit of humor--and many of my students showed serious progress in following assessments. It also, in a weird way, made me feel like I had earned some credibility with them! All of my rambling about pronouns and subjects and infinitives was exactly what they were hearing in the video (apparently in a more interesting way!) and it almost proved that I was right! Miss Saylor does know what she's talking about! It isn't practical for me to incorporate a video into every lesson, and I don't think that's the point of using video. It should be used to supplement instruction and reinforce certain points in a lesson. I also liked the videos from unitedstreaming because they were only about 10 minutes long, short enough for me to teach almost a full lesson, use the video to support what I was teaching, and give the students some time to practice. I can think of one college class in which I used video, and it was an Education course. We used video to film ourselves teaching a lesson. It was really interesting to see ourselves teach. We could better reflect on our teaching. It made it easy to see how often teachers say "umm" and how much they circulate around the classroom. It also showed how engaged our "students" (classmates) were. I've also been thinking about other ways I could incorporate, or my college professors could have incorporated, video. For Spanish, it would be awesome if students who study abroad (myself included) were required to film parts of their experience and then come back to a class in the U.S. to present their videos. This would allow students take a virtual tour of maybe ten or fifteen different countries! It might even be neat to ask students to interview their host families or teachers in the countries they visit. Then students back home could hear the variations in Spanish spoken in different countries and explore the differences in culture in those countries. As always, the resources, or lack thereof, would make it a little difficult to accomplish, but I think it would be a really cool project!

Educating the Net Gen-The Real vs the Possible

I liked that this article started out by stating that not all of our students are actual "Net-Geners". My issues with incorporating technology in education have all been related to the fact that not all students have access to the internet and some don't even have computers at home. Schools don't all have the best resources/funding for technology either. Despite that, I'm beginning to be a believer in what the internet has to offer to education. I've learned things in this class that I already have used or intend to use in my classes. My initial skepticism and ignorance is what prevented me, and I believe prevents most educators, from incorporating more technology into the classroom. I'm young enough to be considered of the Net Gen, and yet I consider myself to be technologically incompetent (although I'm learning!). I can only imagine how older teachers feel. And yet we rarely have professional development in Technology. Each class I learn something else I didn't know existed with regard to technology and education. It's almost overwhelming how much is out there. I'm open to change, but I wonder if anyone else is. Some teachers have been doing the same thing for years, and I don't think many are adapting to technological changes, nor do they feel the need to. Some day I hope to have access in my classroom to more technology. For example, with what I've learned I'd almost kill to get a digital projector and a computer that's fast enough to make use of it! It would also be nice to have a few computers in my room. I have students with a huge variety of experience in my subject (Spanish). I'm expected to take differentiated instruction to a whole new level, given that some of my students are fluent Spanish speakers where as others have never used the language. For those fluent students that finish their work well before others or aren't challenged enough, the internet could provide many supplemental activities for them, without them feeling bogged down with extra "busy work". For now, I intend to occasionally take my students to the computer lab, but this takes extra time and can present complications (i.e. getting there, starting up computers, finding 30 that work, getting things to print, assigning seats, finding 30 headphones that work for audio activities...lots of new worries that aren't necessarily issues in the traditional classroom). I also plan on using teacher resources the internet provides to improve my classes- hands-on lesson plan ideas, videos (teacher tube/united streaming) which I can burn to DVD, worksheet/puzzle makers..anything I can find to make my lessons more engaging. I hope to see school districts supporting technology more than they do now. A lot of technology use in schools depends on administration providing funding and adding technology into the curriculum. Until that happens, I intend to learn and use as much as I can, because I do believe learning can be more meaningful to students if technology is properly implemented. Also, I've noticed many of our EduCause readings are geared towards education at the college level. Online assignments are far more likely to be completed by college students, partly because they are more responsible, and partly because they all have access to computers on campus, whereas not all secondary students do. On the other hand, if our students will be attending universities that make use of technology, shouldn't it be our responsibility to make sure they are ready for that college level education? Another issue I have with technology is that not everything we learn can be "simulated". For example, virtual dissections/surgeries can not replace the hands-on experience future Doctors will need to have. Visual aids to understand mathematical concepts are neat too, but students should be able to eventually generate those mental images without relying entirely on a website. On the whole, I think educators need to try a little harder to keep up with technology, especially if it is the best method currently available to inspire learning. Our learners are definitely changing faster than our teaching methods, I just hope we can eventually catch up, or that we at least start trying to.