One of the guest speakers that came to talk to our 504 class was Tom Ward (10/16/14). He gave us information on how video can be used in the classroom and used math examples as a way to demonstrate this to us.
The overarching idea came from the SAMR model, in which technology can redefine, modify, augment, and substitute other materials in a classroom. Through this model, teachers can still teach the necessary concepts, but they can change it up by incorporating technology. I personally think it would be fun to learn a core idea in a new way. I think technology can provide new ways to learn a concept and provide new activities that students can use to help them address their misconceptions and start using higher order thinking.
I knew that video clips from YouTube could be beneficial to a high school class, but I learned that there are so many other video platforms and technology tools that one could use to incorporate video media in the classroom. Ward showed us an example of stopping live action in a video to show the trajectory of a basketball so students could calculate whether or not the ball would go through the hoop by examining the parabola the ball was following. After viewing this I realized a science teacher could probably use something like this to show his or her class the motions of stars in the sky or follow the growth of a seed through a time lapse video.
The use of Twitter was also brought up. The extent of my thinking about Twitter in the classroom had previously been that I could use the application to send reminders to my students about homework or tests. However, I learned that Twitter could be used to force students to write concisely since there is a 140 character limit. While this idea is great, I wonder if 140 characters is enough to accurately capture an idea. I can barely work within this limit to tweet about irrelevant things in my life, so I am unsure of whether or not I would use Twitter with my students in this way.
Ward also presented us with some new ideas of how to use Vine or Instagram. Students can create short videos to present an idea, rather than writing everything out. For example, I think Vine or Instagram could be useful if students needed to list a variety of materials for a lab in Biology. Rather than just writing out the materials list and procedure, students could film a few short clips of materials and how they are executing the procedure. Though it might take some time, I think this would be engaging and I would like to try this out in my future classroom. However, I still do not know if cell phones in the classroom is a good idea, so I would have to think about this a lot more to decide whether or not this is beneficial to students' learning.
For me, the modification aspect of the SAMR model stands out because it would allow me to keep some of the general teach practices, while incorporating new innovative practices.
I like how you pointed out that the SAMR model could allow you to keep some general practices while incorporating new innovative practices. I agree with that balance! The part of his presentation that I am most excited about is the use of video, but not just showing videos. I think allowing students to create their own videos can allow students to learn the concepts in a useful way. Many studies show that people learn concepts when they have to teach it to others, and creating informative videos could be a way to do that.
ReplyDeleteI have similar views to you about cell phones in the class, April. I think it could be a distraction, but I think if we create engaging assignments and projects for our students to use their technology, then they will be less likely to use the phone for distracting purposes.
I actually really like idea of using Twitter or Vine to force students to summarize succinctly. Yes this is difficult but I think it's an important skill for note-taking and writing papers. On the other hand, I've seen your note-taking skills and there is something to be said for thoroughness! Also, do you think there's a difference between using cell phones in a lab classroom and a regular one?
ReplyDeleteLiz, I think using cell phones for school related activities could be beneficial both in lab settings and regular classroom settings. Students could use their phones and video or audio recording applications to create short clips on just about anything, so the range of possibilities is endless! One great thing for lab is that a video could easily be inserted into a presentation about the laboratory, but I can see this working just as well for other classes too!
DeleteApril, I also really enjoyed and benefited from Tom's presentation, and loved his never-ending push to incorporate technology into his teaching. Although his examples of teaching parabolas using basketball or mario weren't totally applicable to me as an english teacher, the idea of using student interests as well as their own work for teaching purposes i think can ring true in any subject. In addition, my favorite aspect was as you said, his activities where students themselves created the content using technology, with apps like twitter or vine, because of the accessibility of them and because most students are already familiar with these apps for out of school purposes. Since they check these apps frequently already, it is less of a hassle or cause for concern for them to use it in school as well.
ReplyDeleteI too really enjoyed Tom's presentation, especially because he focused on math. But regardless of the content area, I really liked how he was using techniques and implementation based on a model instead of just trying things out for funsies. I also really think that vines could be really useful in explaining concepts because it is something the students are motivated by and can have fun with. Times are a changing, and we as educators need to be able to adapt. And just overall, them creating their content gives them more ownership of their work, which is always great.
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