My “Personal Theory of Learning” developed early in the course is still fairly accurate to my current approach in teaching my video and film classes. I still feel like my students benefit greatly from learning through a constructivist approach; completing projects that reflect mastery of the knowledge gained in the course. I realized through this course that project-based learning is being done on in a number of different courses, and that I can borrow ideas and strategies from those courses more than I previously thought.
Using more advanced features on my Moodle, such as discussion boards and surveys is something I plan to do soon. I can encourage students to interact with one another and learn from one another on discussion boards, and I can use online surveys to get ideas from students and see what is most effective from an instructional standpoint.
I would also like to begin using social media sites for my students to share their videos with others. I have looked at many different sites and I have decided to let my students use the site of their choice and email me a link that I can check from home. This will be for extra credit at first, then I will figure out if I can make it mandatory given our internet rules.
From a long-term perspective, I realized that my approach to lectures using PowerPoints is adequate, but it could be better by involving my students in the creation of the material. By allowing my students to use the internet to create lessons, I can get them to learn research and presentation skills. By teaching my students about helpful sites and educating them about the reliability of sources, I can point them in the right direction. By asking specific questions I can be sure that they will take the lesson in the same direction I would have taken it, and they will have learned a lot in the process of creating the lesson.
I also realized that since my course is project-based and the video projects require the use of editing software I need to incorporate more of the software functionality in my lessons. Many video editing tasks seem intuitive to me, but some students struggle with the software. I am going to start requiring students to complete simple editing tasks not related to their projects so that they can master the software. By having them complete certain editing tasks they will also get ideas for their projects. Things will also run much smoother while students are editing their projects each month, because they will have more practice with the software besides the editing they did weeks ago for their previous project.
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Sunday, December 6, 2009
VoiceThread
Here is a link to my VoiceThread about a problem I have in my computer lab:
http://voicethread.com/share/786384/
http://voicethread.com/share/786384/
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Social Learning
Social learning is the primary way people construct meaning. In my video and film classes this is especially true, but it transcends to other subjects as well. Much like Ms. Casselman (the math teacher in Dr. Orey’s video on Social Learning Theories) I require my students to ask each other questions before asking me. My rule is “ask three, then me.” This is not because I get lazy or frustrated; it is because my students have to collaborate to be successful in the class, and many of them actually enjoy helping each other out. Some positive peer pressure often arises in this situation as well; some students react with disdain when someone does not know how to do something that I demonstrated multiple times.
I have also found that students learn how to be more efficient and effective in creating their videos by interacting with other students. I can lecture them on production tips over and over and they do not follow my advice, but as soon as they ask a peer how they did something the same advice sticks. I have found that competition between groups when creating videos leads to more comprehension of lessons and better quality work, but I would like to create a more cooperative learning environment between groups. “In this setting, not only is the group assessed as a whole, but students are also individually accountable for their work.” (Palmer, G., Peters, R., & Streetman, R., 2008)
One technological tool I would like to use for a more cooperative learning environment is sharing videos via Facebook. The social networking aspect would expose students’ videos to a much wider audience, but they would also be able to leave insights and comments on each others’ videos. Each individual would have different suggestions and viewpoints on videos, and their input could be saved for later reference. Unfortunately, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, SchoolTube, and pretty much anything like them are blocked at my school, so this collaboration is only available from home for the students.
RC
I have also found that students learn how to be more efficient and effective in creating their videos by interacting with other students. I can lecture them on production tips over and over and they do not follow my advice, but as soon as they ask a peer how they did something the same advice sticks. I have found that competition between groups when creating videos leads to more comprehension of lessons and better quality work, but I would like to create a more cooperative learning environment between groups. “In this setting, not only is the group assessed as a whole, but students are also individually accountable for their work.” (Palmer, G., Peters, R., & Streetman, R., 2008)
One technological tool I would like to use for a more cooperative learning environment is sharing videos via Facebook. The social networking aspect would expose students’ videos to a much wider audience, but they would also be able to leave insights and comments on each others’ videos. Each individual would have different suggestions and viewpoints on videos, and their input could be saved for later reference. Unfortunately, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, SchoolTube, and pretty much anything like them are blocked at my school, so this collaboration is only available from home for the students.
RC
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Constructivism & Constructionism
“People learn by actively constructing new knowledge, rather than by having information "poured" into their heads” (Thurmond, A. 1999). This statement really made me think about my instructional strategies and how constructionism could be effective in my classroom. Constructionism is a great model for learning; it involves learning through creating a meaningful product. In my video and film classes that product is usually a video, but I would like for my students to create other types of media like posters and PowerPoint presentations. The problem with this type of learning is the extra time that is required.
Video and film classes are not offered at every school, and schools rarely have more than one video teacher. Compared to a subject like U.S. History, there are very few teachers and as a result, very few resources. Unlike most of the teachers in my school I have to create my own presentations from scratch. My textbooks either have no PowerPoints included or very poor quality PowerPoints with no sense of flow and very few graphics. Over the last four years I have become very efficient in creating PowerPoints from my textbooks (I use 5 different textbooks for my various courses). I can sit down in one night and make a decent PowerPoint presentation based on a chapter in the book in a couple of hours. I always include photos and videos that demonstrate the ideas from the chapter. Each week I will usually present one chapter in my Video I class, and one chapter in my Advanced Video class. It does sometimes seem like I am trying to "pour knowledge" into their heads, but the rest of the time is dedicated to working on projects and completing vocabulary assignments that reinforce the key concepts from the chapter.
The alternative is to allow students to construct the PowerPoints themselves and present them to the class. I have used this method in the past for my Sports Marketing class, but there are a number of different problems that arise.
The first problem is time. My classes are only 54 minutes long, and it always seems like students are either making great strides and are interrupted by the bell or they use the bell as an excuse to stop working because they will not be able to get anything done in just 5 minutes. Another problem is that some students do not have as much experience with computers and tend to work slowly, so either they do not have time to complete their PowerPoint assignment on time or they end up with a poorly made PowerPoint that makes me wish I had just taught the lesson myself.
The second problem I have is that students do not understand the big picture; they have a very myopic view of their project. They do not make connections to other lessons, they do not make connections between the sections they divide among group members, they skip over things of importance or go over important concepts too quickly. They often do not understand the main purpose of the chapter and go a mile wide and an inch deep into the material instead of explaining some important ideas in depth and the relationships of the ideas.
The third problem I have is poor presentation skills. Many students are terrified of public speaking, and while I try to give them the best environment possible for presenting they are still teenagers and are very pre-occupied with what their peers think of them. I have students that do not project their voice, students that go over everything too quickly, students that are tough to understand, and students that do not talk about everything, telling the class just to "read it themselves." Often these students do not care about the grade they get on their presentation, they would gladly trade a poor grade for less time talking in front of everyone.
So, while constructionism and project-based learning is a great theory, sometimes it is a little tougher to put into practice. I love resources like Edutopia, the PBL Co-Laboratory, and PBL Checklist, but more as general resources than course-specific materials. The bright side is that there is definitely an opportunity to create resources for video and film teachers like myself, and one day I might write my own book on teaching video and film in the high school environment from my experiences.
Video and film classes are not offered at every school, and schools rarely have more than one video teacher. Compared to a subject like U.S. History, there are very few teachers and as a result, very few resources. Unlike most of the teachers in my school I have to create my own presentations from scratch. My textbooks either have no PowerPoints included or very poor quality PowerPoints with no sense of flow and very few graphics. Over the last four years I have become very efficient in creating PowerPoints from my textbooks (I use 5 different textbooks for my various courses). I can sit down in one night and make a decent PowerPoint presentation based on a chapter in the book in a couple of hours. I always include photos and videos that demonstrate the ideas from the chapter. Each week I will usually present one chapter in my Video I class, and one chapter in my Advanced Video class. It does sometimes seem like I am trying to "pour knowledge" into their heads, but the rest of the time is dedicated to working on projects and completing vocabulary assignments that reinforce the key concepts from the chapter.
The alternative is to allow students to construct the PowerPoints themselves and present them to the class. I have used this method in the past for my Sports Marketing class, but there are a number of different problems that arise.
The first problem is time. My classes are only 54 minutes long, and it always seems like students are either making great strides and are interrupted by the bell or they use the bell as an excuse to stop working because they will not be able to get anything done in just 5 minutes. Another problem is that some students do not have as much experience with computers and tend to work slowly, so either they do not have time to complete their PowerPoint assignment on time or they end up with a poorly made PowerPoint that makes me wish I had just taught the lesson myself.
The second problem I have is that students do not understand the big picture; they have a very myopic view of their project. They do not make connections to other lessons, they do not make connections between the sections they divide among group members, they skip over things of importance or go over important concepts too quickly. They often do not understand the main purpose of the chapter and go a mile wide and an inch deep into the material instead of explaining some important ideas in depth and the relationships of the ideas.
The third problem I have is poor presentation skills. Many students are terrified of public speaking, and while I try to give them the best environment possible for presenting they are still teenagers and are very pre-occupied with what their peers think of them. I have students that do not project their voice, students that go over everything too quickly, students that are tough to understand, and students that do not talk about everything, telling the class just to "read it themselves." Often these students do not care about the grade they get on their presentation, they would gladly trade a poor grade for less time talking in front of everyone.
So, while constructionism and project-based learning is a great theory, sometimes it is a little tougher to put into practice. I love resources like Edutopia, the PBL Co-Laboratory, and PBL Checklist, but more as general resources than course-specific materials. The bright side is that there is definitely an opportunity to create resources for video and film teachers like myself, and one day I might write my own book on teaching video and film in the high school environment from my experiences.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Effort
Reinforcing effort is definitely a task I need to do a better job of in my high school video classes. The students realize that if they make the effort to pay attention to my lectures, complete their assignments and study their vocabulary they will do well on their daily work and tests. Most of them choose to do all of the work on time and do outstanding. Some of the students choose to do the work late (after they have already taken the test on the material) or do not do the work at all. When I talk to the students that put forth a poor effort they acknowledge that the daily work is not too difficult and completing it on time would improve their test scores, but many admit they are just concerned with passing the class. I talk to them about getting into college, earning recommendations, establishing solid work habits, expectations in the business world, etc, etc, etc and I still can not get through to some of them. I often find that passing video class is the least of these kids’ worries, and I even try to help them in their core classes so they can graduate on time, but some of them are just plain apathetic.
On the other hand, students react to their video projects completely differently. I hear so many excuses for poor efforts that I should really record them and make my own video. The ones I hear the most are a students complaining that someone in their group would not do anything. I always ask them a number of follow-up questions about how they tried to motivate that student, if they made an effort to go forward with the project without him or her, and why they did not let me know earlier. Most students eventually admit that they could have made a better effort themselves and created an acceptable project, but I also have students who believe that they are totally inept when creating a video. The good thing is that I can usually point back to a good job they did on a rigidly structured video completed early in the school year and they buy into my system a lot more for their next video. The creation of a quality video is a difficult process, but it can be done by just about anyone with the right amount of preparation and effort. Often I will have students that think they can just pick up a camera and quickly shoot a good, impromptu video, but those students almost always realize the value of planning after seeing other students’ work.
On the other hand, students react to their video projects completely differently. I hear so many excuses for poor efforts that I should really record them and make my own video. The ones I hear the most are a students complaining that someone in their group would not do anything. I always ask them a number of follow-up questions about how they tried to motivate that student, if they made an effort to go forward with the project without him or her, and why they did not let me know earlier. Most students eventually admit that they could have made a better effort themselves and created an acceptable project, but I also have students who believe that they are totally inept when creating a video. The good thing is that I can usually point back to a good job they did on a rigidly structured video completed early in the school year and they buy into my system a lot more for their next video. The creation of a quality video is a difficult process, but it can be done by just about anyone with the right amount of preparation and effort. Often I will have students that think they can just pick up a camera and quickly shoot a good, impromptu video, but those students almost always realize the value of planning after seeing other students’ work.
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