Are we sometimes, or all of the time, imposing our biases and learning styles on our students? Are we guilty of thinking, "this is how I learned to (insert skill here) so they should be able to as well?" Let's face it, those of us who were born before 1990 were educated and raised in a very text-dominant world. If we needed or wanted to learn about something, we relied heavily on text-based resources. If we wanted to be entertained, we were limited to the minimal choices of programs on television or could escape through reading books. In today's world, our children have access to a limitless supply of information and entertainment that is only growing exponentially by the hour. How are many, if not most of them, accessing this "infotainment?" I know my son isn't the only 4 year old that is compelled by YouTube videos (YT for Kids, of course!) He has learned about everything from the latest toys to creative uses of Play-Doh and plastic Easter Eggs. My wife and I try really hard not to use his iPad as a babysitter. Does it give the two of us a chance to talk to each other about our day, pay bills, or make dinner together? Absolutely! My justification is that what he's watching (which we monitor) or the 3rd grade leveled eBook that is being read-aloud to him is exposing him to even more oral vocabulary than we already do. We talk to our son, encourage him to talk about his day at preschool, complete his homework and do projects with him. We read to him and listen to him read to us almost every night. We believe that it is important to establish a balance between screen time and real time.
So where was I? Ah yes, "text is dead." What this means is that with our children, and more and more adults, reading text alone often does not foster understanding. (Maybe that means I should be providing an audio recording of this blog then, huh?) To maximize comprehension, text should be accompanied or supplemented with video, audio, and opportunities to interact with it. It is safe to say that on virtually any device and any operating system, text can be read aloud to the reader. This helps struggling students that are below grade level. Additionally, this allows on-level readers to interact with above-grade level texts to help them stretch their learning.
This brings us to the the tech tool portion of the blog. How can we make videos interactive for our students? What if there was a way that I could insert questions or tasks into the YouTube video that my son is watching starring two kids dressed up in inflatable Sumo Wrestler outfits? (If you have kids that watch YouTube for Kids, you know the one...) What if I am a teacher that is dipping their toe into the Blended Learning pool and want to utilize Khan Academy, TeacherTube, SchoolTube, Flocabulary, YouTube or YouTube for Schools videos to provide on-level, below-level, or above-level instruction? Better yet, maybe you are a teacher that would like to record your "mini-lessons" (sounds so much nicer than "lecture," doesn't it?) and make those available to your students outside of the school day so that you can front-load and build context and schema in order to dig deeper during class time. These embedding tools allow the user to "free the copier" by inserting questions, pauses for thinking and reflecting, slides, links, and other features right into the video.
Why would a teacher decide to use this? Well, if you are now a little less offended by the statement earlier about text being "dead," you may be more open to the idea of utilizing a media that is engaging, relevant, and native to help your students learn. I say engaging, but on its own, watching videos is a rather passive action. Are students able to apply skills that they learn from watching the video? Perhaps, but in order to help create a more active participant, embedding comprehension or thought-provoking questions throughout the video will help our kids further develop their critical thinking skills.
There is no shame in admitting that the prescribed strategy that you chose to teach a skill, concept, or strategy did not work for a class, groups, or individuals. You can even say "its not me, its them. That kid is ... (insert reason here: home life, attention span, hormones, disability, etc)." Once you get past the denial phase its time to move on, because it is still our responsibility as educators to do everything that we can to ensure that all students demonstrate mastery of grade level standards. We have to shift our thinking - using video to help students develop understanding of grade level content is not a short-cut, lazy, or easy way out. If it has the desired impact that you are hoping for, isn't that the goal? As educators, we need to make instructional decisions that we believe, or have the data to back-up, will have the greatest impact on student mastery and true understanding.
Oh yeah, if you can make videos and embed questions and content to help students better understand a topic, I bet the kids can too! As a teacher, would you rather your students create a five slide PowerPoint with three facts from three different sources with 20 point Times New Roman font......sorry, fell asleep there for a second. The point is, let kids record a video of themselves talking about the President that they researched or demonstrating that they understand the steps necessary to solve a given math problem or concept. They can insert questions that the other students can answer with immediate feedback.
The tools that we have used are Zaption, TedEd, Playposit (formerly EDUCanon) and EDpuzzle. All of these allow you to set up free accounts, and many even allow you to setup classes and student accounts as well. You do have the option of upgrading to premium accounts which give extra storage, additional question types, and other features. The free versions are great for getting started though. Essentially, they all work the same way: you paste the URL of the video into the project. You then insert the different question or response types in at the times of the video that you want them to appear. After you are finished, you can either email a link, send out via Social Media, or embed the video into a webpage.
Teachers utilizing tools such as these listed show evidence of multiple ISTE Teacher Standards. Specifically, Standards 1, 2, and 3: Facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity, Design and develop digital age learning experiences and assessments, and Model digital age work and learning. Use by students places the artifact higher on the SAMR continuum, indicating that the task has been augmented through enhancements made possible through the use of technology in such a way that it establishes deeper levels of understanding by the students. The same is true on Bloom's Taxonomy. Depending on how the student chooses to use these tools to provide evidence on learned concepts or skills, it moves well beyond "understanding" and into the realm of "application" or maybe even "creation!"
The best way to become familiar with these tools is to set up an account and explore. Let Kirsten or I know if you run into any issues or would like some help navigating these, or any other tools and resources that can help you better get your message across to your students or help them get their message across to you!
Kevin Schamel
Twitter: @schamelearning
Kirsten Phillips
Twitter: @kear734
#RCSeLearn
www.werrichmond.com/elearning
