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Posts Tagged ‘school videos’

Classroom Technology: Endless Possibilities

Thursday, October 15th, 2009

Many teachers grew up without computers in the classroom. Remember when floppy disks were really big, floppy disks? Today, floppy disks are a thing of the past and computer technology has evolved at light speed so the need to be literate and proficient with computers has only grown more pressing. Classroom technology presents teachers with some challenges, that is true, but also unparalleled opportunities.

Teachers have a difficult job. They must teach using all the educational resources available in their classrooms, schools, and increasingly from the internet. In these years of economic crisis, accessing educational media via the Internet is becoming more and more popular. Using the internet, videos, software, interactive white boards, and other traditional educational resources at their disposal is part of creating authentic learning environments. By using these tools effectively, teachers engage their students and eager learners remember more and test better. How can you integrate these resources into your everyday classroom? By step-by-step—you can’t learn it all at once—training on new equipment and applications and trying out and implementing techniques that work for you.

For the Teacher

Take any professional development or product training on new equipment and systems available to you. The extra weekend of classes can make up hours in your lesson development and assessment. Many districts that adopt educational technology systems have free training and consulting through the companies that provided the systems. They also have online tutorials at their website or youtube that may resolve issues you had or may provide lesson ideas.
Look for internet articles that discuss various ways to use educational media resources (i.e. educational videos, white boards, multi media) for researched-based techniques for improving lessons by using the resources effectively.
Use online grading programs. This makes doing quarterly grades a snap, and a bonus is many programs allow students and their parents to access their own grades.
Use the internet to research lessons and educational resources. There are many reliable sites that teachers use to talk about successes (and failures!) of lessons. Remember, many companies are committed to providing appropriate content and grade level media resources, so don’t forget to look at the professional sites.
Communicate with parents via email or your own class website. Parents have wildly varying schedules, and this may be the best way to communicate with the most people. This also allows you to show what is happening in your classroom efficiently and timely. Most school Instructional Technology departments can help you set up a class website.
Use programs to detect plagiarism. Use best practices for explaining to your students how to use content ethically and teach them appropriate techniques for documenting content from the internet.

For the Class

Use school videos to supplement lessons and to engage students in learning. You can use DVDs, VHS or stream video clips online. You can bookmark educational sites and even watch historical evens unfold live, such as the inauguration of the President through various public websites.
Use PowerPoint – either teacher or student created – to highlight the main points of a lesson or unit. Interactive whiteboard flipcharts are also a new application for creating lesson presentations.
Use the internet to talk about reliable and unreliable sources of information.
Internet Research: do webquests, which teach the students techniques for sifting through mountains of information to get appropriate and truthful information they need.
Check the top news each day for current events, or use different sites to talk about critical thinking skills for evaluating information.
Use a free blog and have a group of students update it daily or weekly with what has been going on in class. This way, parents and family can check in too. You can also find “pen-pal” blog classes to communicate with across the country and around the world.
Use your imagination!

There is an endless array of uses for classroom technology and methods to incorporate it. You don’t have to create a website with video feeds your first day. Start with an educational video or a lesson on doing online searches. From there, the options open up infinitely.

Tags: classroom technology, school videos
Posted in Classroom Technology | 1 Comment »

School Videos: The Best of Classroom Technology

Thursday, October 1st, 2009

A teacher has to have a lot of tricks up her sleeve: to deal with disciplinary issues, to deal with different levels of ability, to deal with different learning styles. Technology is another trick, another tool, for creating an environment where learning can take place. Dr. James Marshall of San Diego State’s Department of Educational Technology says it perfectly: school videos and other media complement “what a great teacher does naturally. It extends their reach.”

How can a video improve the quality of your lesson? We know that videos, which can be found on any number of subjects at any number of levels, provide invaluable educational content: when we’re teaching our students about the four seasons, for example, video can be part of an exciting unit. You can use the video to explore seasons in different areas of the country; you can see weather extremes; you can hear music and see visuals that are far more effective than just words.

You can go on nature walks to see the foliage; you can have the kids write to relatives in different areas to see what the seasons are like there (or use email), you can check the weather forecasts online. There is an infinite range of possibilities, and video is a valuable component – but it is never the only component.

Besides that, digital media appeals to the students’ need for instant gratification, for auditory and visual stimulation. Our goal is to help students build better attention spans, to help them learn to focus – but doing it through means they connect with has much better results than if we ignore the fact that they are typically far more engaged with technology. We can lead them to our instructional goals using a language they understand.

There are times when school videos are counterproductive in your lessons. While they are great, like Dr. Marshall indicates, they should be an extension of the teacher – not a replacement for the teacher. You should not view it as an “extra” or something that allows you to check out: videos work well when teachers are engaged. If the teacher is engaged, then the chances that the students will be too is much greater.

Are you unlocking the potential in the videos you share with your students? You will be amazed at some of the results – improved critical thinking and problem solving skills to name but two. Click here for more information on using this remarkably effective tool.

Tags: classroom technology, school videos
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Using Video as a Tool in Elementary Lesson Plans

Wednesday, September 30th, 2009

One of the best examples of using video for learning wasn’t from a teacher, but one of my mom friends. She didn’t have elementary lesson plans or set goals, but she used video the way teachers should for the most effective experience.

While she and her daughter were watching a television show, they talked about what they saw. They talked about letters and numbers and practiced the alphabet. After, she casually asked her daughter if she could count as high as the character in the show, and her daughter showed off by doing one better. The mom commented to me that she felt bad letting her child watch TV, and I looked at her like she was crazy. TV, when used right, is tremendously helpful to children’s learning. And she did it right.

This mom knew instinctively that video shouldn’t be passive, and that is really the key to meeting your objectives. You know what it feels like when you watch television at home: you kind of get this glaze in your eye; you sit and just wait for what is going to happen next. This is fine for home – and it’s nice to escape for an hour or two – but this is not a great use of your precious classroom minutes.

Teachers need to ensure that everyone – including themselves – is participating in the video. When you turn on the video, no one gets to turn off his brains. If this happens, your objectives will not be met, and you are just filling up time.

School videos can be an effective component of elementary lesson plans, and there are a variety of ways to engage students in active learning. Here are two tips:

Watch a segment of the video without sound. This will force the students (force in a nice way, that is) to provide the narration. This can be such a great window into their thinking.
Watch a segment without picture. The students have to visualize the content based on the narration. It is working different brain muscles, as it were.

I even threw in another important tip in here: segments. Five minutes of well-used video can be much more effective than 50 minutes. Research tells us that the average attention span for children is about one minute for each year of their lives. So, a seven year old will have a seven minute span. That doesn’t mean you can’t show longer videos; but you have to do something to spark that attention and engage the mind often. Here are some other great tips to get you started.

Tags: lesson plan, school videos
Posted in Lesson Plans | 2 Comments »

Are You Making the Most of Each School Video?

Tuesday, September 29th, 2009

Media in the classroom gives us a world of experience that we can share with our students. We can show them the inauguration of a president or Martin Luther King’s famous “I Have a Dream Speech.” We can see history, or we can see how letters fit together to make words, or how numbers can do whatever we want if we know some rules. With the right school video, we can show our students virtually anything.

But will they see what we need them to see? This is where the teacher comes in. Videos are wonderful tools, but like any tool, the outcome depends on the skill of whoever holds them. So to make sure your students are meeting your instructional goals, it is important to use videos correctly. Some people look at me like I’m crazy when I say this: how do you not use a video correctly? You just put it in the DVD player and there you go. No! If that’s all you’re doing, then chances are your objectives are not going to be met.

There are a few problems that can occur with videos – through no fault of the videos themselves! But whenever you turn off the lights, little people are likely to get sleepy. Students are going to start thinking about what they want to do at recess or who they will sit with at lunch or can I sneak and check my text messages. Teachers are distracted by their lesson plans for tomorrow or what they want to do at recess! It combines to create a colossal waste of time for everyone involved. Learning? Not so much.

This is why it is so important when you use a school video to use it well. The most important thing is to keep your instructional goals in mind and keep the students focused on those goals. How do you do this? Here are just a few good tips:

Give your students pre-activities, discuss what will be on the video and what they should look and listen for.
Provide viewing activities. These can be worksheets or any type of activity that keeps the focused and makes them accountable for the material.
Break the video into segments. 50 minutes of video is often too much, but five or ten minutes can be remarkably effective. Use what you need to teach, not to fill time. The rule is the video clip should be no longer than twice the age of your class.

Are you using media to its best advantage? Are your goals being met? If not, don’t throw out the video. Just change your method of using it. For help in using videos more effectively, check out this link.

Tags: lesson plan, school videos
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Is There a Place for School Videos in Direct Instruction Classrooms?

Monday, September 28th, 2009

For every educational technique or method, there are supporters and detractors. Does the use of school videos work for any method? I am a firm believer in the value of well-made and well-chosen videos as a tool in the classroom. What about in Direct Instruction classrooms? Does it work there too?

Whatever your thoughts on Direct Instruction, it’s hard to argue with results like the following: Siefert Elementary in Milwaukee was one of the worst schools in the state. In just three years, they raised the number of fourth graders who scored proficient or better in reading from 22 percent to 57 percent. Math proficiency went from 11 percent to 48 percent, and social studies saw an increase from 13 percent proficiency to 61 percent.

All due to Direct Instruction, Seifert says. In this model, teacher and student interact in a prescribed way. That is, a concept is explained explicitly and a demonstration given – all while students and teachers interact continuously to ensure students understand the material. It is very teacher-focused, as opposed to more exploratory, experimental models. While it may sound contrary to how many of us teach and were taught to teach, the research backs this method up. So how does a school video fit into the lesson plan of a Direct Instruction classroom?

The truth is that it fits in exactly as it should in any classroom. The video doesn’t become the teacher – the teacher is still a vital part of this lesson (or should be. Put the grading pen down and participate, teachers!). There is teacher engagement at all steps of the video process – you can’t really put your feet up and watch it like you would television.

From pre-viewing activities to post-viewing follow-ups, the teacher needs to teach. The video, as wonderful as many of them are, can never take your place. Many teachers, regardless of whether they are in DI classrooms, stop the video, ask questions, and point out items of particular interest. Activities like these are really what make videos so effective in any type of classroom.

The point is to realize that media is not passive. Videos should be part of active learning where teachers and students interact with each other and the material. Whether or not you are a proponent of DI, there can be no arguing with the anecdotal and scientific evidence that videos are extremely effective when used correctly. To ensure that you are getting all that you should be out of any video you share with your students – and that they are actively engaged, click here.

Tags: lesson plan, school videos
Posted in Lesson Plans | 1 Comment »

School Videos Help the Learning Process

Saturday, August 1st, 2009

Teachers often use videos or TV clips to supplement lessons they are teaching. School videos are an effective way of to address different learning modalities by stimulating visual memory. Maybe you read something that you can’t remember all of the details of, or you recall the teacher saying something but you can’t quite pull it fully into your mind. Because images often stick in your mind, using videos allows you to apply your visual literacy in learning.

In the ninth grade I was shown a film about the consequences of smoking cigarettes. It had a cowboy in the tight Wrangler jean, the big belt buckle, and the faded hat. He had that leathery wind-weathered skin. The film showed him out on the range, corralling a bunch of cows in front of a big sky sunset, with a cigarette dangling from his mouth. In the next scene he was in a white room. He was speaking through his throat. A hospitalized Marlboro Man with lung and mouth cancer.

Talk about visual literacy! How did I read that? No one in that video had to tell me smoking was a bad idea. All I had to do was read the images to know that I didn’t want those problems. School videos are often very effective in this way. They are able to instill a point that might have otherwise been overlooked. My teacher could have said that smoking was bad. I might have read it was bad. None of that made the same impact as seeing a video that had the same point, but in a much more real scenario.

Visual literacy includes how our brains process visual imagery and how imagery is a powerful learning tool. Click here for research and information on visual literacy.

Tags: educational videos, school videos, visual literacy
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Classroom Technology: Video Remains

Thursday, July 30th, 2009

Times sure have changed from when I was in Middle School. I remember when Mrs. Robinson took my Walkman away until the end of the year. I was crushed! Today, my bottom drawer is filled with cell phones and iPods. That’s why it is time to integrate technology in your classroom. School videos are a great place to begin. With all the new systems to access the Internet and educational resources, video remains the most important way to present images and using video as a tool in your lessons will help you learn how to integrate all technologies and resources into your classroom and into your lessons.

At times, it can be hard to capture the attention of students. I truly believe this has something to do with all of our technological advances. We have to advance the technology in our classrooms that we use to teach our kids. If lessons are taught using classroom technology effectively, my students will become more engaged and more interested in the lesson.

YouTube and Teachertube are great places to see the vast application of educational ideas. These video forums also reveal what people watch which in turn allows for new ideas on how to present video. There is instruction going on everywhere. Kids can learn how to do the latest dance, beat a level on a video game, or learn how to play the guitar, just to list a few. This is also a great way to integrate technology in your classroom–by using what kids are interested in to develop your lesson. Students can do their work, make and post a video, and other students will learn from viewing it.

It is time to make the classroom more fun. I believe this will be one small step in doing just that!

Tags: classroom technology, school videos
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Teaching Effectively with School Videos

Monday, June 29th, 2009

It has been said that our world is moving faster than it ever has before, and that our attention spans are shrinking to fit those changes. Unsurprisingly, students today are more difficult to entertain than ever before. Oftentimes it is difficult to get them to pay attention at all, if a teacher has developed a reputation for being boring. It is important to adapt our teaching methods to these changing times. One way to do this is through the use of educational dvds.

When used correctly, these tools can help to keep your students interested in the lesson plans that you have written. When interspersed with your usual cirriculum, educational dvds can provide a chance for students to learn in new and exciting ways. This keeps your lessons from becoming monotonous and gives students something to look forward to. With all the technology that is currently being used in classrooms, it would be a shame to let something as powerful as school videos go to waste.

If you’re ready to start to stop making “The 7 Biggest Mistakes Teachers Make Using Video in the Classroom” and start experiencing the benefits of using video effectively in your classroom, your next step is to download a free copy of “The 7 Biggest Mistakes Teachers Make Using Video in the Classroom” right now.

Tags: school videos
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The Advantage of Educational DVDs

Wednesday, June 24th, 2009

I believe educational DVDs and videos help add interest and excitement to a classroom lesson. Textbooks and other types of written media, even when filled with interesting information, cannot carry us off to places the same way a school video can.

For example, I can read about an expedition through a Brazilian rainforest and get a sense of what it might be like, but seeing a well-produced video can make me feel as if I am actually there. I can see the trees and the wildlife, I can hear the sounds of the animals and birds, and I can practically feel the cool rain pouring down in an afternoon thunderstorm. These images and impressions are ones that I could not get from reading a textbook or even looking at still pictures.

School videos also appeal to a wide range of students. There are students who do not enjoy the reading process or find learning from books to be difficult, but almost all students enjoy educational DVDs and videos. I think they do a great job of holding the interest of nearly all learners, and they often have interactive content, such as interviews and bonus materials that make them a great classroom resource. Click here for some valuable information on how and why to use educational DVDs and videos in your classroom lessons.

Tags: educational videos, school videos
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School Videos as Part of Your Lesson Plans

Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009

A large percentage of the population is visually oriented, so the use of school videos in your lesson plans is important. It will help accomplish the aim of the lesson.

I had to put on a play with my sixth-grade class, so I chose a topic concerning the Native-Americans in our history. My lesson plans for the project included showing school videos of other classes putting on plays.

The class was able to see how an excellent performance could be accomplished. Two plays on related topics were shown. At times we stopped the videos and had a discussion. Input from the class showed they were picking up performance tips.

We could have just practiced. Showing successful performances reinforced the right way of doing things. A positive aspect was that the class learned an appreciation for theater.

School videos as part of a teacher’s lesson plans can be a good tool in education. It is the step before the hands-on of actually performing. The images of others playing parts will leave an impression in their minds.

A teacher should not just rely on the printed word or lecturing. It can become boring. The attention of the students should be kept focused, for class success.

Tags: lesson plan, school videos
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