In 2007/2008, I had the pleasure and privilege of having a student teacher in my classroom. She was incredible, and, being young, taught me all kinds of things about using the web to help me with my planning. We were jointly planning a unit on advertising, and I mentioned we needed to find some examples. "No problem," she said, "I'll just go on Youtube." Every time we were looking for something, she either googled it or went to Youtube. It changed the way I did my planning. I still use all my old files, but now, I also turn to the web for support materials.
When I did a unit on suspense in radio plays, I went to Youtube for the original radio broadcast, when we read the Old Man and the Sea, I went to Youtube for both the movie and the version created by Alexander Petrov with drawings. A few months ago I got a tablet and LCD projector in my class. This connected me and my students and encouraged me to use the web even more while teaching. I really believe that every classroom should be equipped with these machines. They enable teachers to use and share the technology with their classrooms.
I had never before seen or heard of Teachertube, so I eagerly went to the site to see how it differed from Youtube. I looked at a video on Ben Franklin produced in a grade two classroom and a simple explanation by a teacher on how to use a Box and Whisker plot in Math. Deciding to see if there was anything covering the curriculum I teach, I tried to find "Sorry, Wrong Number," one of the radio plays I had covered with my students. Here is where I found the key difference between Youtube and Teachertube. "Sorry, Wrong Number," is a professionally produced and previously broadcast play, and is available both on Youtube and Google video, but not on Teachertube. Teachertube, as promised, is "an online community for sharing instructional videos." I then tried searching for material on the War of 1812 and hit the jackpot. There were numerous instructional videos, and a great song/picture video that used humour and quick images to get the British perspective across. I wish I had discovered this two months ago while covering the material with my Grade 9's. I know they would have enjoyed it a lot more that the Canada: A People's History version that we viewed.
I love that the videos on Teachertube are produced by teachers and students in their classrooms. So much of the work we get students to do never gets seen outside of the classroom, and this allows for everyone to be able to share in the brilliant work produced by some students. This year, after attending a sustainability symposium with my students, I assigned them to create P.S.A.'s (Public Service Announcements) on some aspect of sustainability. Our school media teacher gathered examples of P.S.A.'s off the web for them to get an idea of what was required. They worked in groups, and had to produce storyboards prior to being allowed to videotape. We 'published' some, by putting them on our school television, but how much better would it have been if they had published to Teachertube and shared with others. A note for anyone wanting to try P.S.A.'s but not having the video equipment: digital cameras that take short video clips can be used to gather the footage and then can be edited when put on a computer.
Videos offer far more for a teacher that lesson planning aid and student involvement, they also provide an amazing amount of professional development. The simple fact that you can instruct us to watch something like 'Social Bookmarking in Plain English" on Youtube to learn about it, proves my point. In our district, a great deal of Pro-D is offered through video podcasts. Teachers have also recommended some great videos through out email that take only minutes to watch, yet provide food for thought and allow for discussion in the staff room. Watching videos of teachers modelling different learning strategies or teaching techniques in their classrooms is also a great way for pro-d to happen. We've been doing it for years, but now you can access a lot of it online, so you don't have to be part of the 'learning team' to share the benefits. Videos on the web that cover discussion panels are also great for pro-d.
I have had a lot more exposure to 'video' on line that I have to photosharing and social networking sites, so I have less fear of them. I think this proves my statement in an earlier blog that with familiarity and use come acceptance and understanding. Yet as Will Richardson points out in Blogs, Wikis and Podcasts, " teenagers use these sites more as social tools than learning tools, and their behaviour is sometime reckless."(pg. 20) I don't think it is just students that abuse these tools, but as educators we need to constantly ask ourselves, " How do we get kids to realize the amazing power of these tools and use them to collaborate and learn rather than to abuse and embarrass each other? "
I was shocked to read that many districts block the use of Youtube. The more reading I do on the subject, and the more I learn, the less I think that 'blocking' is an answer to anything. I have to admit that at times, I'd love to block Facebook when students should be working on other things in the lab., but I'm willing to take time to have discussions with them about a time and place for everything, and when it is/is not appropriate to be using specific sites. Knowledge is power and students have to be guided through this maze of tools and information, just as they do through anything in life. The speed with which things develop and change makes it a far more daunting task, but aren't we really still teaching socially acceptable and unacceptable behaviours, just with a different medium involved in our interactions, not just face to face? Will Richardson's comment about teaching students to navigate the darker sides of the Web safely and effectively (pg. 11) makes far more sense to me than pretending it doesn't exist, since it is obviously not going to go away.
In the past week and one half, I have absorbed an amazing amount of information. I am constantly thinking about all of the tools available, and all of the implications for education. They are incredibly powerful tools with so much potential that it boggles my mind. Laura Brooks, in her article, ' "Old School" Meet School Library 2.0,' talks about how "We must know how to select, adopt, and promote new technologies to bump our media programs to a place of prominence as innovative models for teaching and learning in our schools." What an incredibly daunting task. No one person could ever hope to do this alone, but as she also states, Web 2.0 is based on collaboration and sharing. I think that collaboration and sharing are the only ways we will ever get through all of this maze of tools and links and sites. I also think that our students, who navigate through this far more effectively and efficiently, have to be partners in this collaboration and sharing. Video is an excellent way for them to partake in this, and we can learn a great deal from them, while still guiding them in the socially acceptable aspects of using the tools.
Thanks, Patty. You raise a number of really interesting points in your post. You mention that much of your early introduction to Youtube was through your kids--I think this is increasingly the case, especially for teachers who are also parents to this new generation of computer users. Many of my students have commented that they rely on their children to help them navigate these new tools and that this 'role reversal' has been very interesting for many of them. Also, you mention that posting student created videos that were done for school projects can create a much more authentic learning experience than simply creating a product that is never shared. This is so true of so many of the social media / web 2.0 tools we will be talking about in this class. By providing students with a creative outlet and giving them opportunities to post their work online in a variety of formats they are opening their work up to the world. Imagine having a student blog or video about a particular subject area that gets commented on by a respected person in that field? It happens all the time for students (it has happened in previous versions of this course--well known Ed Tech people comment on student blogs) and it is thrilling and validating!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you reminded me of Will Richardson's comment about how "teaching students to navigate the darker sides of the Web safely and effectively (pg. 11) makes far more sense to me than pretending it doesn't exist, since it is obviously not going to go away." Our school does not block YouTube and fortunately, we do not yet seem to have the issues with kids posting embarassing or inappropriate videos. I'm guessing this can be attributed to the fact that we have been blocked by YouTube from uploading video. An interesting role reversal:)
ReplyDeleteI agree with Natasha. We cannot just pretend that there is nothing bad on the internet. Instead we need to teach children to think critically about what they view, and educate them about things on the internet that could be potentially harmful. The only thing worse than a child encountering harmful things on the internet, is them not knowing how to deal with it when they do.
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