Digital story telling as explained by Kate Kemker is a process that allows students to understand how a well told story unfolds and is created. It allows the students to work together as a team to create a storyboard through research and planning, actual videotaping, and postproduction editing via a digital video editor such as iMovie or Adobe Premiere. I think it would work well in one of my future science classrooms. I believe that students would have to do some really good research to set up an appropriate storyboard all the while building a memory of the knowledge they are gathering to present on video. Going over and over the information as they plan our their presentation would allow better retention which would be great benefit for them.
Using computer graphics can help a student to visualize mathematical concepts and be very useful to demonstrate real life math as it applies to real world applications. Certain pieces of software are available that can help a student visually see geometry and other mathematical subjects. Graphing calculators also are another way to visualize math. Making it easier for a student to jump back and forth between the actual numbers and a graph has proven effective as a tool to help ease the learning process of math.
According to our textbook, television can be "...a powerful learning tool when students are critical users and producers rather than consumers." So my answer would be no, students can not learn how to do something merely from watching TV instruction. They must somehow be engaged in the program. By just "consuming" what is on the TV, they are not reaching their full learning potential. To take advantage of such a thing, they need to somehow be involved it the information being set forth through an activity, such as producing their own video.
Jonassen, D., Howland, J., Marra, R., & Crismond, D. (2008). Meaningful learning With Technology(3rd Edition). Columbus, OH: Pearson/Prentice Hall.
I could not agree with you more about TV. I think you can watch an instructional TV program and see how something is done, but you can't fully understand it until you have done it yourself. I believe that you have to actually go through the steps yourself before you can understand what it is trying to teach you.
ReplyDeleteI can see your point about not reaching their full potential unless they are actively engaged in the program. However, think of all the documentaries that we learn from or the "how to" shows that are constantly being aired. We are definitly learning something when we watch television. The biggest challenge is when we use video in the classroom, are the students learning the content that we want them to?
ReplyDelete