Video Created: Friendly Seven Math Domino Game
Description: Rewind My Teacher
This was our second class discussing in greater detail the idea of video recording lessons for our students to have access to online. My experience with video recording is minimal so I am quite enthusiastic for being able to produce an instructional video that looks and sounds professional. My students will not be a captive audience if the movie is substandard. The idea of being able to rewind the teacher is an important one, as it enables the student to fine tune their learning and have a greater understanding of the topic, to rewind the lesson repeatedly helping each student learn at their own pace.
We formed groups based on grade levels. We then began to discuss the details of what tools we would need to capture audio and video, as well as, what subject and lesson we would make. As a group we decided on using IPhone 4S as the tool to capture video and audio, we had 2 at our access, we also had access to an Apple Mac Book Pro for video editing and publishing. We also went into a Learning center classroom to seek out everyday materials to create a math lesson on basic addition facts for the primary to grade 2 level. We found dominoes and were able to make a video of a game that we play to practice and master the basic math addition facts required by our Outcomes. As we were creating the video we stopped several times to check both video and sound quality. We decided that this video lesson would be helpful at engaging the student’s interest and motivation to learn and practice math skills.
Analysis and Impact
Because I have referred to instructional videos in the past to help me learn or understand a solution to a problem, I am able to agree, that for students to be able to rewind a lesson or activity assigned from their teacher, is a valid and enriched dynamic to optimize deeper learning. I have searched for instructions regarding simple plumbing projects to more detailed tasks like replacing a complete headlight assembly for a vehicle. I was then able to apply my learning to a very real meaningful task. To help me make sense of this approach to teaching I have reviewed videos, discussed with colleagues and collected information on this form of multimodal learning. Articles have stated that “…researchers have shown that significant increases in learning can be accomplished through the informed use of visual and verbal multimodal learning.” (Fadel, 2008, p. 12) I have learned that this method of teaching can enhance student learning. For example, I incorporated the math video (Friendly Seven) we collaboratively created into my teaching instruction. I was quickly able to monitor the individual level of understanding, and ability of each individual student in my classroom. At this point I was able to offer just in time learning scaffolded to the individual student need. “Technology-based interactivity can be a tool to facilitate active learning with dialogue between students as well as to evaluate and revise their propositions.” (Sherman & Kurshan, 2005, p. 12) I was able to quickly provide the just in time teaching and the necessary practice and intervention needed for my students to gain a deeper understanding of their math addition facts by using this technology for optimized learning. I have always taken the position that effective teaching strategies and integration of technology can optimize the learning for each student at their individual level. I feel that both the creation of the movie and application of the movie in my classroom will continue to enhance and optimize student learning and achievement, based on my prior experiences, observations, as well as connecting it to current research results.
· Students had fun while learning their math facts
· Students involved in multimodal activities gain higher order level learning (Geary, 2011) (Fadel, 2008)
· Students involved in social activity will have a deeper learning and be more motivated (Geary, 2011)
· Teacher able to monitor and circulate the room and provide one on one support to the children who are struggling with their math facts
· Easy to scaffold the activity to meet each student at their level, EPA was able to assist and adapt students with specific learning needs
· Increase the relationship between home, school, and community fostering a more accommodating learning experience
· Permits a permanent place to look for the lesson to be able to review the lesson infinitely to match the individual pace of learning
· Enables students to rewind their learning when it is convenient for them, always access the lesson on the web
· For students who wish to further or deepen their understanding they can search for deeper information regarding a concept by searching out video instruction about a particular topic
· University students would no longer need to pay tuition and attend only one university open up the university
· Bridge the gap if a student misses a lot of time, due to illness, or absenteeism (Intervention Podcasting (Kelly & Kratcoski, 2007)
I feel that I have learned several important aspects towards creating a successful instructional video. There are certain aspects of the creation of the movie that must be considered, such things as audience, purpose, and quality of the sound and video must be seriously considered. I compared the reactions of my students to several different instructional videos that I had access to, my students were quick to point out that if they could not clearly understand the purpose of the video and clearly hear the sound that they were quickly disinterested and unmotivated. The student’s reaction to my video called Friendly Seven was clear, the audio and visual was good and the students maintained their interest and were motivated to do the activity. A success! Furthermore as a follow up to the classroom experiment with the video I sent home paper dominoes in baggies for the children to play the game with someone at home. I also published the video online to YouTube and created a link to the video from my classroom website. While watching several of these instructional videos, I observed that it is important to be aware of the camera while filming, and to look into the camera when giving specific instructions as a means of connecting with the audience, it appeared to facilitate understanding.
There were a few minor problems that I was forced to solve. I was not familiar with the audio quality of the IPhone 4S, I quickly appreciated the fact that it had a very good microphone, as I was able to create a movie with good sound quality. Upon viewing the video and listening carefully to the audio in each clip I decided to normalize the audio before I published for the final version. I did this simply to maintain a consistent audio level throughout the entire video, therefore not having a sound that would rise and drop depending on the clip. I was unsure how I would be able to access the video that I had created with my group. We were able to share the video through the use of an online storage and sharing site named Dropbox. Video format was a small problem, making sure that the video was created in a format that could be shared and downloaded easily. We rendered the published video in a very low definition resolution so as to expedite upload and download times. One of the group members has the original high definition version for any future editing that may be required. I am contemplating as to how I will want to share this video and future videos of this type with my students. Should I begin to publish them to a YouTube account, provide links to each video that is embedded to my own personal class website, or should I have the videos in a shared online storage space such as Dropbox that my students can access by a password? I do not have the answers to these questions, however for the time being I am going to embed the video to my class web page (I feel that this is the easiest way for each student to easily access the movie) to provide access to this activity for my students to do at home. I was not able to merely embed the video into my website, so I was forced to create a YouTube channel and publish the movie here. At this point I have been able to create a link from my website to the movie.
Intent
As a result of my learning during this Rewind My Teacher Project, I intend to continue to create and incorporate these instructional videos into my daily teaching practice. However, I will add captions or text, with the video to further connect to visual and verbal learning and therefore attaining higher effective multimodal learning for my students. (Fadel, 2008) I will continue to add small digital effects to the video as the students really tend to be engaged and amused by these effects therefore making it a more pleasurable learning experience. Based on the guidance of the articles that I have read to this point I will continue to offer activities of this nature to optimize the learning and meet the needs of every student. I intend to further enhance student learning by optimizing their growth and development by providing both classroom opportunity and out of school time to continue to practice math skills such as rote learning of these basic math facts in engaging and motivating activities. I connect this application of the use of technology and the willingness of the students to relentlessly push through, or grind through the work or homework as they are naturally motivated to push through the repetitive nature of a game to win, it is this repetition and willingness to persevere, in order to win the game where the learning is maximized. (Bissell, 2010) I have received emails from one student telling me that he has shared the game and movie with his family. To push him further in order to extend his learning I have asked him if he can think of another application to this movie creation that he may be able to think of that is both motivational to him and the class and useful, he is thinking about it. I enjoyed how this activity Rewind My Teacher has grown and evolved to connecting with my class and students to optimize their learning and my teaching.
Reference
Bissell, T. C. (2010). Extra lives. Toronto: Pantheon Books.
Fadel, C. (2008). Multimodal learning through media: what the research says. Cisco, Retrieved from http://www.cisco.com/web/strategy/docs/education/Multimodal-Learning-Through-Media.pdf
Geary, D. (2011, September). Primal brain in the modern classroom. Scientific American Mind, 44-49. Retrieved from http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=primal-brain-in-the-modern-classroom
Kelly, J., & Kratcoski, A. (2007). Intervention podcasting. Journal of the Research Center for Educational Technology (RCET), 3(2), 50-52. Retrieved from www.rcetj.org/index.php/rcetj/article/download/47/78
Sherman, T. & Kurshan, B. (2005). Constructing learning. Learning and Leading with Technology, 32(5), 10-13, 39. Retrieved from http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/EJ697302.pdf
