Pappas (2013) notes 'that the majority of eLearning professionals admit that video constitutes a vivid and entertaining way to stimulate the learner’s interest and convey the desired knowledge'. Learners, continues Pappas (2013), are thus more likely to retain the information they have been taught by recreating the images in their minds. After all, most learners need to feel as if the instructor is speaking directly to them in a one-on-one conversation. They need this relationship between instructor and student that helps them keep their interest in the subject to be taught. Videos are therefore very important tools in online teaching and learning.
An example
YouTube Video: An Introduction to Technology Integration
To find this video I looked for videos in (i) edutopia.com, (ii) Merlot, (iii) the TED talks Education YouTube channel, (iv) the Teaching Channel and (v) iTunes U where I knew I could find a large repository of videos related to education, and technology. I saw snippets of some videos but selected three. Then, I and spent around an hour watching them. I finally chose the video above which best satisfied my teaching objective. The whole process took around two hours.
The other two videos were:
- Finland: Discover through Technology, from the Teaching Channel, available at https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/discovery-through-technology
- Can Technology Change Education?Yes!, by Raj Dhingra, from the TED talks Education YouTube channel, available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0s_M6xKxNc
The teachers interviewed in this short, professionally produced and well-edited video make a very strong argument for the integration of technology into the school curriculum. Why? Because, today, technology, is ubiquitous, and if used well in the classroom, it will fundamentally transform the way we teach, and students learn. Teaching without technology can also lead to learning, but teaching with technology ‘makes learning joyful’, improves the students’ attention, their focus, motivation, engagement and the effective sharing of ideas.
One of the interviewed teachers also notes that, ‘when you create (a blog, a podcast or a video), you take ownership of your learning. You understand it in a very different way than if you just memorize something from a textbook, or if you just read it over and over again, or watched it in someone else's film. If you were able to translate that information into your own film, your own content, you own something to share. That's just amazing.’
Moreover, another teacher notes that the internet provides an authentic audience and when students post their work online, their work ‘doesn't go into a pile on the teacher's desk, and then get handed back to their folder’. On Internet, students sharing their ideas and creations with ‘people that actually, not only will read it, but also care about it.’
The traditional teaching approaches that ‘we’ve inherited from the Prussians 200 years ago’ are no longer valid in the modern classroom. Technology can help teachers adopt pedagogies in which they are facilitators who, while ‘working alongside with’ their students can guide them to ‘create great work’.
Its use in class
This 5-minute video will be used with a group of student teachers following a course called Technology-Enhanced Learning and Innovation. This is a hybrid program. The students will be asked to view the video. All the students will then be asked to reflect on their ‘teaching practices’ and participate in an asynchronous discussion hosted on Moodle about the implications of integrating technology into the local schooling system.
The video comes with a text transcript for the hearing impaired.
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