I personally love the idea of encouraging students to use digital video software like MovieMaker. As a future learning manager I intend to use this software to create engaging and multimodal resources for my classroom. I can reflect on the use of digital video as an assessment tool because during The Arts course at CQUniversity I was encouraged to use MovieMaker to present my personal belief on the Arts as key learning area in schools. I have to admit, I was very anxious about this task as I h
ad minimal exposure to the software program. Nevertheless I persisted with the task and thoroughly enjoyed the process once I passed the initial anxieties. The program is quite user friendly and I love being able to look back on what I created during the course. I believe by embedding digital video into the assessment, the lecturers managed to create an engaging task for a topic that was quite mundane as it focused on curriculum and policy material. Therefore I believe as learner managers we can also use digital video to make learning appealing to our students.
Kearney & Schuck (2004) also recognize the learning benefits and claim that digital video;
-develops a variety of literacies
-provides authentic learning
-encourages collaborative learning skills
-engages and motivates learners
-promotes expression and communication
- enhances technological skills
-provides students with the necessary skills for the 21st century.
Using digital video in the classroom encourages the constructivist learning approaches to be implemented in a variety of learning areas because students develop knowledge and understanding from meaningful experiences. (Kearney & Schuck, 2004). Within this Kearney and Schuck article further claims are made about digital video developing deep conceptual understandings. A study conducted by Ross, Yerrick and Molebash (2003) identified how digital video can develop deeper scientific understandings by using cameras to record procedures and observations over time. Using this digital video within science promotes consistency and accuracy of scientific investigations as it allows students to review findings with closer observation. As we all know time is a factor in the classroom and having this option to review observations allows teachers to revisit the task with a clear visual stimulus for students.
Science is not the only learning area to benefit from digital video. This technological tool offers a plethora of opportunities in the classroom context. Some possible uses in the classroom could include;
-Creative assessment tasks for students such as photo story recounts or claymation stories.
-Teachers can create engaging resources that set the scene for learning.
-Digital video can be used to record the learning journey so that knowledge can be revisited at a later date.
-Digital videos of students’ progress can be produced as a gift for caregivers at the end of the year.
-Recorded evidence of students’ progress can be used to identify achievement of desired outcomes.
-Teachers can place digital videos on virtual classroom to give caregivers insight into their child’s learning journey.
I understand that this tool can be quite time consuming, requires access to equipment and that task for younger students will need to be highly scaffolded. However I believe the amazing benefits surpass these slight inconveniences and that digital video definitely has a role in the classroom context. Please let me know if you see any problems with using digital video in the classroom as I am struggling to find any major disadvantages of this tool.
ad minimal exposure to the software program. Nevertheless I persisted with the task and thoroughly enjoyed the process once I passed the initial anxieties. The program is quite user friendly and I love being able to look back on what I created during the course. I believe by embedding digital video into the assessment, the lecturers managed to create an engaging task for a topic that was quite mundane as it focused on curriculum and policy material. Therefore I believe as learner managers we can also use digital video to make learning appealing to our students.Kearney & Schuck (2004) also recognize the learning benefits and claim that digital video;
-develops a variety of literacies
-provides authentic learning
-encourages collaborative learning skills
-engages and motivates learners
-promotes expression and communication
- enhances technological skills
-provides students with the necessary skills for the 21st century.
Using digital video in the classroom encourages the constructivist learning approaches to be implemented in a variety of learning areas because students develop knowledge and understanding from meaningful experiences. (Kearney & Schuck, 2004). Within this Kearney and Schuck article further claims are made about digital video developing deep conceptual understandings. A study conducted by Ross, Yerrick and Molebash (2003) identified how digital video can develop deeper scientific understandings by using cameras to record procedures and observations over time. Using this digital video within science promotes consistency and accuracy of scientific investigations as it allows students to review findings with closer observation. As we all know time is a factor in the classroom and having this option to review observations allows teachers to revisit the task with a clear visual stimulus for students.
Science is not the only learning area to benefit from digital video. This technological tool offers a plethora of opportunities in the classroom context. Some possible uses in the classroom could include;
-Creative assessment tasks for students such as photo story recounts or claymation stories.
-Teachers can create engaging resources that set the scene for learning.
-Digital video can be used to record the learning journey so that knowledge can be revisited at a later date.
-Digital videos of students’ progress can be produced as a gift for caregivers at the end of the year.
-Recorded evidence of students’ progress can be used to identify achievement of desired outcomes.
-Teachers can place digital videos on virtual classroom to give caregivers insight into their child’s learning journey.
I understand that this tool can be quite time consuming, requires access to equipment and that task for younger students will need to be highly scaffolded. However I believe the amazing benefits surpass these slight inconveniences and that digital video definitely has a role in the classroom context. Please let me know if you see any problems with using digital video in the classroom as I am struggling to find any major disadvantages of this tool.
Hi Pauline,
ReplyDeleteThankyou for sharing your knowledge and insights about Digital Video and how this tool can be used to enhance student learning.
I found the study you mentioned by, Ross, Yerrick and Molebash (2003), very interesting and helpful to see that even though a learning experience including digital videos would be very time consuming, if scaffolded to fit your student's the skills being developed are worth all the time and effort.
It has made me see that I can successfully incoporate 'making' a digital video with an early childhood classroom.
Emily.
Hi Emily,
ReplyDeleteYes, this tool is great. I think it has a purpose for all education levels from prep right through to tertiary education.
Thanks for your comments.
Hi Pauline,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your analysis of this tool. I have since experimented with MovieMaker myself and I would agree with you - I think it would be a very engaging tool for the classroom! I have seen children as young as five years old successfully use this program, and for this reason I think it would be suitable for any age group.
Some of the ideas I had relating to the use of this tool were perhaps using MovieMaker as a tool for assessment pieces. For example, if the students were creating an invention within Technology, they may be able to document their creation process through this program, to be assessed at the end by the learning manager. Also, within the Key Learning Area of English, I thought maybe a teacher-created movie could be used as stimulus for writing tasks? What do you think of these suggestions?
One aspect I thought may be problematic was the area of Copywrite when using images for these movies. My idea was that perhaps the learning manager could pre-select images and then add these to a folder for student use? This way, the learning manager could reference these images, and narrow down the resources students could access. In saying this however, if students are capturing images of their own experiences and pieces of work, this is also an easy way to avoid this problem!
I also read through the research conducted by Schuck and Kearney (2004) and I was blown away by all the positive impacts of this form of tool on student learning! As learning managers, I think making time to incorporate this form of learning into our classroom is a must!
Kate
Hi Pauline!
ReplyDeleteI too believe Digital Video is a great tool to use in the classroom. I myself have not had a lot of experience with the tool however I have had some exposure to it and know may people that have used the tool and found it quite easy and straightforward to use!
I agree with the point that it does create an engaging tool for students to use and it would be extremely useful to use in the classroom as an assessment item.
I enjoyed reading your research into the viewpoints of Kearney and Shuck (2006). It is always beneficial that the tool is recognised by experts for its benefits and as we have recently been learning, authentic learning is very important in the classroom!
It was interesting to read your ideas on the benefits of digital video from a science approach, I had never thought of how beneficial this tool would be within the science key learning area. However, now you have mentioned it, it is a very true statement as observation and accuracy are the key components within science.
Some of the benefits I discovered that digital video could be used for were:
• Educational purposes
• Entertainment
• Reflection
• ICT incorporation in the classroom
• Engagement tool
• Information display
• Communication tool
• Presentations
I also learnt through my own discovery of digital video that students’ video productions using this tool can produce outcomes such as affective:
• Metacognitive
• Higher order thinking
• Communication
• Presentation
• Literacy
• Organisational skills
• Teamwork
• Moviemaking skills development
I’m sorry I cannot offer any disadvantages in using this tool in the classroom! But I too believe this tool would be so great and beneficial for any aged students in the classroom! It can be used to, engage students into lessons, show parents what their students have been learning, enhance students’ presentations and affectively deliver information to a range of people. Not to mention that it is also a great way to provide equal opportunity in learning for all varied learning styles that do occur within the classroom.
Anna.
Hi ladies,
ReplyDeleteThe more we discuss the use of digital video, the more I value it as a resource in my classroom. Kate, I really like your idea about using digital video to stimulate writing ideas in the Key Learning Area of English. The use of digital video to document the technological process is another interesting way to use this tool. Thanks for the suggestions. Anna, the suggestion of using digital video as a reflection tool is great. This would cater for those low literacy students who struggle to express their ideas in written form.
Thanks for you contribution and ideas.