The capabilities of the institution and the specific venue of the instruction effect my choices.
Katrina,
There is really so much out there, we have to be a bit choosey, in order that we find the best resources and media for the moment. We could find a lot that is good, but the challenge is to find what is best, at this time, for these students, in this class.
Barry Westling
I select instrunctional media based on the content.appropriateness and relevancy to topic at hand.
Billie,
Wonderful. Your students should appreciate the planning you've done to bring variety that relates to the topic and makes your class vibrant, interesting and enjoyable. Students are likely to learn and retain needed information better in an environment such as you've created.
Barry Westling
I currently teach Sociology. I try to mix up the media. I use 20 minutes of Powerpoints per chapter. I bring in newspaper articles for small group discussions twice monthly. I use 2 diagrams, maps, and bar graphs per chapter. I use 2 Multimedia videos on mysoclab and I show them before the first break to tie in with the subject matter discussed in the chapter. Using a perfect balance of media helps me keep the students interested in Sociology.
Karl,
I think it's true, most of us respond to visual and auditory sensory stimulation. That said, as for student learning, lecturing alone is the least effective way for students to learn, although it it is the most convenient. On the other end, the most effective way students learn is by teaching others. Using a variety of media is effective to different degrees to different students. There was a time where I used a lot of video tapes, where now, that has diminished to a fraction of what it used to be. That's because I've learned that watching video is static, and without some sort of engagement, although the information is useful, students retention of video material will be low.
Barry Westling
That is dependant on the content of my lecture/presentation. I find audio\visual to be the most effective media for keeping students attention and "helping" with retention of content.
Roxsie,
Great! Tools that students can relate to, they're going to use.
Barry Westling
I look for media that is short and to the point easy to understand and helps to reenforce the learning and retention process.
Mike,
Creative teachers do creative things, even when given resources are fixed. Students appreciate informative, interesting, and classes that are fun and enjoyable.
Barry Westling
I have media provided to me by the school.
Christopher,
You're right, and these days, there are limitless resouyrces to relatively easily access. Embedding these images, sounds, and situation in a PPT slide, or burning onto a disk or thumb frive makes access easy. Other than the time and effort it takes to ready these, there is no excuses for not provide a robust lesson that include all the relative sounds and images that are pertinent to the lesson.
Barry Westling
In some fields such as medicine, it is highly benificial to the students to actually see pictures or videos or hear audio files of what they will see and hear in the real world. So when they see gangrene in a diabetic patient they are not as shocked as they would be if they had never been exposed to it visually. You can describe the condition but until the student actually sees it they can only imagine. So many of our medical careers use most of the senses to care for patients, failure to expose them to at least what they may hear and see is a disservice to the student for their future career.
Christopher,
I think you're idea of soliciting ideas or assistance from students is terrific! I'm sure they feel a bit more fulfilled when their teacher askes for their input in this way. I firmly believe that the best PPT slides guide discussions, as there are much better ways for students to get printed information (rather than from a slide and maybe handouts). The exceptions are illustrations, graphs, photos, diagrams, figures, or charts that really do promote better discussions when projected. Otherwise, a category title with a few bullet points is all that is really needed. Inserting intersting links, short videos, and anything interactive makes a PPT presentation more enjoyable, memorable, and contributes to better learning outcomes and information retention.
Barry Westling
I see many instructors just read what is on the PowerPoint slide. That drives me crazy. There is so much more out there. IF you use PowerPoint you need to learn what else it can do other than just put words on the screen. I do a lot of prep for classes looking for pictures, animations, videos and audio files that illustrate or expand upon the PowerPoint provided by the publisher. Does it take time? Sure but the improved results in student learning is well worth the time and effort. Once you have these things incorporated into your presentation you can’t relax and forget about them. I update my presentations regularly with new videos, graphics etc. Many of the suggestions for new material come from my students. Getting them involved can not only help them but it can help the instructor as well.
One way I get the students involved is after a few slides I will ask a question and they can text message their answer code to http://www.polleverywhere.com/ and watch the answers change the graph in the Powerpoint slide. The nice thing is the answers are anonymous so nobody is embarrassed by posting the wrong answer. It keeps them involved and motivated.
I also use questgarden http://questgarden.com/index.php to develop multimedia lessons for the students to use to stimulate learning and critical thinking.
There are so many good tools out there we can use in conjunction with programs like PowerPoint and Prezi there should be no reason for anyone to endure “death by power point†if we will only take the time to care enough to research and utilize the tools at our disposal
Cassie,
These are good, convenient, and common in classroom settings. If we think from a students standpoint, selecting media that's interesting, varied, stimulating, and contributes to learning in a fun and enjoyable manner would be appreciated. That can be done to a degree with PPT slides and whiteboard, but some variety will keep students attention and focus.
Barry Westling
It depends on the content. White board and ppt are our main means of media. Most oftenly I tend to gravitate towards ppt presentation as they are easy, neat, and well received by the students. I will use the white board when a more complex concept needs to be delivered.
Rebecca,
That's great. Our DH program has gone to using eBooks for many of the courses (not all are available in an eBook format), and there are many "associated" resources the publisher provides. I really appreciate these, as I use eBooks in my program as well, and am really amazed how extra media can be accessed or referenced if the student so chooses.
Barry Westling
I use media that is designed to go along with the text book. With Dental Hygiene we need specific instructional media and it has been well developed with our course.
Michael,
This describes an ideal meth to lecture with discussion, interaction with students, illustration and exchange of ideas, and adapting the material to meet the flow of the class. Media are resources or tools that help teachers get the job done. Our task is to carefully select the most meaningful media that effectively getys the job done.
Barry Westling
