Hi Aylee:
Relevance should reflect what's contained in the course description that contains student learning outcomes (SLO's), learning objectives, and daily lesson plans. You're right about trying to keep it interesting and understandable. A teacher could have the best curriculum, but if they miss their target audience, they've achieved very little.
Regards, Barry
Hi Richard:
Great. It's important to try to find what works best to try to reach and teach your students. Sounds like you've made the best of what resources you have. Also, getting students into discussion groups helps develop critical thinking, independence, trust in their knowledge, and confidence about their learning. You can have the groups summarize key points, and make clarifications (or corrections) if they're off a bit. But this kind of learning assists retaining information better than having it fed to them and memorizing facts.
Regards, Barry
I do select media content delivery that is relevant to what I am teaching. Also, I want to make sure that the content that I am choosing is not too hard for the students to understand and that it is not too simple and uninteresting for the students to learn.
That depends on the class. For my math/statistics classes I use the whiteboard since watching videos doesn't really seem to teach them much. However, I do give them several online help sites and connections to the textbook publisher's online course homework problems (in fact, that will be part of the next class requirements). If they have trouble graphing I gather them around and demonstrate converting equations to graphs using a very good website I found.
For the science class I'm also limited by the lack of equipment that my school has. My lectures make very heavy use of PowerPoint slides and I also use CDs and VCR tapes as appropriate. With the online class have them do some exercises using website materials (for example, a few minicourses federal agencies have created). I also arranged all my slides to correlate with lecture notes--an excellent review for me--and created zip files of each week's work. These are available for all my classes, on site or online.
Hi Natalie:
Current events do add a degree of validity to the topics. And it only takes being alert to the many resources that supply us (bombard us) with related information.
When students get to discuss and add their opinions, I think that adds more too. They may be off target a bit, but a good teacher can provide corrected information while not calling attention to correcting the student.
How? Just don't correct the student. Instead, just give your version of what you want the students to remember and remind students your version is what tests will come from.
Regards, Barry
Hi Chastity:
Variety with media and instructional methods add so much to classes, such as you're doing. Variety keeps the brain working different parts, and keeps the interest and attention of students better.
There's so many choices, it really takes thought, time and effort to carefully plan what the teacher thinks will best assist in conveying the subject matter the best.
Regards, Barry
By knowing the target audience and the material covered in the particular lecture
Relavance to the subject matter and to current events are my two key choices. Always scanning the popular media for information that can supplement power points is some thing I do religiously. It helps keep the subject matter "real" to the student. It might be a utube video or and newspaper headline or a TV commercial.
By diversifying the message source I increase the number of "expert"s in the room. It no longer is just my viewpoint or opinion, but it is a broader panel.
I select media based on the content that needs to be relayed for a given lesson plan. I also take into consideration what avenues of learning are more beneficial to my class. I enjoy incorporating media into my class to maintain the interest of my students. They enjoy the change of pace and it allows them to learn adaptation skills for change in the workplace as well.
Hi Linda:
This sounds like a fun activity. I can't see spending every lesson doing this same activity, but when appropriate, very creative!
Regards, Barry
Hi Robby:
Choosing media is extremly important, and time and effort needs to be allocated for good planning. Mixing media choices helps keep the students attentions, provides variety, allows students to use different parts of their brain to learn, and it's just more interesting.
A very important consideration is engaging or involving students (discussions, demonstrations, presentations, anything that directs them to learn on their own with the teacher simply facilitating). They'll retain information better and ultimately perform better as students and workers.
Regards, Barry
many teachers feel that the media that they show has to be like an hour or so. some even take up the whole class time to show an old video. i sometimes show a 3 minute video on the subject i am teaching just to give them a visual. that sets up the stage for additional material that the professor or teacher can then adress. showing multiple videos of different scenarios can open the students eyes to the many different ways they can approach a situation or skill.
I have found that creating large posters and using stick up answers has been very successful. I lay the answers or areas of interest on a table and have the students take turns to place the correct answers on the posters. They love this and they remember the important points I want them to learn.
Hi David:
Your approach to choosing what'll work best sedems very logical and systematic. That's great. I think that when I'm writing for planning purposes, I follow something similar.
On the other hand, I've stumbled on to wonderful lessons, topics, methods, and uses for media resources literally by accident. Sometimes being open to students suggestions can be quite helpful.
Example, years ago while trying to describe a lower lobe pneumonia on a chest x-ray, some of the students in the class couldn't see what I was trying to identify. A suggestion came from a student to project the x-ray image on the white board using an overhead projector. Duh... it really worked. So I was able to draw an outline of the whole chest with pertinent contents including the area with the pneumonia. First with the overhead, on, then off, then back on, and finally back on the illuminator. Boy, there were a lot of "aha's" with that one.
Regards, Barry
There are several items to look at. 1. Does it fit my content and the scope of where I am in the program? 2. Am I comfortable with the format or can i learn it - i.e. a powerpoint slide show. 3. Is this something that will enhance the students in some way beyond what I can deliver to them by myself? This is great if you have models or demonstrations.
As always, I need to know what it is, how to use it and why its important.
Hi Eric:
Great message. Too many rely on technology and presentation aids such as PPT, as if by magic, methods used for years before PPT are no longer useful. Involving senses helps learning, and finding creative ways to involve the students will nearly always achieve better results then sitting and listening. How about the student do the PPT and teach the class - that'd be creative and I'll guarantee you the student would retain needed information!
Regards, Barry
I know over the years the hyp went to power point so most instructors did not have to do much other than show it and maybe elaberate some. There can be power point but to apply it to the real learning is helpfull as some do not understand the process unless the feel and touch what they are learning. When you combine both it can work to help all involved.
Hi Rochelle:
Media, of whatever source, are just tools. Like a carpenter, they havfe access to many tools, most with a specific purpose. So it is with teaching. Media choices are tools that can applied in a productive, meanigful manner, or turn out to be less effective, almost wasting the students time, if we've chosen the wrong tool.
There's the situation of the right tool at the wrong time, and vice versa.
Regards, Barry
Hi Chris:
Being involved in your particular profession, I can see why you might view PPT as a flat, dull, sterile presentation media.
In many ways I agree. I think just becasue PPT exists and can do a lot of presentation tricks with little training, it tends to get over used, while the poor student has to endure these "masterpieces" of instructional delivery.
What you describe (digg.com) is more progressive and suggestive of the teaching concept of facilitating instruction, rather than being the provider of it. The more participative and engaged we can get our students, getting them involved, the better they will retain and learn, and use the knowledge gained from the class. In fact, if we could have the students teaching the class, how powerful and meaningful their educational experience would be.
Regards, Barry
i use what is relivent for the learning situation i like power points because they offer so much in the way of media learning
