One technology that I have used to engage my students was You Tube. I know people think of You Tube as just for fun but You Tube is very educational. My students seem to love it. I teach POLS 101 and it it really helps to get subjects across. Say for instance I am teaching on Shays Rebellion, there are many videos that I can consider from You Tube.
I have noticed that majority of my students love to watch videos. Afterwards, they are eager to engage. Students spend so much of their time watching videos, using their cell phones, and ipads until I feel that it is a must that they are engaged the same way in class.
One disadvantage of You Tube is that there is so much debate on just about everything. Also, you have to watch the videos because they can get away from what you may be trying to teach the students. A benefit of You Tube is that a student can understand things from different points of views. In the future, I may consider uploading educational content, especially when class is cancelled because of bad weather, which is frequent in the winter. The students can look at the videos from their mobile devices allowing me to still get my lecture to the students ( Fuegen, 2012).
My children learn so much from their mobile devices. I remember one time I received a tweet from one of my students. I thought, hmmn "How can I use twitter to make POLS a fun and learning experience for my students. Although I teach F2F incorporating You Tube, twitter, and blogging will also a sort of blended content experience for the students ( Greyling, Kara, Makka, and Van Niekerk, 2008).
I have really enjoyed blogging although it was totally new to me. So many people blog and now I one of them. I am going to continue to blog.
References:
Fuegen, S. (2012). The impact of mobile technologies on distance
education. TechTrends, 56(6), 49–53.
Greyling, F., Kara, M., Makka, A., & Van Niekerk, S. (2008).
IT worked for us: Online strategies to facilitate learning in large
(undergraduate) classes. Electronic Journal of e-Learning, 6(3),
179–187.
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases
The point about using the videos to learn from when inclement weather impacts class is well noted. The problem is whether they will do the work or not. I know for a fact the students are not watching the assigned videos in my lesson plans. At least less than half of them are actually watching them, that is. I am at the end of this semester so I'm not going to address it with two sessions left. I will however be addressing this in the next semester by doing some spot quizzes to keep them on their toes.
ReplyDeleteI am going to use the Wiki concept and I think that is going to play a role in how this gets done. I began the flip in the middle of the semester so I've been taking notes on what works and what needs some reinforcement. I could use the blog for them to post on, but then I could also have discussion forums in my eCompanion site that are moderated and in my opinion work better for an out of class discussion. I want those to be mobile device accessible and they're not. If they were they might get some use, but then again maybe not. In an online course, that is a different story. I rely heavily on those boards in those courses.