Student Screencasts
Student-created screencasts tend to fall into one of two categories: tutorials, much like many teacher-created screencasts, or evidence and assessment of understanding
CATEGORY ONE
STUDENTS WITH SKILL USING A PARTICULAR WEBSITE OR PROGRAM MIGHT BE MADE RESPONSIBLE FOR CREATING TUTORIALS, WHICH CAN THEN BE SHARED WITH A WIDER AUDIENCE. THIS IS SIMILAR IN MANY WAYS TO A COMMON USE OF SCREENCASTING BY TEACHERS. |
CATEGORY TWO
SCREENCASTING FOR UNDERSTANDING; WHEN STUDENTS ARE GIVEN THE TASK OF PRESENTING AN EXPLANATION FOR THEIR WORK, A STEP-BY-STEP ANALYSIS OF A PROBLEM, OR DETAILED ORAL DESCRIPTION OF A PROCESS, THE PRODUCT WILL SHOW THE DEPTH AND BREADTH OF THEIR UNDERSTANDING OF THE TOPIC OR CONCEPT IN QUESTION. |
This site will focus primarily on category two uses, though category one has value as well!
"Thinking about thinking" has to be a principal ingredient of any empowering practice of education. -Jerome Bruner
When students are responsible for creating screencasts explaining their processes, their methods, their THINKING, they are practicing metacognition. No longer are they able to talk about their work in general terms... The act of planning out what they are showing and telling others, along with the act of voicing their thoughts, requires them to critically examine what they have learned, how they learned it, and why it works.
Both of the following examples were created using VoiceThread. While VoiceThread may not be the first tool that comes to mind when talking about screencasting, in both of these examples it was very effectively.
Both of the following examples were created using VoiceThread. While VoiceThread may not be the first tool that comes to mind when talking about screencasting, in both of these examples it was very effectively.
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This example was a final product in a sixth grade poetry unit. As the class studied different types and styles of poetry, the students were required to write their own, similar poems. In the end, the VoiceThread which was created gave the student an opportunity to express the reasoning and thought behind his poetry AND gave the teacher a powerful glimpse into how much of the unit he had really understood and internalized.
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This is a partial example of a project which was created for and presented at a fifth grade science fair. Rather than assembling tri-fold boards with long, detailed, typed-out descriptions of materials, procedures, variables, and conclusions, the students were tasked with producing a visually appealing presentation and taking their audience through the process with them. When compared to previous years' science fair, the students involved in this "digital fair" were able to provide much deeper analysis of their data and more thorough answers to audience (and teacher!) questions.
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There is, in fact, no teaching without learning. One requires the other. -Paulo Freire
There is tremendous power in the idea of students explaining their thinking in a way which can be used to teach others. Below, you will find a the visuals for a presentation created to demonstrate some of the results of incorporating student screencasting into a fifth grade math class.
(NOTE: to view the presentation, please click on the slides themselves, rather than on the arrows located at the bottom of the viewer. Some aspects of the slides will play automatically, while others need clicks to proceed. If something isn't happening, trying clicking! This will enable you to see and hear all of the content.)
(NOTE: to view the presentation, please click on the slides themselves, rather than on the arrows located at the bottom of the viewer. Some aspects of the slides will play automatically, while others need clicks to proceed. If something isn't happening, trying clicking! This will enable you to see and hear all of the content.)
If you aren't prepared to go through the entire presentation, please consider these salient details taken from it:
RESULTS AND OUTCOMES
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STUDENT RESPONSE AND REFLECTIONS
- “I thought that screencasting was a good way of sharing your knowledge and expanding it too…” - “We got to learn from all of our other classmates’ screencasts. It’s really great review!” - “Making screencasts was a great experience. I think teaching others what you’ve learned actually helps you understand it better.” |
Enthusiasm is excitement with inspiration, motivation, and a pinch of creativity. -Bo Bennett
While student-created screencasts is a fairly basic use of technology, it is also a highly effective and efficient one. If we consider it in terms of Bloom's Taxonomy, there are very few types of learning objectives which screencasting for understanding does not have the capability to assess, depending, of course, on the purpose of the assignment or assessment. The ideas posted below are just a start!
CREATION:
Utilizing screencasting provides students with an opportunity to create a product with a clear purpose and (potentially) an authentic audience, either their peers or outside school. EVALUATION: Screencasts may, for example, show students comparing multiple methods of solving a problem, then identifying the one which they feel is best and explaining why. ANALYSIS: Asking students to look at and analyze data using screencasts is an excellent way to assess understanding and student ability to interpret trends and outcomes. APPLICATION: Students may take what they have learned and demonstrate, through a screencast , their approach to solving a novel problem based on that knowledge. UNDERSTANDING: At it's most basic, student screencasting is a way for students to show understanding of a concept or topic. MEMORIZATION:This is probably the level of the taxonomy with the weakest link to screencasting, but also the level which we often overwhelm students with. Memorization tasks do not tend to promote deep understanding or lasting knowledge. |
Creation of screencasts has the potential to appeal to students with a wide range of skills and abilities. Students who are logical and analytical will likely enjoy the process of planning the project and executing the plan. Students who easily engage in design and creative work will appreciate the opportunity to produce visually-appealing work. It is an ideal assessment type both for outgoing, verbal learners AND for quiet, shy learners: those who are verbal still have the opportunity to communicate through speech, and those who are hesitant have the comfort of recording their voice ahead of time rather than presenting and explaining live.