Screencasting as a teacher
Teacher-created screencasts have a variety of uses in the classroom, but generally fall into one of two categories: instructional content SOMETIMES called Flipped instruction, or step by step guides for basic activities or instructions
Flipped classroom
The concept of flipped classroom has taken off in recent years and It is easy to see why. The whole idea behind flipping your instruction is to create a more student-centered learning environment. In the traditional model, the teacher would lecture all class and then send students out on their own to try and apply the knowledge. The way that flipped classroom works is you record your lecture or lesson and have students watch that for homework, then have the students complete activities and practice concepts during your class time. This allows you as the teacher to help guide students as they work on mastering your curriculum. The benefits multiply from there.
The first benefit often mentioned when discussing the flipped approach is how much more time is given for working with students. By pushing the direct instruction piece out of your normal class period, you are now freed up to help students one on one. You have more time to allow students to collaborate on group projects, as well as provide them with more hands on activities that help reinforce the concepts delivered in the direct instruction.
Additionally, because the direct instruction portion is recorded, students can go back and review the video time and again to review the topic. This is much more difficult with live lecturing, even if the student is proficient in taking notes. Michael Ruffini describes this benefit in great detail in his article titled "Screencasting to Engage Learning" when he says:
The first benefit often mentioned when discussing the flipped approach is how much more time is given for working with students. By pushing the direct instruction piece out of your normal class period, you are now freed up to help students one on one. You have more time to allow students to collaborate on group projects, as well as provide them with more hands on activities that help reinforce the concepts delivered in the direct instruction.
Additionally, because the direct instruction portion is recorded, students can go back and review the video time and again to review the topic. This is much more difficult with live lecturing, even if the student is proficient in taking notes. Michael Ruffini describes this benefit in great detail in his article titled "Screencasting to Engage Learning" when he says:
The ability to pause or review content also gives students the option to move at their own pace, which is not always feasible in the classroom. Screencasts are excellent for those learners who just need an aural as well as a visual explanation of the content presented. Screencasting is a perfect medium to explain difficult technical concepts to anyone with a non-technical background.
In that quote, Raffini also taps into the idea that screencasting is engaging both aurally as well as visually. Good screencasting needs to be a bit entertaining and therefore can hold the viewers attention. Here is an example of a lesson I created for a grade six humanities class that was studying poetry:
While this example is a bit silly, I found it was very effective in helping students understand prepositions, a difficult concept for that age group. By providing both the oral explanation, as well as visual examples, students were able to have a deeper understanding of the concept.
The example above illustrates one of the other reasons why instructing through screencasting is powerful. I was able to tailor this video to exactly what the students needed for the project we were working on in class. Because the teacher can take the time to edit and revise the lesson before providing it to students, they can more reliably count on getting points across succinctly and directly.
Beyond the teacher creating all of their own instructional videos, there is a wealth of already created material out on the internet that is available for free. This materail is excellent for providing additional resources to students to help reinforce difficult concepts that are being taught. One of the more recognizable, and useful, locations for suplemental instructional screencasts is Kahn Academy. While this site was originally dedicated to material focused on Math, they have now branched out into many different subjects and are constantly adding more material.
Flipped classroom provides many benefits that can allow teachers to decentralize their classroom to provide more student centered activities. By pushing direct instruction to outside of class hours, you have more time to focus on working with students to gude them through instruction. Teachers can tailor their instruction to the different needs present in the classroom, while at the same time allowing students to move at their own pace. Schools that have moved to this approach have seen significant increase in student achievement.
The example above illustrates one of the other reasons why instructing through screencasting is powerful. I was able to tailor this video to exactly what the students needed for the project we were working on in class. Because the teacher can take the time to edit and revise the lesson before providing it to students, they can more reliably count on getting points across succinctly and directly.
Beyond the teacher creating all of their own instructional videos, there is a wealth of already created material out on the internet that is available for free. This materail is excellent for providing additional resources to students to help reinforce difficult concepts that are being taught. One of the more recognizable, and useful, locations for suplemental instructional screencasts is Kahn Academy. While this site was originally dedicated to material focused on Math, they have now branched out into many different subjects and are constantly adding more material.
Flipped classroom provides many benefits that can allow teachers to decentralize their classroom to provide more student centered activities. By pushing direct instruction to outside of class hours, you have more time to focus on working with students to gude them through instruction. Teachers can tailor their instruction to the different needs present in the classroom, while at the same time allowing students to move at their own pace. Schools that have moved to this approach have seen significant increase in student achievement.
Guides or Tutorials
So often instructional time can be lost spending time explaining to students what amounts to basic instructions. These instructions could be how to create an account for a new Web 2.0 tool, or how to setup a project in a certain way. If computers are involved the instruction can quickly be derailed because of technical issues that a student is having and as a result all students are forced to stop and wait while the issues are resolved. Perhaps a student is absent on the day the instructions were given in class, and now the teacher is forced to repeat all of the instructions over again. Worse yet, the student isn't absent but you still need to repeat the instructions due to inattention.
Screencasting provides a solution to these problems by allowing the teacher to essentially be in many places at once. By recording your instruction for a project or a new tool, students can, once again, work at their own pace. If they encounter technical difficulties that require the teacher's attention, they can pause the screencast and receive assistance, all while the other students are continuing along on their own. The absent student can simply be directed towards the tutorial to be completed on his or her own time. The student that wasn't paying attention can be redirected to watch the tutorial again. The teacher is now free to support the process, or even move it completely out of class hours and assign it as homework. |
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