I downloaded it and showed it to my classes and they loved it. It dawned on me just how much of a YouTube generation today's learners are and I began looking for other short clips that I show a few times a week at the beginning of class as the Clip of the Day. In preparing for this weeks wiki classwork I was reminded of another clip I show:
To date these clips are pretty much a one way process - I find them and show them. While once in a while a student recommends one that is relevant and actually school appropriate I am looking for ideas to make the collection (or creation?) and sharing of them more collaborative. Let me know if you have any thoughts!
Do you have a YouTube account? If so, are you storing your "Favorite" YouTubes by "Category" and subscribing to any "YouTubers"? I find the Categories for storing YouTubes helpful. I can quickly find a video when I need it.
ReplyDeleteI don't yet have a YouTube account but now that I think about it I may have signed up for one a few years ago. Or maybe that was TeacherTube or SchoolTube? I'll have to look into it. At first I was going to start saving YouTube links in Diigo but then I realized that I might end up with too many links to sift through. So maybe it would be better to get a YouTube account.
DeleteI also like to download the clips to my hard drive just in case the network at school is down which isn't that rare, unfortunately.
Eric, your insight into today's generational youtube use is spot on. I was just involved in a conversation with some colleagues the other day about how students use youtube videos as part of their presentations/projects for our district's senior mastery project. The issue that seemed to arise was students using the clips as their project basis, not as an enhancement. In other words they showed a long clip in lieu of speaking on the topic or others do not seem to effectively introduce their clip. What it comes down to to me is the idea of us as teachers needing to model these skills, especially in today's day and age of a global society and the use of technology in our student's future careers.
ReplyDeleteRenee's comment does ring true about what I am hearing in education today in terms of students showing a clip in class in lieu of presenting their own ideas. As to your initial question about how to engage students in reflective practice, it seems if the video clips were on a blog, students could write reactions. They might be offered some questions to prompt their thinking. In addition, a video could be posted on a Ning, and students could be asked to discuss it. This way, students more readily see others' responses and could also respond to what others' post. Ning is just one of many discussion platforms, but others could be used to post clips for response and discussion. Whereas students might say the first thing that comes to mind in an oral discussion in class, a site for commenting after viewing a video would allow for more reflection. When you showed the iPad clip, we barely had time to discuss it. We were more like passive learners. But since you have shown it, I have been thinking about it. If I were a student in your class and saw the video online and had an opportunity to think about and post some comments, I know I would have a lot to say (write).
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