Wednesday, December 11, 2013
A Simple, but Useful Technology
The idea of integrating technology in the classroom does not mean that it has to be the newest, most extremely complicated and state of the art technology that is being used. Simple technologies can be used to aid in the learning such as a video camera. The technological use of video making can be a very useful and fun tool to create projects with in any subject area! For the use of the video camera for foreign language, I know from personal experiences in high school, often times our final projects for the end of the year would require us to make a movie (about ten to fifteen minutes in length) about anything, but made in the target language. A project like this is a great supplementary way to assess how much your students have learned throughout the semester such as vocabulary, use of grammar, pronunciation, etc. A project like this also allow students to be able to work in groups with their peers for peer interaction and practice using the language. The simple technology of the video camera and movie making allows us teachers to give a more interesting project to our students while still giving them a productive project to do! To better assess students at the end of the unit/year/etc, the movie can be part of a final assessment that is supplementary to a traditional test to better assess what the students have learned. By using two different ways to assess the student, you give the students who may not be strong in test taking, multiple opportunities to prove and show what they have learned, which as teachers I think is imperative to do for our students. Do you think that students should have more than one form of assessment at the end of a unit, semester, year, etc?
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You bring up a really important idea that maybe more than one form of assessment should be given to students. In my Foreign Language classes in high school I also made many movies in Spanish. My teacher would watch our movies and assess our real-life communication skills in the language. I do think that students should have more than one form of assessment at the end of a unit since each student responds to different types of assessments differently.
ReplyDeleteShould students have more than one form of assessment at the end of a unit, semester, year, etc? ABSOLUTELY! Remember that everyone explains what they learned differently. There are people who do not do well taking tests. It’s not that they don’t know the material, they just are not good test takers. Some can’t stand taking a test on paper and would rather talk to you about it. There are all different kinds of scenarios like these. A video would be an excellent group assessment in which you could cover so much. I did a final group video in Spanish class my senior year of high school. I remember everyone in my grade loved that assignment because it gave us freedom and a chance to use the language in an engaging way.
ReplyDeleteI like that you chose a simple technology for your class lesson. It's very true that the technology that you choose to use doesn't have to be fancy or the newest version. In music, I still use a CD player to give musical examples. It matters what is effective. I also like what you said about giving students a ways to show their knowledge in different ways other than taking tests. This is so important, because most students have a difficult time taking test, but they know the material.
ReplyDeleteI agree with this post completely! A video camera and some basic editing tools is all a student really needs to create a creative and comprehensive project. In High School I made a lot of movies, though none of them were in a foreign language. Not only was I very involved with the academic process of making the film, I had a lot of fun. Sometimes, teachers need to have fun activities in the curriculum just to keep students involved in the learning process. I also agree that sometimes, the tried and true methods of technology are just as good as the latest or most expensive technologies available. Great post!
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