Enjoyment
drives motivation that in turn drives learning. In the current visual and
digital culture, students enjoy watching videos and looking at pictures. The
use of Snapchat and Instagram verifies this. Therefore, using videos in
classroom lessons and for review outside of class seems logical; they are fun,
enjoyable, and thus motivating (Green, 2012; Lee, 2014). The study by
Richards-Babb, Curtis, Smith, and Mingming (2014) bears out this idea. The
students in their study ranked problem-solving videos over textbooks.
Currently, the top site for videos is YouTube. a user-generated content
provider and video sharing service, with more than one billion users who watch
hundreds of millions of hours of videos daily (Buzzetto-More, 2015; YouTube,
n.d.). Thus, the technology that I have chosen for this blog post is YouTube.
One
of the benefits of YouTube for teaching and learning includes its multi-modal
aspect. For students, YouTube provides
opportunities to see, hear, and replay as needed. For instructors, YouTube
provides a way to present different perspectives on a topic. Although YouTube
does have these benefits, its use also has challenges. For instructors, the
challenge is taking the time to find videos that will be age appropriate and engage
learners. For students, the challenge is sitting through a long, boring video
chosen by the instructor. Thus, to foster student engagement through this
technology, I have started to ask students to locate videos and post the URL on
an online discussion board. From this assignment, the students and I will have
a collection of videos on reading and writing for college. This solves the
challenge of locating a variety of videos and locating videos that students
will enjoy.
To
sustain this technology, one strategy I would implement in my teaching context is
to create a YouTube channel. On this channel, I would then put the selections
that my students have found. In so doing, I would have a library of videos
hand-picked by students.
References
Buzzetto-More,
N. (2015). Student attitudes towards the integration of YouTube in online,
hybrid, and web-assisted courses: An examination of the impact of course
modality on perception. Journal
of Online Learning & Teaching, 11(1),
55-73. Retrieved from jolt.merlot.org/
Green, A.
(2012). The use of YouTube in further education colleges. Multimedia Information &
Technology, 38(2), 14-15. Retrieved from
http://www.cilip.org.uk/multimedia-information-technology-group/mmit-journal
Lee, H.
(2014). Social media and student learning behavior: Plugging into mainstream
music offers dynamic ways to learn English. Computers
in Human Behavior, 36496-501.
doi:10.1016/j.chb.2014.02.019
Richards-Babb,
M., Curtis, R., Smith, V. J., & Mingming, X. (2014). Problem solving videos
for general chemistry review: Students' perceptions and use patterns. Journal of Chemical Education, 91(11), 1796-1803.
doi:10.1021/ed500280b
YouTube. (n.d.). Statistics.
Retrieved 1 Mar. 2016 from http://www.youtube.com/yt/press/ statistics.html
I use YouTube in several of my classes and give students the option to create a YouTube video for their presentations...to date I have only had three students deviate from PowerPoint (or another slideshow program) and create videos. I like your idea of having students find and post YouTube videos. For history, one of the concerns is that they videos may not be accurate (or reflect an extreme bias), so I can see assigning students to post and critique videos for historical biases, etc. Great post, Susan!
ReplyDelete