This week in Tech we learned how to screen record with audio and how to make a simple video interactive in a multitude of ways. For my screen recording teaching video, I demonstrated how to make a simple poster on Canva. It was very interesting to learn how to record a video of my screen, and I am honestly excited to be able to use it in different ways to aid student understanding and learning. When it came to making a video interactive, I was surprised that this was even possible because, in my mind, a video is just a recording and not able to be interacted with beyond maybe sound quality, brightness and length editing. Below I have added my first ever interactive screen recorded video! I hope you enjoy because I sure did making it. : )
I also have a link here that you can follow to get to Canva to start designing.
As for the topics of discussion this week I am going to touch on the questions wondering if including H5P tools could potentially be a useful tool at the grade level I hope to teach (or not), and how Multi-media Learning Theory can help create more effective instructional videos and tutorials.
When it comes to deciding on which grade I would like to teach I am admittedly still up in the air a little but for my Link2Practice I am in a grade 5 class so I will use that as my grade level reference. I strongly believe that the H5P tools would be perfect to use in videos for my grade 5 class because there are a few kids who, like myself, have a shorter attention span when listening to long educational videos that do not pertain to their interests. But if there was an interactive part where the class could guess the correct answer out of 4 options or if a question is true or false, they would likely be far more attentive (I know I would). They would get to be a part of the video and interact in a way that is more memorable than a person droning on and on. Rather than being told to pay attention because they will have to individually answer questions after, they get to answer questions in a group and get a collective excitement if they get the answer right and if they get it wrong, increased anticipation for the next question to win/beat the system collectively.
As for the use of Multi-Media Learning Theory, I again strongly believe that it significantly benefits learners in elementary and up. When there are too many things going on in a PowerPoint-like presentation or video, kids’ attention spans can drift from the main points of the demonstration to less vital details like a presenter’s face. As we talked about in class, we are drawn to faces, and kids are no exception, so having a camera on during the presentation could mean they are not retaining the information that prompted the presentation in the first place; the same goes for too many graphics/pictures especially if they are irrelevant to the topic. On the other side of this theoretical coin, there is also an issue with there not being enough additional stimulation to help kids draw connections between what they are listening to/reading. If you have a page of just text or if you are speaking with no additional visuals, the kids are less likely to remember what was being taught because it can start to blend together. So, to combat this, we must include relevant visual aids like pictures, gifs, or short video clips that can be mixed in with pages of blocky text or long drawn-out spiels. Kids are also well known to not all learn and absorb information in the same way, so to include multiple different types of media for the same presentation is also, at its simplest, a form of inclusion that should be applied in every presentation.
(See the pics below as an example of non-relevant pictures that, although beautiful, do not connect to what I have been talking about.)
The first pic is from a beach in my hometown at sunset, and the second pic is of two of the five goats that were my coworkers over the summer (Albert is the white one, Frank is the darker one, and they are besties). I took both photos myself! : )
Until next week,
-Kristen
Hi Kristen! What a beautiful blog! I love how organized and decorated you have made it, I also love that you added some pictures of your hometown and these cute little goats! As your L2P partner, I strongly agree that H5P tools are a great asset in the classroom. One thing that I like is that you mentioned that you have a short attention span – and that H5P tools may help you engage more in class videos when they are more interactive. Another thing that I liked was how you mentioned that as humans we are drawn to faces, and our attention span may be longer if we incorporate that into H5P lessons. Lastly, I wonder how you and I can become more knowledgeable about H5P so we can introduce it to our classroom teacher and use it with out students in our practice.