Video podcasts - A very useful educational tool

WGBH is Boston's PBS affiliate. They have a wealth of educational videos on the internet that are available for anybody to download. Most of the videos were focused on science. The video I watched was targeted at high school students and was about the rise of homo sapiens and the extinction of Neanderthals. The video was taken directly from the show NOVA and was only 5 minutes long.

I believe videos like this can be extremely invaluable to a teacher. Even in college, it is difficult to hold attention in a class that is strictly lecture based. Educational videos provide another way to convey information. The videos on the WGBH iTunes site are professionally done. They can also be downloaded to a computer and viewed at any time. The main advantage of these videos is that they are a totally free tool that any teacher has access to. I could totally imagine myself finding some useful psychology videos on here and showing them to my future students.

PROJECT 6 - OUT OF STATE TEACHING CONTACT

For my project, I contacted Julie Damschen, a psychology teacher at Helix Charter High School in San Diego, California. I found Ms. Damschen by searching Yahoo for web pages of high school psychology teachers, and stumbled onto her very extensive page. Ms. Damschen's Psych(o) Stuff can be viewed here. At first, she did not believe she could teach me much about incorporating technology into teaching but quickly discovered that she knew more than she thought.

One really cool thing about Ms. Damschen was that she was able to achieve one of my main lifetime goals and backpack through Europe. She recommended that I be sure to visit Budapest, Prague, Rome, Barcelona, and Paris when I take my own trip. When she got her degree, she never thought she would become a teacher. However, living out of a backpack really made her reevaluate her priorities. She taught many social studies classes at first, but took over teaching the psychology department from a friend and has since expanded it greatly, even adding her school's second AP Class.

She created her classroom webpage not because it was mandatory at her school, but because she thought it would be a great way for teachers and students both to access information. She offers sections pertaining to homework, AP tests, and practice quizzes among others. I asked her if educational webpages were more prevalent in California, but she believes it is more of a school-by-school initiative than state-by-state.

One of the main tools that Ms. Damschen uses to bring technology into her classroom is her laptop. She is almost never without it. She does all of her grading and attendance online, and also uses her computer to show Powerpoint presentations, watch Youtube videos, and play DVDs. She also has a document camera, which is like an overhead projector that can display any type of media. She uses it to highlight pertinent articles in magazines. She expressed interest in maybe one day using blogs and podcasts, but does not yet feel she has adequate time or training.

Ms. Damschen has never collaborated with a teacher in another state but thinks it sounds like a neat idea. The main obstacle to such a project would be access to computers. Ms. Damschen only has one computer in her classroom and it is very difficult to book time in the computer lab. She also feels she is on a "time crunch" to teach skills and content so she must be very careful about what types of projects she assigns. Her main project is for her students to conduct experiments and present them in the school Psychology Fair, using freshmen as their guinea pigs.

Ms. Damschen does not believe that any teacher will be able to survive being technologically illiterate. The teachers in her school must post all of their grades and attendance online and also correspond via email. Her school is also being re-accredited this year, and the whole process is being done over the internet. Instead of holding lengthy faculty meetings, teachers are able to interact with eachother through online bulletin boards. This is just an example of the technological activities that teachers do behind the scenes.

She was also able to give me a lot of suggestions of things I can incorporate into my future psychology classroom. She has her students create models of the brain out of such objects as Play-Doh, candy, and Legos. She has her students simulate drug addiction by becoming "addicted" to ice cubes. They must use ice cubes in all of their beverages, but also have to hide them from their family. She says her students' favorite interactive activity is a meditation session she holds to teach about consciousness.

Miss Damschen is very passionate about her teaching career and gave me many ideas of what type of teacher I would like to become. In a couple of years, I will have my own classroom. I am saving her emails even after this class has ended to give me ideas for when I create my own curriculum.

The Edible Schoolyard and A Night in the Global Village

The Edible Schoolyard is a really neat concept. Students cultivate their own garden and in turn learn lessons about biology, cooking, and even etiquette. It is a unique way to teach outside of the confines of a traditional classroom. A Night in the Global Village accomplishes the same thing. Students are divided into third world countries and must live a night in "poverty", bartering for resources and fending for themselves. Some students are even assigned to a refugee camp where they start with nothing and are also not allowed to communicate.

When I was in school, we didn't do a lot of cool hands-on stuff like this. I have always been a fan of a more interactive learning experience instead of strictly book learning. Field trips and other activities like this can really take a child out of his comfort zone and provide a truly memorable experience.

Podcasts like these can be helpful to me as a teacher as a source of generating ideas. One of my personal characteristics that I hope to apply the most to my teaching career is creativity. Educational podcasts serve as a valuable way of seeing what methods other teachers are using to convey their message in unique and thought-provoking ways. It may also be beneficial to record and discuss the class projects that I implement so that other curious teachers can get ideas from me.

All about iTunes U

iTunes University is a vast collection of educational multimedia created by top universities, PBS affiliates, and progressive K-12 classrooms. They encourage mobile learning, that is learning outside of the confines of a desk and classroom. There is a great wealth of media on the site which is amazing considering the project is still in its infancy. Many universities offer public content as well as more in-depth password protected content for their enrolled students.

There are several ways this could be helpful to me as a teacher. If I would like to research different ways to lecture on a topic, it is easy to search and find lectures by other teachers and professors. If I would like to find an educational video to show in my classroom, I can locate those here also. The resources available on iTunes U can be accessed from anywhere therefore it may be a good source to recommend to my students for their research projects. iTunes U is one of many valuable online resources that will benefit teachers and students alike.

Using Ipods in the classroom

Ipods are just another example of the many ways teachers are trying to incorporate new technology into the classroom. Of course I am among the majority who has only used an Ipod to listen to music. It comes in handy at the gym quite a bit. But educators are going above and beyond that and turning their classroom Ipods into complete multimedia centers.

Duke University is quickly becoming a pioneer in the field. Satti Khanna, a professor of Asian and African languages, utilizes Ipod Touches in his Advanced Hindi class. Not only do his students record language related activities around campus, they also record videos and send them back to India. An article on Dr. Khanna's methods can be found here.

This new technology is not simply reserved for older students however. Mrs. Levin uses Ipods extensively with her Pre-K students. She plays educational songs on such topics as shapes, colors, and the alphabet. She also utilizes Audacity, a free recording software, to dictate stories onto the machine. Mrs. Levin has created podcasts for parents regarding important events in the classroom, and hopes to have one with her students one day. Her very informative website can be found here.