The dynamics of my ESOL classroom population is constantly changing, and it is almost a daily occurrence for new students to enter our building. I practice sheltered content instruction, yet differentiated instruction takes on an entirely new meaning in an all English language acquisition program. Some students have an extensive education in their first language, however difficulties may arise due to their written language having a script or character writing system and not my familiar alphabetic format. I also have students that have acquired extensive verbal English language skills, however due to some refugee camp situations, the students may lack writing and computers skills. In addition to these learning challenges most classroom population sizes are better suited for 15 students per teacher, yet practicing in overcrowded classrooms has become the norm. This is not an excuse to say higher learning with integrated technology tasks are not possible. Providing student centered learning integrated with technology tools requires a great deal of planning, and times like these have me wishing I could truly do the work of two people. All of this to say: I would love for my students to publish some of their work using screencasting applications, but my computers are not ready for these labor intensive tasks. Keep in mind that physical damage to computers from inappropriate key stokes and mouse-clicks can be a barrier for this type of student centered learning. I have selected a Web tool, Blabberize, to provide my students with what I think is going to be a wonderful Web publishing assignment in the near future, and even this approach to Web publishing has me concerned.
Like many of my Web 2.0 uses, I am incorporating screencasting into some needed staff development. Sub-instructors are frequenting my building to provide temporary instruction. To keep some degree of homogenous science instruction, I have built a Wiki page to reflect our Science Content Map and serve as an online resource for science instruction materials. Occasionally questions on how to navigate the Wiki site come up, so I made a screencast on how to use the Online Science Content Web Site, available via YouTube.com. The publishing feature of Screen-O-Matic makes the distribution of the presentation very simple. Since I have a Google account, I utilized the direct option to publish to YouTube. Publishing to the Screen-O-Matic site or saving the presentation to a computer file are available options.
In addition to being a great tool for creating training videos for staff development, screencasting is a great tool to demonstrate step-by-step hands-on lab activities. Some of the more tedious task that can drag precious class time instruction on and on can be assigned as a prerequisite that students have to watch before coming to class. The great thing about screencasting is that it’s easy to use and easy to publish even for one person.
Reference
Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful Web tools for classrooms. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
Like many of my Web 2.0 uses, I am incorporating screencasting into some needed staff development. Sub-instructors are frequenting my building to provide temporary instruction. To keep some degree of homogenous science instruction, I have built a Wiki page to reflect our Science Content Map and serve as an online resource for science instruction materials. Occasionally questions on how to navigate the Wiki site come up, so I made a screencast on how to use the Online Science Content Web Site, available via YouTube.com. The publishing feature of Screen-O-Matic makes the distribution of the presentation very simple. Since I have a Google account, I utilized the direct option to publish to YouTube. Publishing to the Screen-O-Matic site or saving the presentation to a computer file are available options.
In addition to being a great tool for creating training videos for staff development, screencasting is a great tool to demonstrate step-by-step hands-on lab activities. Some of the more tedious task that can drag precious class time instruction on and on can be assigned as a prerequisite that students have to watch before coming to class. The great thing about screencasting is that it’s easy to use and easy to publish even for one person.
Reference
Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful Web tools for classrooms. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.