Video in the Classroom

Using video in the classroom is a very powerful tool! Actually using the computer to show any information to students shows them the "realness" of what they are learning and that we are not just spouting out facts for our own good. I have seen a group of learning support students get truly excited when I pulled up just an article on the computer and pictures of what we were reading about. I think some students feel that school is boring and so is everything they are supposed to learn. If we connect real life,( ie, streaming videos, youtube, or just internet information) to the subject matter, to the net-genners, it makes the information become pertinent in their world.

I have had only one methods class so far, and during the lesson plan I was to teach, I did use a video (The VHS kind). In the future I would streamline the video from youtube or one of the other sites.

As an Elementary and Special Education Major, I will be teaching all different subject matters, so the possibilities are endless.

I can see:

*Watching Science experiments that may be too dangerous for the classroom

*Taking virtual field trips that are too costly or unattainable for Social Studies

*Broadcasting news reports and interviews or acting out plays from our reading books

*Using youtube videos like schoolhouse rock, to teach multiplication tables, history, grammar

It is a very exciting time to be entering the teaching profession and I am grateful, at age 40 something , to be using technology to keep students motivated to learn.

Being Successful with the Net Generation

I remember, in the last month of High School(1983), being taken into a classroom that was just equipped with computers. They were very large with black screens and green numbers and letters. We just looked at them, turned them on, and were told what they could do- we were amazed! In college('83-87), there was a computer room but to get anything printed, you would have to go to another room wait in line(there was only one or two printers and tear your paper off of a large sheet of green lined paper). Yeah, I'm old! Anyway, even though that was 20 some years ago, I do feel we are in the infant stages of having a fully integrated classroom, where using the computer is just a natural part of the day, like taking out a pencil and paper. I believe the best way to be successful with the Net Generation is to use the technology available-and use it often. The Net Genner students and teachers of today still are using computers and technology mostly for social uses(emailing assignments, questions, etc.). Slowly we are integrating things like "Smart Boards" into the classroom, but even those are being kept in the closet by the teacher who is to set in their ways. As we read in the Chapter there are so many tools online for every subject imaginable. NOT to use technology, in all its forms, when it is available to most schools, should be reprehensible. The best way to to be successful with Net Genners is to learn with the Net Genners. Find activities, movies, songs, games, projects, that will motivate and excite the students. As more and more "new teachers" enter the schools with this knowledge, and more and more schools embrace the daily use of computers in their classrooms, the students of tomorrow have a better chance of realizing the full potential of being educated into well rounded individuals with a new view of education through the world wide web and beyond!