WOWZA!!!!
Isn't this going to open a huge can of worms!!!
I think the integrated use of YouTube and similar sites, as well as podcasts, vodcasts AND i-Tunes would be a fantastic way to teach students. Giving them the freedom to search, watch and listen at their own convenience would be a brilliant way to teach students of all levels. Giving the lower end group the freedom to work at their own pace, and giving the higher end students the freedom to do more, more and more!!!!
I would love to use pocasting/vodcasting in the classroom, only problem would be that our building structure does not suit the 21st century environment. If we had bigger rooms it would provide the opportunity for students to move into 'spaces' that could be used for reading groups or math group type activities.
Despite the enormous potential of the above teaching tools, there is the complications of 'freedom of speech'. Do students really need to know what monkeys get up to 'after hours'? Such advertisements would be abundant on YouTube sites, and therefore monitoring would be needed. With only 1 classroom teacher ever present, this would be a huge strain on the teacher....how can he/she teach, monitor AND support students with a class range of 20-30???
With a bit of tweaking needed, I think this could just be the future of teaching, whether it be by providing extension tasks, supporting lower end students or even being used to support teaching...it has a lot of potential!!!!
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The ideal is probably a world in which students are able to bring their technological device of choice to enhance their learning. Hopefully this would happen in an environment where reliable internet connectivity and digital resources would not be an issue. Not to mention a student teacher ratio that facilitates real collaborative learning, rather than grouping to make it easier to get around.
ReplyDeleteChris, you are definitely onto something here, hopefully the day where this mode of teaching can be a reality that we are able to not only see but truly engage in to make a difference in the lives of the students we teach. Being able to specifically target every aspect of teaching and learning to the needs of individuals or groups of students really becomes a much more workable scenario.