Why am I always so surprised when I teach something and my students "get it"? Without fail it makes me think that they must have already known or understood the concept and I was only reminding them about it. I never think, "Wow! I've really taught them something!"
In the case of my quest to teach students to use video as a research source, I am cautiously optimistic about the results I am starting to see. Recently I taught an in-depth lesson on author/source credibility and followed that lesson with one on using video as a research source. The end result of which was the students being tasked with finding relevant videos (from credible sources) on a specific topic and presenting them to the class. A few days later they had an in-class writing assignment which required them to use sources they had spent class time researching. On a previous writing assignment (see blog from 9/11, "If you build it will they come?") only a small percentage of students, 19%, used video as a source in their writing. On this assignment that percentage more than doubled, to just under 50%.
The difference, of course, is the overt teaching of the subject matter and the time spent on the task of finding a good video source. Again referencing the 9/11 blog post, this time I did build it and they did come. The reasons for the cautious optimism however are twofold: first, will it stick? And second, will those students that didn't use video use it in the future? And the questions continue to come: How can I reach all of them? How can I achieve 100% success?
This is a blessing and curse of the teaching profession: achieving some success with students but immediately questioning that success and wondering how to make it better. For me, I'm constantly in the "PTRA" cycle: plan, teach, reflect, apply. So off we go, into the next project, with me spending a good portion of time reflecting on how to continue to encourage the students to use video sources and build their digital literacy. We'll see how it all plays out.
In the case of my quest to teach students to use video as a research source, I am cautiously optimistic about the results I am starting to see. Recently I taught an in-depth lesson on author/source credibility and followed that lesson with one on using video as a research source. The end result of which was the students being tasked with finding relevant videos (from credible sources) on a specific topic and presenting them to the class. A few days later they had an in-class writing assignment which required them to use sources they had spent class time researching. On a previous writing assignment (see blog from 9/11, "If you build it will they come?") only a small percentage of students, 19%, used video as a source in their writing. On this assignment that percentage more than doubled, to just under 50%.
The difference, of course, is the overt teaching of the subject matter and the time spent on the task of finding a good video source. Again referencing the 9/11 blog post, this time I did build it and they did come. The reasons for the cautious optimism however are twofold: first, will it stick? And second, will those students that didn't use video use it in the future? And the questions continue to come: How can I reach all of them? How can I achieve 100% success?
This is a blessing and curse of the teaching profession: achieving some success with students but immediately questioning that success and wondering how to make it better. For me, I'm constantly in the "PTRA" cycle: plan, teach, reflect, apply. So off we go, into the next project, with me spending a good portion of time reflecting on how to continue to encourage the students to use video sources and build their digital literacy. We'll see how it all plays out.