Monthly Archives: October 2018

Media & Technology Critique: YouTube

Media and Technology Critiques, Urban Adolescents

YouTube has been a popular modality in the classroom for much of my academic life. Particularly through my study of history, I find YouTube very helpful. Throughout my history classes from middle school through to college so far, I’ve gotten so much out of watching and listening to former presidents speak, for example. When I started learning about the Cold War in eighth grade, the subject came to life for me, as I was being shown some of Reagan’s famous speeches or interactions with Gorbachev. My teacher was also able to show us music from the 60s-80s protesting the Cold War. YouTube is very convenient for both students and teachers. Teachers no longer have to rent or buy a specific film, video or CD in advance, and students with Internet have full access to anything the teacher shows in class. With that being said, not all students have Internet access at home and many who do have to share with multiple people. This puts many students at an unfair disadvantage from the start.

Another positive use of YouTube in an adolescent classroom would be for research. When I had to do research projects or papers throughout high school, we typically had to find written primary source documents from databases approved by the school. Though written documents are one important form of a historical source, videos can be helpful and fun as well. During my first semester of college, I wrote a research paper and gave a presentation about United States public schools and No Child Left Behind. I was excited to be able to use a video of an Obama speech. I would have loved to have had that opportunity from my teachers in middle and high school, because it brings a little more life to topics or assignments that kids may find boring.

A feature I love on YouTube is the ability to play a video in different speeds: 0.25x, 0.5x, 0.75x, normal, 1.25x, 1.5x, and 2x. For students viewing an educational video at home, they can view it in whatever speed they’re most comfortable with. This feature can be helpful for students who speak English as a second language or learn at a different speed than others. There is also a feature to view closed captioning on a video, though there’s still much room for improvement from YouTube.

One issue, however, with using YouTube to learn is that it can be easy to lose focus. Whether I’m using the site for study or leisure, YouTube’s column of recommended videos on the right side of the screen sends me down a “rabbit hole” of videos, sometimes for hours. I’ll start out with one topic or focus and end up watching something completely unrelated to the original focus. This could hurt kids who may already have difficulty staying focused.

Although YouTube can also be used for students to post videos of presentations or projects, an obvious issue with that would be adolescents’ self-consciousness, low self esteem, or bullying. When I was in sixth grade ten years ago, everyone in the class was assigned to create their own civilization and talk about it in a video. I used quick cuts to create and act as two characters: an interviewer and interviewee. Though I enjoyed making the video for myself, I ended up feeling self conscious about my changing appearance and social awkwardness in front of the camera. In hindsight, I’m glad that that video was made on a DVD that only I had, rather than being on YouTube where students could easily download it. With all the cyber bullying that goes on through social media these days, I wouldn’t be surprised if kids would download someone’s YouTube video to make fun them. A possible solution would be for students to post their YouTube videos as private, so only the teacher would be able to view it and show it to the class. However, even when a YouTube video is set to private or unlisted, a tech-savvy person would probably be able to find it.

Ss Self-Concept

Differentiation as an Approach to Teaching Diverse Learners, Urban Adolescents

“Tracks can create a self-fulfilling prophesy of behavior in students and play an important role in defining the type of person that they believe themselves to be.” (Ansalone, 2010, p. 12

Tracking or differentiating is assumed to have either a positive or negative affect on a student’s self-concept. Basically, if Ss with a low track are put together in the same classroom it impacts their self-esteem and increases motivation. But, if Ss are in a heterogeneous classroom, low and high track, it has a negative impact on their ability to participate and their attitude in general. It also invites the opportunity for Ss to make comparisons within their classroom, like who’s bright or slow. I’ve seen this first hand at my student placement.

First, at my placement there’s no differentiation for ESL Ss (consider viewing them as Ss with a “low track”) because my CT says that by the end of the year “they’ll get it”, in other words, they’re given the same instruction as everyone else in the hopes of them understanding. I’m the only one that is practicing how to differentiate for the ESL Ss that need it because they really do need it! In my ESL seminars all we talk about is differentiating because not all ESL Ss are the same, it is essential to practice differentiating in our field, so that’s why I try to implement it at my placement. When the students that don’t need help with instructions witness what I do for the ESL Ss they always, and I mean ALWAYS, make side comments about it, like: “That’s easy”, “How do you not know this?”, “Don’t help them, they’re not going to understand”, and “WOW! You’re always asking for help!” I always tell them to mind their business, but I also don’t see it affecting the ESL Ss. I do see the comparisons taking place by the “high track” students, but I don’t see it affecting negatively the ESL Ss self-concept. I wonder if they’re just ignoring it or don’t know how to express that is hurts their feelings when their classmates make those comments? I don’t know if it’s my place to pull the ESL Ss aside and ask how they feel about it?

The Struggle is Real for Innovation FOMO…

Urban Adolescents

 

Curriculum Integration!!! What a truly exciting article this was for me. I believe this is precisely how a learning environment should be designed, created, and fostered for authentic learning to occur and develop inherently deep-rooted relevant knowledge in our students. “Curriculum integration classes are designed to promote cognitive growth for students—not feed them content to be regurgitated on demand.” (Brown 2011) I have always felt this way about student-centered and constructed curriculum development theoretically and honestly tried to emulate such in my own classrooms, yet have rarely seen it actually ensue ultimately due to external Administrative constraints. Montessori and International Baccalaureate Programs have been the closest approximation I have personally witnessed; however even those pedagogies have very distinct and required formats beyond a student-designed curriculum. I’m so curious about how much freedom these schools actually allowed their students and what such successful programs exactly look like in reality, not just in the world of academic research. This study definitely motivated me to spend more time exploring valid exemplary models and other articles related to CI like those cited by Brown & Knowles (2007). A lingering question I had was what is happening currently with these CI Programs, and where and how, being that the most recent citations from this study are just about 10 years old already? Like most educators, I would assume, I crave to provide the most engaging lessons for my kids. It’s undeniable that I was inspired by Brown’s conclusion that, “Students emphasize being highly motivated due to the choice they have in determining curricula.” (2011) Yet, I can’t help but be leery of how I could make such CI models come to fruition in a NYS Public HS, and what battles I would have to fight in order to do so, the reality possibly too overwhelming to conquer. Is there compromise?

Discovering and telling stories from around the world

Media and Technology Critiques

Of all the media, Instagram, in particular, seems to be all the rage for younger generations, the multi-colored camera app present on almost all teenagers’ screens. Depending on who you talk to, there seems to be on an ongoing debate about the potential effects this app has on its users. We spend huge quantities of time scrolling through pictures and video clips of friends and strangers alike. We even post content of ourselves, presenting a public persona to be seen and hopefully liked, with the possibility of being judged as well. Some people may argue that it’s a forum for self expression, exploration, global connection and discovery, but we can’t deny that (for some) it acts as a breeding ground for harassment and trolling. That said, I have often pondered ways to use it in my classroom, considering the vast majority of students have it and enjoy it. If it’s so readily available to them, how can we make it educational? If we can, could we also make strides in improving students’ reading, writing and critical thinking skills?

I’ve recently had an “ah-ha” moment, as I have found a way to use Instagram to deepen my own learning. I have been following a local Nicaraguan newspaper’s account on Instagram who have been posting live videos of the protests and police brutality happening in their streets every day. In these posts, surveys are often included to gauge the public’s opinion and the visual clips always come with short captions, also giving context for what we’re seeing. The most educational aspect of all of this is that 100% of the content is authentic, meaning it’s created by native speakers of Spanish for a Spanish-speaking audience. It dawned on me, if I’m learning so much about current events and cultural content by means of Instagram, why can’t my students do the same? What is most appealing about this modality, and how it differs most from traditional outlets, is that all the videos posted are no longer than two minutes. As we know, adolescents’ attention span is not necessarily great. With these short clips, a lot of essential but concise information is front-loaded, while he caption only further aids in comprehension. Instead of them zoning out during a 30-minute presentation and getting bored, they are focused and attentive, all awhile intrinsically learning how they, too, should be efficiently presenting information in their written and oral assignments.

I think Instrgram could be an incredible tool in a foreign language classroom because a lot of scaffolding is already built in. The short videos offer authentic aural exercises along with the obvious visual aid; in addition, the caption of each photo or video offers context for the content, giving students reading practice in the target language. For more advanced learners, they can even read people’s comments to further reinforce what they heard or thought they understood. Possible issues teachers may face with this modality could be ensuring the content is age-appropriate and that all students have access to the modality. To avoid issues pertaining to the appropriateness of the content, teachers would simply have to pre-determine which pages were followed for the various levels taught. As far as accessibility issues, the great thing about Instagram is that the forum exists as a website too, so students don’t necessarily need a smartphone to use it. I plan to use Instagram as a means for students to show their learning about the world in a foreign language. They can follow predetermined local news channels and write biweekly reflections about what they saw and/or learned (depending on level). More advanced levels could even do cultural comparison activities to show their understanding of current events happening in Latin America versus in their home country, to further demonstrate their global citizenship. I much rather grade those reports than monotonous homework assignments.

Due to the fact adolescents are already using Instagram and are familiar with all its functions, completing assignments via the app will be intrinsically motivating. As we read in Brown’s (2011) curriculum integration article, allowing students choice in their learning and assignments improves their reading and writing skills, critical thinking skills, and better prepares them for adulthood.

Brown, D. F. (2011). Curriculum integration: Meaningful learning based on students’ questions.
Middle Grades Research Journal, 6(4), pp. 193-206.

Curriculum Integration as a Way to Motivate Students (and Wonderings about How to Implement It)

Differentiation as an Approach to Teaching Diverse Learners

“Motivating adolescents is a concern that middle and high school educators grapple with constantly. More decision-making opportunities for students is one solution to increasing motivation.”

Brown (2011) pg. 201

I completely agree that a major concern about educating adolescents is how to actually motivate them. How can we make them think that school is meaningful and (dare I say it?) fun? No matter the subject, the teacher, or even the student’s ability, I believe that a student must truly be engaged in his or her learning to reach his or her full potential in school. Continue reading Curriculum Integration as a Way to Motivate Students (and Wonderings about How to Implement It) →