Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Week 5 - Slidecasting
So this week we had to incorporate audio to our powerpoints that we made last week. Now while it is extremely innovative and very technologically impressive, the audio attachment to the powerpoint was not worth the effort in my opinion. Maybe it's because I am a perfectionist, but it took me 2 hours to get my audio just right for a 5 minute powerpoint. I personally continue to use powerpoint in my lessons, but I will still prefer to use my own voice while narrating the slides.
One of my greatest fears is if we were to incorporate our voices to a whole lecture, I believe it would lead to the eventual replacement of teachers as we know it. If I could do it, then any teacher can do, and eventually a publisher would start creating it. Then all it would take is for an administrator to simply say "teachers you are now to use <insert publisher here> lecture slides in your classes from now on" and teachers would become nothing more than a proctor for their classes. The necessity for interaction in the classroom between the student and teacher is vital in the education system. I feel that with timed presentations such as the one above, it limits student interaction and students would be intimidated to interrupt the slidecast.
Now this is not to say that I will abandon all use of audio technology in my classroom. I still believe that podcasting my classes live will be a vital asset to my students who wish to use it. I also like the idea of having my students use slidecasting for projects or other similar assignments. Overall, I would say that this slidecasting technology is a great asset when used properly, but to integrate it to my everyday lesson plan is something that I would not see myself incorporating in the near future. - SCHAMA SIGNING OFF
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You are correct in some of your points. What happens if a student is absent? Must audio presentations be used only for lectures? Audio presentations are much more versatile than you think. Can students use this type of tool to communicate what they learned? Instead of using class time to present project details, etc., students can put their work online for others to view and for the teacher to assess. Again, break down the classroom walls to extend learning beyond the classroom.
ReplyDeleteI like how you structured your presentation. Clear and easy to follow.
ReplyDeleteI hope that your concerns about teachers becoming little more than facilitators will prove to be wrong. There have been some calling for just this, but I don't think it's practical. On the other hand, I have seen some really good presentations. If you're not familiar with it, check out Khan Academy http://www.khanacademy.org/. I want to think more about 'reverse homework' where homework could be looking at a lecture and class time could be the kind of deep exploration of the material that we lament not having enough time to do more of. I have no idea if this is likely to lead to better understanding by students or will just encourage leaving some students in the dust!