Amazing Animated Juggler Gif from Mike Naylor
Video Blog
I'm trying something a bit different for this week's blog and utilizing the power of multimedia. Please press play to listen to the intro spoken by my Voki avatar below (transcript follows).
Transcript
Words have power. Everyone knows this. But something you may not know is that you can multiply the power of words by using multimedia. In my class, sometimes it's difficult to get my students to read, whether directions, instructions, or information. Often I've been able to solve that problem by using multimedia like this talking avatar from Voki.
Examples
There are many different examples in support of the power of multimedia and this is one of my FAVORITES! It's called Doodling in Math Class and it illustrates beautifully what happens when the power of words is multiplied by the power of pictures, video, and sound. Watch and enjoy!
Wasn't that amazing!! If that doesn't make you want to start doodling, learn to draw, and understand math I just don't know what will! :-)
Of course, where there are examples of multimedia that enhance there are also examples that detract from the power of words and the impact to teach. Many educators feel the videos offered by former hedge fund manager, Sal Khan, fall into that category. The production quality is ok, but the content is often lacking, and the presentation, according to Khan's own words, is done with little or no preparation or planning. Now, this would not normally be brought to public attention except in the case of Khan Academy, it has been both praised and funded by influential people like Bill Gates which garnered media attention that called these videos as the next big thing in education. These facts and more concerning the quality of the teaching were brought to video rather cleverly with the first installation of Mystery Teacher Theatre 2000 (#MTT2K). In it, two "mystery teachers" are waiting to learn at the feet, er, screen, of the best teacher in the world. Watch it below.
As you can imagine, this video started quite a conversation among educators and fans of Khan's video academy as well as many other people. Here's a brief summary of the main events:
This blog bringing the above video to the masses (again), giving more history in an overview of events, and explaining that perhaps Sal Khan is not a teacher at all, much less the "best teacher" in the world. Many educators and others continued this conversation via Twitter, Facebook, blog comments, articles like this and this, and in person. Even Khan himself responded to some of the critiques. This all led to the second installment of Mystery Teacher Theatre via this year's #MTT2K contest introduced in this blog. Many teachers like myself wanted to be "in on" this one. Here's one example.
Yes, I threw my hat in the ring too. Unfortunately, I didn't learn of this most excellent contest until the day of the deadline so I could not spend quite as much time as I would have liked on it, but here's what I came up with. Please watch and enjoy:
Alas, I did not win this year, but I am still happy I got a chance to play with the power of multimedia. I encourage you to do the same! Want to learn more about how you can? Press play and listen to yet another of my Voki avatars telling you how:
Transcript
Want to learn more about using multimedia in your classes? Rimwe can help! We offer training in educational technology and Web 2.0 tools like Voki. Contact us today for more details!
The Solver Blog
Author: Dr. Diana S. Perdue