One of the ideas that I try to really drive home when I’m out blogvangelizing (Read/Write Webvangelizing?) is that a) since most of our kids are coming to these tools with arms open, and b) since the ability to produce content is getting easier and easier, and c) finally, since it’s so much easier to publish the content we create, unlimited opportunities now exist for our students to become teachers in a real way. Case in point, Clarence Fisher’s students who are making videos about math. I just love this idea, because the purposes of this exercise are self apparent. As compared to just a few years ago when the only reason you’d create a video about math is because your teacher told you to and you needed a good grade, now the reason you create videos about math is to, um, teach someone else about math. (Doh!) So, the idea of audience (not just the teacher) is built in. And since it is, it’s just another way of changing the equation (bad pun, I know) when it comes to what we do with student work.
I searched the web and all I could find were videos that were at least high school level and mainly college. Of course, I got an idea. Why don’t we make our own? Talking about this with my students, they agreed. They saw a gap we could fill in the knowledge that was posted online. They thought it would be helpful for themselves, and for others.
How cool is that? Helpful for others. Who exactly? Who knows! But that’s the point. It’s for a real audience who is going to do just what Clarence’s class initially did, search for videos that can help them understand math concepts. Only this time, there will be some there to tap into.
And you can see what’s coming, can’t you?
If these videos turn out to be useful for us and for others, I hope they will become the first in a library of these videos that we will be creating. Another set this year will give us 14 concepts, by the end of next school year, we could have 28 of these online. A worthwhile project.
This is the potential that we have to understand. This is what changes everything about our classrooms. It’s not rocket science, but it is a huge shift away from the way we’ve been doing things for 100 years.
I really, really love this stuff.
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