Application of TPACK
How does the technology you have chosen support the teaching strategies and methods you have chosen?
Screencasting supports the lessons I am teaching because it allows the viewers to see these things worked out on a computer screen, rather than a list of instructions. In my past experience using written instructions, I usually ended up having to sit down and walk some of my colleagues through the processes on their computers. This, of course, may be due to some lack of clarity in my instructions, but I feel like seeing these things done will make picking up the skills more intuitive.How specifically does this technology make the content in your problem more intellectually accessible?
I have found in my use of screencasts vs. written instructions that it's invaluable to be able to pause a video, do what it just told me to, and then move on to the next step. It also eliminates problems caused by technical jargon. Although I try to keep this to a minimum in my written instructions, it does come up sometimes. Not only will viewers not need to know the technical jargon, they might potentially learn what some of the terms mean if they see me using it on the screen.How specifically do your pedagogical choices make the content in your problem more intellectually accessible?
One huge advantage of screencasts over one on one instruction or face to face group instruction is that it makes the instructions easily repeatable. Especially when using software, I often need a few runs through a process to really get it. Sometimes there's a process at the beginning of something that I'll forget how to do by the time I need to do it again. With screencasts, the instruction is always there and accessible, whenever learners need it.Further Research
To add to the brief research mentioned in part A, I logged on to EbscoHost and did some browsing through their database of journals and periodicals. Here are some quotes from some of the resources I came across:" ...screen-casts are a great format for online tutorials that students can refer to for remediation or enrichment."
-Preparing to Teach Digitally. By: Ferriter, William M., Educational Leadership, 00131784, May2010, Vol. 67, Issue 8
Regarding making "one-shot" screencasts to answer specific questions:
- Explain what you are about to do.
- Have one goal, and answer one question. Don't clutter the screencast with unnecessary information.
- Pace yourself; don't go racing through. If possible, let the patron control the pace.
- If using audio, speak and move the mouse slowly to allow the patron to follow along.
- Summarize the reason for the screencast near the end.
- Have a starting point. This is usually the front page of the library's website, but it could be anything as long as the patron knows how to get to it.
- If the patron seems interested, teach her or him how to use the tool. Wouldn't this be a great way to get help requests?
- Don't worry about making it perfect. These are meant to be quick and dirty, so mistakes are fine.
- Screencasting for an Audience of One. By: Jacobsen, Mikael, Library Journal, 03630277, 1/1/2011, Vol. 136, Issue 1
- I found this second article pretty interesting, even though it was written for librarians. The basic point was that the author found making quick screencasts to respond to specific questions from patrons and colleagues to be a useful resource, and not as time consuming as one might think. This speaks to the way I plan on using screencasts in this project. While I don't plan on answering every tech questing I get with a screencast, I think many of them, especially repeated ones, present an interesting opportunity for screencast use.
Further thoughts on Feedback
This week I plan on sending out a survey, or maybe a questionnaire, asking my fellow employees for requests about what I should create instructional videos for. I also plan on including some kind of survey following anything I put out during this project asking for feedback. I will use Google Forms for both of these tasks.
No comments:
Post a Comment