Journal 4: Finding Students Who Learn with Media (NETS I, III, & V)

Finding Students Who Learn With Media

Bull, G., Alexander, C., & Ferster, B. (2010). Finding students who learn with media. Learning and Leading with Technology, 37(5), Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=February_No_5_4&Template=/MembersOnly.cfm&NavMenuID=4495&ContentID=25255&DirectListComboInd=D

This article talks about how important it is for students to use technology to make media. The Smithsonian American Art Museum employs a website, PrimaryAccess Movie Maker, where students are able to go on and create their own documentary with their own pictures, text, and sounds. This site is to help with social studies. By doing these activities students can better retain the information they are learning. Teachers are using this website because it is the easiest for the students to pick up on. Now they even have it to where it barely adds any additional class time to any topic they are studying at that time. They also did a "test" to see how engaged kids were with the technology and the actual history content. They found that most students, even if not interested in technology OR (not and) the historical content, still retained and had more of the historical knowledge. The students who weren't engaged in both the technological aspect and historical aspect had a low level of content knowledge as would be expected. The real issue here is not incorporating technology into the classroom, but to find engaging activities for students to do so they will be more interested in the learning the content.greater higher-order thinking and creativity" in their assignments and that is the most important thing. Specifically with this PrimaryAccess Program, it assesses the students as they go along using this material which allows for not having to stop and test them with a multiple choice test. Students who ranked engaged because of one of the aspects at hand, technology or history, demonstrated a "greater higher-order thinking and creativity" in their assignments and those things are really imporant.

Would student-created media work for all socioeconomic statuses?

I think it would because even if the kids don't have the materials at home they would be provided in the classrooms. And if this were the class, I feel the teacher would giver his/her students an adequate amount of class time to complete the assignment were they wouldn't need the program to finish it at home.

What other areas could student-created media work for?

I think it could be used in any area, not just social science. The students could do something with it for their English class like recreating a scene from a book, or making their own book/movie. If the teacher is more creative I think that will rub off on the students to help them be more creative as well.