Educators must continually be upping their game to keep up with the technological advances that their students so are quick to adopt. In today's world of SnapChat, Twitter and Instagram, how can educators compete for their student’s attention? The answer- to utilize technology to package learning in a new way.
Educators must continually be upping their game to keep up with the technological advances that their students so are quick to adopt. In today's world of SnapChat, Twitter and Instagram, how can educators compete for their student’s attention? The answer- to utilize technology to package learning in a new way that makes learning easy to access and easy to consume.
Utilizing YouTube to create videos that are then shared with students allows for up to the minute information sharing, allows students to develop rapport with instructors teaching in an online setting, and allows for content to be conveyed in another form- useful for students who might prefer visual and audio learning over written. In my courses, I use weekly videos as a way to address current events and to discuss the way that economics interacts with those events. I also invite questions from my students, which has led to investigation on my end enabling me to both learn from my students and teach them at the same time. I also require my students to create and submit video introductory videos via FlipGrid as an initial assignment. This also creates community within my online classroom as each video provides a snapshot into the personality of its creator. In addition, I use “video postcards” to keep my students up to date on what is going on in the city, the state and the nation in terms of economics and how it relates to everyday life.
Since the implementation of my videos, I have seen increased student involvement and interaction in my classes. My students are more likely to initiate communication or respond to my emails. I have seen an increase in participation in my online discussion boards as well. Finally, I have seen increased student performance as my students feel more connected with the material that we are covering, more likely to ask questions of me or of their classmates and more likely to understand and internalize the material covered.
A recent addition to my portfolio has been my podcast, launched this past summer. Titled “ECOWnomics: How economics affects everyday decisions,” my podcast has proved to be popular with both students and with many faceless consumers interested in understanding economic principals and how they relate to everyday life.
This presentation will showcase several easy to master technologies that will allow instructors to reach their students in a variety of ways that students are open to. Instructors will leave with the knowledge allowing them to set up their own video postcards, video updates, current events podcasts and more- all tailored to their own area of expertise.
The presentation will showcase what I have implemented in my courses, how I brought the ideas to life and then we will break into groups to brainstorm and discuss how the participants can utilize the information to create their own videos and/or podcasts. Starting small or going big- either choice will provide additional ways for instructors to connect with students, add interest and variety to classes that might feel stale and bring instructors into the 21 century with easy to use tools that are freely available to all.