Journal #3

“Video in the Age of Participation”
By: Glen Bull

This article discusses way to use digital video in classrooms. The Internet has a lot of digital videos that stream across it daily. Sites such as UTube have become very popular and well known. Teachers have used videos in classrooms for quite some time now but it has always been difficult to view a certain part or make it right for certain lessons. Technology has advanced and it has made this process a lot easier. Teachers can use the Internet to stream videos that are very clear and fairly easy to use. National Geographic has videos of animals in Africa so kids can see how they live in the wild. The videos are so clear that they feel like you are actually there. “Pete’s Pond” is a site on UTube that shows live animal footage. These videos are great for students to learn about wildlife and how they are in the wild.
There aren’t really any standards set on how to incorporate digital video into the classroom so it is up to the teachers to figure out what videos are educational and productive. The Discovery Education site helps with this by connecting videos to lesson plans. Different sites and web services are working on this new technology. In the future there will be easier ways to incorporate videos, but for now it is up to the teachers to use this great educational tool.

Questions:
Q: Should students be allowed to look at all types of videos on the Internet during school time?
A: I think that students should be given specific sites that they can look at and others should possible be blocked. There are a lot of videos on the Internet that aren’t appropriate for children.

Q: Are videos a helpful tool on all subjects such as math and social studies?
A: I think that videos can be used for all subjects. There are so many different topics of movies that can be found. Kids like visuals to look at when learning and they like to watch movies, so this is a great way to learn.