Watching Kevin’s vidcast for his COM125 class has really left me inspired. Through his video, we can observe his unique style of teaching which makes his lessons engaging and interesting.
Netcasting is where one records their own audio or video and post it online. It is a wonderful and effective way of sharing information. I think that more educators should use usethis medium.
It is effective because people contain information best through :
1. Repetition
2. Visualisation and senses
This is what makes techniques such as Tony Buzan’s Memory Pegs effective as it makes full use of one’s senses.
But while having dinner with my good friend Juli, who is a primary school teacher herself, I asked her opinion about it. She tells me that netcasting may not be readily received by teachers because of factors such as self consciousness and fear of technology.
Huh?
Here we have a simple technology that will help dispense information more easily. But people are so quick to reject it. Why should issues such as self consciousness be of a hindrance? In fact, one doesnt even have to video their own faces, but instead film how they solve a mathemetical equation on a piece of paper for example. Alternatively, they could film their students acting as parts of the bodys intestinal tract. This is a positive interaction as both teacher and student are both actively participating.
As a Multimedia Educator it is my role to help them along should they have problems or fear of technology. But I cant help them if they wont let me.
I remember back in primary school, I would look foward to watching the CDIS programme. These were educational videos that were pertaining to what I learnt in school as well as some syllabus that I havent learnt yet.
And while in secondary school, I did well in humanity subjects as our teacher gave us a plentiful of access to video tapes that makes our visualisation, stronger. I am always amazed that I can still remember word for word, songs I learnt in choir but forget random information minutes afterwards.
I guess this is constituted to the fact that I am a visual person – receptive of things using my senses. And I am pretty sure that there are many people who learn this way too.
There is a wealth of information out there – audio visuals in the library, mass media, information readily available from the internet itself. Which is why, all the more reason that we should have netcasts for educational purposes and cultivate a culture of sharing in a more personal way.
Moreover with about 80% of students carrying handphones and/or mp3 players, we should take advantage of this and give netcasting a try.
Next week, I’ll be sharing the teachers in Shuqun Secondary about the potential about netcasting for lessons. I hope it goes well.
Update : Hooray! Mr Gopal, the head of department of maths seems keen on netcasting. I believe in the law of reverbberation. Start out small and then grow bigger! 🙂
Update : My presentation during staff sharing is up for viewing here
i think it’s a fantastic idea! 🙂 my sis spends a lot of time in front of the compy already, so i think she’d be less averse to studying thru such a medium.
and imagine, it can be available anytime. so if a student were to miss a lesson, or cannot remember a particular section of what had been taught earlier on, she/he can easily retrieve the info online!
bcos it’s been eons since i was in sch, i’m pretty much out of the loop when it comes to what’s being taught in schools now. sometimes i wonder if i’m teaching the right things to my sis at home, so having netcasts as point of references wld be useful for the pple at home too. 🙂
Hey Rina, I missed those CDIS videos back in primary school as well!! Does anyone have copies of those?
I didn’t know you were teaching as well. If you need more intellectual resources in promoting net / video / podcasting in education, do let me know. I’m personally experimenting with different forms of experiential learning as part of my research in online communities.
shuqun sec goin high tech!
yeah for me, i prefer a more interactive visual presentation ..
update us on ur netcasting
Farinelli
Yeahhh! Why cant my comp classes be like that?! While I took computing, all that my lecturers did was to stand in front of the class and read straight from the notes.
What the heck?!
Sha
Baby steps sha … baby steps … Hehe .. The thing about neighbourhood school is that not all are well conversed in IT because of their financial situation so we need to go slow.
But yes, I’ll definitely update you 😀
Yup I agree with you Marina, netcasting is indeed a good way to absorb the relevant information for subjects rather than the typical way of teaching from the textbook. I think it’ll be an excellent way to help promote the liking of certain subjects which students are less interested in.
Haha, yup, me too, Humanities is till today my favorite subject, and yes I learnt and still can remember the details today, all this thanks to my teachers using videos etc. =)
All the best to your speech, yes let the message of the advantages of Netcasting be known. =)
Myztika
Your sis spends all day at the compy? Thats another reason to have netcasting for schools … hehehe
At the moment, we do have many educational portal for local schools here where students can refer to. But without the active participation of using these portals, it would be of no use actually. We need to have that mentality and culture.
Thats where netcasting comes in as it makes lessons more personalised. I mean, its all there, technology wise. We just need to harness it 🙂
Kevin
Allos Kevin! CDIS is now known as EDT – Educational Technology Division. Some of the videos are online but for the rest of the videos, one has to be educational officers for the ministry of education (which I am not, unfortunately) to access to them.
I’ll keep that in mind. We all need more netcasts! 😀
If all lecturers’ classes were as crazy as Kevin’s can be sometimes, I’d willingly accept killer final term exams as part of the deal to enjoy every minute of university life…
Vania
Hehehe … will you be using netcasting for your future lessons too, Vania? I think that it would be great, and I cant wait for to watch it 😉
Hehe, yes I definitely would. =)
Is webcasting as the same netcasting?
Vania
Great 🙂
Mohammad
Web and net, to me, its the same thing 🙂