Media in Learning

Media has always been an important component in schools and learning. I think back, way back, to watching film strips on the great depression in grade school. What a wonderful way to learn!

Now the media we present in school is far more dynamic and abundent. We thought TVs in the classroom was great and then we added VCRs. But we topped that with DVDs and United Streaming. I go one better, I have Directv in my room with TIVO to record whatever I want.

We can go to the computer lab or bring in the laptops and the world is right in their palms. With so much information available to students, how do we get them to soak it all in, soak any of it in. I think the secret lies in letting them create. Even though I teach math, I am intrigue by the many opportunities that students have to create an online journal of their knowledge.

This semester I will be giving one of my classes a webquest regarding travel. Part of their assignment is to document their vacation. Originally I had planned on giving them Power Point to create a travel documentary, but now I am considering a couple of others. www.scrapblog.com is a fun place to create an online scrapbook. It is very easy to use and with the option of adding music, students would really enjoy this option. A second option for the students is www.jumpcut.com. This is a very simple site that lets users make short movies by using pictures, music, video clips and many special effects. I had fun playing around with this site. I actually made a short music video with pictures of my kids.