When it comes to cyber security, I have found that many of the concepts can be a little difficult to understand for high school students. Multiple passes of the content have really helped re-enforce and improve the learning experience in the classroom. I have found that utilizing video has really helped by appealing to as many intelligences and learning styles as possible. I have found that video appeals to my visual - spatial learners as well as my verbal-linguistic learners due to the nature of video instruction. Last year I started flipping my classroom in which my students could watch the videos of my lectures and then in class we could do more hands-on activities to appeal to my learners that learned better in this way. I noticed that students enjoyed being able to watch the lectures to learn the content and then re-watch content that they didn't understand. As I look to design my courses for next year, my goal is to incorporate even more video. Below is a video that I made for my networking course for next year.
When you take into account the learners that are showing up in our classrooms you start to realize that many of them have a familiarity with technology and the ability to learn from video. If you dig into the research around utilizing video in the classroom, specifically the paper titled “Using Video Effectively in Deverse Classes” you will see that utilizing videos increased engagement and a better understanding of the concepts. “Table 5 shows that the primary learning outcome attributed to video was increased cognitive understanding of course concepts.” (Fee 2014). You may be asking why is it that video has this ability over traditional teaching methods and according to Mayer’s 2009 research, it is because of the activation of both the visual and verbal cognitive processes at the same time. This paired with the reusability of the content and students being able to go at their own pace has helped the digital natives in my class be more successful.
Cognitive Load Theory
When designing my course it is important to take into account my student's cognitive load. Cognitive load is the amount of information that the working memory can hold at one time. What I have noticed about my students (especially the students in the afternoon classes), their cognitive tanks hit “E” at different times. It is for this reason that I am leaning heavily into video and flipping the classroom. Students need a break and video allows me to have my content available 24/7 for them to learn when they are most comfortable.
Sources:
Fee, Anthony & Budde-Sung, Amanda. (2014). Using Video Effectively in Diverse Classes: What Students Want. Journal of Management Education. 38. 843-874
Mayer, R. E. (2009). Multimedia learning (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
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ReplyDeleteI absolutely loved watching the video that you created. I think multimedia use in the classroom is extremely important because it allows you the instructor the ability to meet the needs of all of your students. I am very interested in the idea of a flipped classroom approach. I think that if I taught upper elementary and up it would be an effective way of teaching. Allowing you the classroom time with your students to complete more hands-on activities and actually giving them the ability to apply what they just learned. I am a second-grade teacher, so that would be a little tough. Your video allows students to move at their own pace perfectly and captures all the important information they are able to apply in real life.