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posted by: Pamela
| February 07, 2011, 09:27 PM
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With technology advancing at high speeds, one Maryland teacher is putting new methods to use in her classroom. Stacey Roshan, a math teacher, has come up with a way to help her students relax more in class while meeting the challenges of AP calculus and algebra.
Students watch pre-recorded lectures the night before class when traditional homework problems would be done. Students spend class time asking questions about the videos they watched, working on additional problems with partners, or getting one-on-one assistance from the teacher. Ms. Roshan says she rarely spends time lecturing in class anymore, “Now students are able to work at their own pace,” she explained.
Ms. Roshan uses TechSmith’s Camtasia Studio, a lecture capture program that records images from the computer screen along with the presenter’s voice while he or she moves through the software. It also provides video editing to allow the user to edit the recording. The editor can also add movie clips and other features to enhance the experience.
Ms. Roshan’s favorite feature in Camtasia is the ability to point at something on the screen and have the program produces a yellow circle that highlights individual features of the video. Ms. Roshan uses PowerPoint to re-create problems from each chapter of the textbook. After she has finished the videos, she posts them to a school-hosted site, a Camtasia-hosted site, and iTunes for easy access.
Students enjoy the video learning technique. “I can go back and re-watch parts that I didn’t feel okay with,” said Julia, a 17 year old student, “you’re not just sitting in class and hearing the lectures. It’s the opposite of what you’d think of a classroom.”
Ms. Roshan admits the approach won’t work for everyone. The teaching style suits motivated students well. Roshan said, “Based on last year’s grades to this year’s grades, it’s been an almost 3 percent increase. I’ve given the same exact tests and quizzes as last year.”
The videos have the added benefit of helping parents and tutors to understand the teaching methods so that students may seek outside help as well. “A lot of students get help from their parents, who may not remember much algebra.”
Would this approach work in your classroom?
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