Spring 1998
Vol 6 Issue 2
IN THIS ISSUE...
Technology and Change ... duh!
Some Thoughts on Change from Egypt
Creating Opportunities for Student Success
Playing
Out the Imagination's Wildest Scenarios...
Learning Styles
From Computer Bio Simulations...
Community College Assessment Library
SEE ALSO...
The Forum
Maricopa Center for Learning and Instruction
Learning Styles, Student Responsibility, Collaboration,
Technology, and Assessment: Five Reasons to Videotape Your Students
Dean Stover, GWCC
In the past few years, I have become more aware of and sensitive to addressing
different learning styles. Although books and class discussions with handouts and
notes on the board can be seen as meeting the needs of visual and auditory learners,
I have been thinking about a process to reinforce what students hear and see in my
class with the use of technology. I also considered ways to make students more responsible
for their own learning, something Dr. Guskin, who spoke at the 1998 MCCCD Convocation,
encouraged. In 1996, I attended a presentation by Academic Systems, a group which
has developed software to guide developmental writers through the process of writing
essays. The part of the software I most appreciated was the use of video clips; in
these clips, students talked about the problems they encountered while writing a
particular essay. I liked these clips because students were teaching other students,
and students could refer to these clips whenever they needed the information; it
would also be useful for students who missed a class.
For the past five years, I have had students write an essay about their own writing
process (how they generate and arrange ideas, and how they compose, revise, and edit
drafts). Students tend to keep repeating whatever process they learned in high school,
even if it's not effective or productive, unless they do some metacognition. Reflecting
on their own writing process helps students record what they have been doing and
explain what they could do to improve their approach to the writing process. In Fall
1997, I decided to turn this assignment into a collaborative effort in order to give
students some practice working as a writing team, something that is very common in
the workplace. I also decided to add a grammar and punctuation component to the assignment,
since they have difficulties improving these skills during the semester. As the theory
goes: "we learn what we do and teach."
I assigned students to groups based on a particular grammar or punctuation problem
I discovered in their diagnostic eassays, i.e., sentence fragments, comma usage,
and transitions. The students in each group were also assigned one part of the writing
process stated above. To help each group, and since I teach a computer-assisted class
using Daedalus, I asked students to briefly explain each part of their writing process
in a chat room called Interchange. Students in each group could access and use this
information to explain the processes most students use when they write. Each group
was also given an assignment to explain this information. Students could use their
textbooks and Internet sites such as Purdues On-Line Writing Lab (http://owl.english.purdue.edu/),
which has good information about the writing process. This site was also useful for
finding grammar and punctuation information and exercises.
After two days of working on the project, students spent one day teaching the writing
process and one day teaching grammar and punctuation rules and exercises. I videotaped
their presentation so I could edit and put these presentations on my home page http://gwinfo.gwc.maricopa.edu/div/lar/stover.html
(at this point, I need to convert the video to digital in order to place it on my
home page; this process will be easier once the college has a digital video.)
Once these videos are on my home page, I will be able to refer students to them whenever
they have questions about the writing process or grammar/punctuation. The videos
will not only be another way to meet the needs of visual and auditory learners, but
they will be another resource that students can refer to, so students will be teaching
other students. Once I feel I have enough quality videos on this information, I can
develop other video assignments that I think will be useful for students; for example,
I could have students discuss specific problems they have encountered with each assignment
and how they solved these problems.
After doing this assignment, I have realized that videos could also be used for assessment.
Last semester, I asked students what they learned in my composition classes and what
advice they would give to future composition students in order to help them succeed.
This semester, I am going to ask students to discuss their problem-solving skills
at the beginning and end of the semester. What better way to see and hear the ideas
that students themselves feel they have learned in my class. Although videos are
just another assessment tool, they are a highly visible one for students, teachers,
and outside evaluators. I now see video assessment as a valuable tool for documenting
teaching and learning.