Journal # 4

"Finding Students Who Learn with Media" looks at the benefits of student-created media and its influence on the classroom. Glen Bull supports student use of technology and the use of their products to concurrently foster a better understanding of the material and the medium in which it is presented.

An example of this software would be “PrimaryAccess,” a web-based movie maker that allows students to take footage (their own or otherwise) and present their analyses via posting, narrating, even inserting personal touches into the movie. It quite literally allows the student to step into the world they are trying to comprehend and make sense out of it – creating, in Bull’s view, the optimal learning environment.

Student engagement (or lack thereof) is recognized as one of the primary hindrances and problems teachers face, regardless of whether or not it is caused by the technology itself. I mean, who wants to sit anywhere and watch a teacher drone on about a topic. Studies show a startling increase in interest when students are presented with media created by fellow students for the sole purpose of learning from peers. It allows for those creating the media to be thoroughly engaged as its creator and for those experiencing the media to be engaged as a participant in their classmate’s work.

What types of student-media would you allow in your classroom?
I would allow anything a student offers that positively influences the lesson at hand. I may assign it myself, or God-willing, a student can volunteer personal time and information that they feel is relevant to the subject.

What would you have to be careful of?
The student-medium would have to be cleared by myself and any other powers that be before it is allowed to be presented. Students, being young and naïve, may not fully understand the ethics of properly presenting certain subject matter. As long as it is classroom appropriate, it should be fine.