Screencasts VS Written Instructions

Blog #2: Reflection Post - My Take on Screencasts - Module 6

WHY I FEEL SCREENCASTS ARE BETTER THAN WRITTEN INSTRUCTIONS

     Ever since I was a young student in elementary school, I have always struggled with written instructions. I remember dreading the days that I had science class, simply because I found that the written instructions for completing experiments were too difficult to follow. While this may be different for others, I find that written instructions can be EXTREMELY ambiguous for one major reason:

1. There is no VISUAL demonstration to follow along...

     BECAUSE there was no visual process for me to see during elementary science experiments, I found myself extremely confused and worried that I could potentially blow the classroom up by mixing the wrong chemicals. (Seems silly, but hey, you never know what can happen). No visual demonstration meant that I would learn how to do a task the WRONG way, which is the exact opposite outcome that instructions should give.

     With this being said, SCREENCASTS became my go-to in teaching myself how to perform any certain task efficiently. There was no confusion because I could physically see the execution of each step... not only what to do in each step but HOW to do it. 

     After watching a tutorial, I always feel much more confident than reading instructions from a paper. I fully understand how the process is supposed to be completed and therefore, I can complete the process with little to no error. 

Screencasts: Good, Better, and Best

What makes a  G R E A T screencast?

     In any instructional/learning setting a screencast is a wonderful tool to use to help engage learners in a timely and efficient manner. But, how does one create an effective screencast?

     Well, from what I have gathered, an effective screencast includes:

1. VISUAL AND AUDIO CLARITY: An effective screencast has clear digital images or videos and the sound quality is excellent with little fuzziness.
2. THOUROUGH EXPLANATION OF INSTRUCTIONS: Effective screencasts will ensure that the audience completely understands the process being demonstrated and how to execute the demonstration on their own. Each step is thoroughly explained, therefore, there is no room for ambiguity. The audience should be able to successfully complete the process being shown on their own after viewing the screencast with little to no trouble.
3. TIME EFFICIENT: Effective screencasts MUST be engaging. In order to keep the audience engaged, the screencast cannot be too lengthy (unless the audience is learning something that requires a lot of time). The screencast must be able to thoroughly explain each step to the necessary extent. The mission of an effective screencast: To deliver instructional information to the audience as thouroughly as possible in a timely fashion.
4. ENGAGING: Great screencasts are ENGAGING. If voice is used for instructional purpose, the speaker should be excited to teach. The learners will reciprocate and feel equally excited to learn material. It will be easier for the audience to learn material that is not only interesting to them, but presented in an interesting manner. In addition to this, the use of different texts, digital images, color, and sound, make the tutorial all the more intriguing. 
5. REITERATION OF PROCESS BEING TAUGHT: Great screencasts can also reinforce the instructions at a natural pace, at the end of the video. This element is not ESSENTIAL but I think it makes a strong screencast. By reinforcing the directions, the process will be further engraved in the mind of the audience. This way, the screencast is clear and fully explained t ensure that the audience has a good grasp on how to perform a certain task.

     These five elements can be noted in the screencast I found below. This is the BEST screencast. While this video is not necessarily short, the time length is necessary to fully explain figurative language to a fifth grade class. The teacher is engaging, explains the types of figurative language thoroughly, and uses examples of the different figurative language types to help her class understand the concept. The teacher speaks clearly, the transitions are not choppy, and the text/coloring used invited learners to pay attention to the material.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rs_F-XR5xGA

     Here, is an example of a BETTER screencast. The audio quality is OK. There was a fuzziness in the background. The time between each instruction was too long. Additionally, for some people, it could be hard to understand someone with an accent. Instructions were clear, the speaker was personable, and the screencast was short, sweet, and to the point.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyMHUb0lFco

     Finally, below I have pasted the link to an example of a GOOD screencast. In this tutorial, the speaker has an engaging voice that is not monotonous. However, his instructions lack fluidity and clarity. The video is also over a half hour long. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mr2VBRdRYak

The Importance of Screencasting in the Classroom

Blog #1: An Analytical Response to the Reading, "Screencasting to Engage Learning" by Michael F. Ruffini - Module 6

"As computer technology continues to evolve and advance, many teachers from K–12 and higher education use screencasting as an online or stand-alone teaching tool with traditional teaching approaches to enhance and engage the learning experience of their students. Sugar, Brown, and Luterbach noted that screencasting as an instructional strategy may be viewed as a modern descendent of instructional film and video."

- Michael F. Ruffini

     Michael Ruffini, a professor of educational technology, describes in his captivating piece, Screencasting to Engage Learning, what screencasting is and how the process can be used as an advantageous method in an educational environment. 

           The overall elemental outlook of screencasting appears more appealing than other instructional strategies. In terms of multimedia elements, screencasting offers music, audio, sound effects, and digital images in addition to text. Contrary to screencasting, other instructional strategies implemented in the classroom solely use text, which are not alluring to students. Similar to the ignite talks we presented in class, screencasts have a commanding presence. In both presentations, the attention of the classroom is at full capacity because students feel interested in the manner that which learning materials are being presented. 

          Michael Ruffini additionally listed the applications of screencasts, including:   

• Training — such as learning new software and orientations to new products.
• Teaching — a lesson on a particular topic or showing a step-by-step process, in which students can learn material at their own pace or catch up on missed sessions.
• Selling — a product.
• Blogging and YouTube — communicating opinions, facts, and ideas, etc.
  
  
     It is evident that various learning activities can be incorporated with the use of screencasting. Needless to say, it is most likely more beneficial for a student to visually learn how to perform a certain task rather than reading a list of instructions. Visual demonstrations create little room for ambiguities. Therefore, a student will not be uncertain or confused about a step or how to execute a step if the student initially views the demonstration.
  
       Especially with younger learners, aural, audio, and visual learning are key methods, specifically because the human brain is more maleable 
  
  
  
  
  

HOW TO BE PRODUCTIVE

Blog #3 for Module 5 - Reflection - How I Get Out of an Unproductive Mindset

     Productivity. A word we have all encountered, especially within the domains of our educational career. I have struggled with being productive in school as early as my freshman year of high school. Time management always appeared to be a struggle and, constantly, I found myself completing projects and assignments at the very last minute. While I never failed any classes or missed an assignment, I knew the way in which I was productive was not as efficient as it should have been. I'd average on four to five hours of sleep at night, I would prioritize insignificant duties over significant ones, and the pile of work I had to do would grow immensely with each passing day. While I still catch myself pushing assignments or tasks off until later, I have helped myself become a more productive student as well as person by following a simple set of guidelines I am happy to be sharing with you all today! Follow these simple steps and I can assure you that you will be a happier, more positive, and more productive person.

HOW TO BE PRODUCTIVE

1. Get yourself in the frame of mind that you WILL accomplish something. 
2. Once you've changed your mindset from "off-mode" to "on-mode", create a list of tasks that need to be completed. Order your list in a manner that sets the first goal not only as the most important to be finished, but also the most time consuming. 
3. Work on a schedule. Push yourself to complete a duty by a certain time. This way, you can establish breaks to eat and, possibly, to run errands if you have errands that also need to be completed. (Ex. From 11 AM - 1 PM: I will write my essay. From 1 PM - 1:45 PM: I will eat lunch and get my brother a birthday present for his birthday this weekend) This example is to represent that productivity lies in all situations. Instead of getting your brother a gift last minute, get it out of the way during your free time or break time so you do not have to worry about it in the future.
4. EXECUTE YOUR LIST. You have devised a plan with a timed schedule. Accordingly, you MUST carry out the plan. Get all the items on your list checked off as timely and efficiently as you can.
5. Reward yourself. After a long day of non-stop going and working, it's only fair to treat yourself. Wind down. Take a bath. Eat some ice cream. Grab a drink with friends. You deserve it. Everyday after you have completed your to-do list, it will feel amazing knowing how productive you were within the amount of work you accomplished. Surely, this feeling enough will suffice as a reward. However, do something nice for yourself as a way to relax. This time will motivate you for the rest of your days to get sh*t done in the present time so that you are able to appreciate the future time. 

Who Knew Social Media had Academic Benefits?

Blog #2 for Module 5: Analytical Response to the Reading, "Old Communication, New Literacies: Social Network Sites as Social Learning Resources" 

by Christine Greenhow and Beth Robelia

"In this paper, we argue that adult-driven discourses ought to consider not just academic literacies, but also young people's 'nonacademic' communicative literacies typically practiced outside of school as part of their overall development of new literacies." 

- Christine Greenhow and Beth Robelia

     This essay by Christine Greenhow and Beth Robelia emphasizes the utter importance of shifting the way we educate so that it corresponds with the way students learn in the new, technological awakening. I could not agree more with the valuable points both women made within their writing. The entirety of this essay was based on a study that examined the role of a social network site in eleven students' lives from low-income families. In addition to this, several times, both Greenhow and Robelia supported their ideas with data from the study as well as from scholars who similarly evaluated the role of social media as a new literacy in the classroom setting. Because their argument to conform the way we educate to the digital world was so credible and factually supported, it made their piece all the more convincing. 

     In the section titled, "New Literacies and Social Networking Sites", the authors referenced scholarly articles that also discussed similar ideas about transforming the way we educate. I particularly liked how Buckingham (2007) argued how new media has become a "significant dimension" of the majority of the youth and, with that, the relationship formed between student and technology is no longer school based. In essence, Buckingham is describing how the use of technology, for instance, the computer, is not primarily or only used within a school setting. These relationships are now more culturally dominated as a result of social networking sites. So, it is vital for educators to implement new media not as "curriculum delivery devices" but as tools to critically and creatively represent the world, communicate, and understand social and cultural processes (Greenhow and Robelia). 

     Technology is the future. Thus, it is critical that it is engaged and introduced even further within the education system, in ways that help learners shape their social relationships and practices.

Construction of Cultural Disability: Intelligence Comes in Many Different Shapes

Blog #1 for Module 5: Analytical Response to the Reading, "Reading Adolescents' Reading Identities: Looking Back to Get Ahead" by Donna Alverman

      "Largely through the writings of a cross-disciplinary group of scholars, reading educators around the world are being exposed to the idea that literacy education is less about skill development and more about access to cultural resources and to understandings of how schools that promote certain normative ways of reading texts may be DISABLING some of the very students they are trying to help." - Donna Alverman 

     This quotation by Donna Alverman prefaces her concerns with a few problematic issues. One being based on how the normative ways of reading are "losing their usefulness (and validity) in the wake of new technologies and changing literacies", and another being how the struggling reader is not only the one to blame for his or her individual reading level. I thought this was rather intriguing. Alverman emphasized how the "construction of cultural disability is all inclusive", in that the school, the teachers, the parents, and most importantly,  the curriculum along with testers determine a student's performance and understanding of subject material. In this, I think Alverman brings up an excellent point that is not often discussed or considered as credible. I feel students who have been identified as struggling readers from a very young age are frequently labeled with disabilities, and as a result, do more poorly within the classroom setting because they feel as if they are not capable of reading or learning in a way that which other students are. When in reality, it is important to look at the greater picture, in that, it is not the student's fault that he or she is deemed with the label of a struggling reader, but the surrounding elements that have major impacts on the student's learning and success.

     

      It is evident that not every student learns in the same manner or is capable of the same skills as other students. With that being said, mandatory state tests that determine the comprehension levels of students, I feel, are unfair. This is  because intelligence is not strictly confined to academic subject matter. Each individual possesses a different kind of intelligence. Furthermore, Sally may read perfectly, and thus, perform highly on a state reading-comprehension test. Whereas Nico, an identified "struggling reader", does poorly on the test, but, had the test been based on his cello skills, he would have flawlessly passed the exam because of his intelligence with music. 

Tensions Between Writing vs. Speech

Blog #4 for Module 4: Analytical Response to "Reading Images: Multimodality, Representation and New Media"

     Gunther Kress, author of Reading Images: Multimodality, Representation and New Media, is a "professor of semiotics (philosophical theory of signs and symbols) and education in the Department of Culture, Communication, and Media at the Institute of Eduction Of the University of London" (Gunther Kress). In this writing, Kress discusses his take on the central concerns that differentiates the medium of the book versus the medium of the screen and their individual importances under different circumstances. The circumstances that which Kress referred to were situational. Moreover, he described how each medium shifts in forms of reading, authority, knowledge, and within the social/natural world.

     In the section of his piece titled, "Modes and their affordances: the materiality of modes", Kress brings up an interesting idea when he stresses the need to consider the materiality of modes. He uses the example of speech being a material of human sound and writing being a material of graphic substance to paint a better picture in the reader's mind. With this, Kress brings up an excellent point in describing that the two material modes are not interchangeable, simply because there are things you can do with speech that which you cannot do with writing, and likewise for writing versus speech. In that, he states,

                   "The up and down of the voice, which produces the melody of (English) speech, makes many meanings, from straightforward questions to highly modulated ones: imagine saying, in a tone of incredulity, ”you did what?”; to many varying forms of emotion and affect. Even highly experienced writers find it impossible to reproduce these meanings in writing and need to take recourse to devices such as '… she said incredulously'". 

     I find that there is great truth to his claim. Additionally, it is interesting to wonder how to link the two materials, so that both can be utilized and perceived in the same manner and interchangeably so. Kress then theorizes how the increasing use of image could potentially level the differences between writing and speech. This made me think of the use of digital images within our blogs and even within our ignite talks and how those digital images beneficially impacted the general engagement and understanding of the class.