The options are many:
- Game based learning?
- Cloud (GoogleDocs) based collaboration?
- Flipped learning?
I settled on the latter as I think that for me, an MFL teacher, it has the biggest impact.
Think about the mechanics of 'teaching' the grammar rules for a tense for a moment. It's frightening. You know that half the class need you to explain the points 3 times, that 4 students will need it 5 times, another 4 kids just the once and some not at all. Makes you wish that you had a 'pause' and 'rewind' button....
VideoScribe enables you to make easy, short videos like THIS ONE really quickly (about 20 minutes each for me) which the students can watch at home on YouTube. So they learn the grammar point, all that stuff I was going to pontificate about at the front of the class, at home.
When we come into class we get on with doing, not just 'teaching'.
So how has impacted on my students? Well, we have got around the issue of needing different speeds of explanation - students watch the video as many times as they need. And we've greatly increased the time we spend using the language in class.
The basic process is this:
- Students are given the URL of a video to watch.
- They're also given a simple Google Form to fill in once they've watched it (which, of course, they can't fill in without having watched it).
- The Google Form analyses how well they've grasped the grammar point informing my teaching before I've planned my lesson.
- I allocate tasks in class based on how well students have understood the grammar point.
- And the video lasts forever, so I don't have to pontificate at the front again!
VideoScribe iPad app is, I think, £2.99 from the app store.
