For my final project I am going to try and prove that New Media is an effective way to teach composition. In the past I have used videos to as a resource for teaching research skills and also to try and help my students become more aware of the controversial issues going on in the world around them. Usually I have them write a formal research paper to turn in with the video as the composition part of the assignment. When I was talking with Dr. Rice during the May seminar we began discussing how New Media could be used to teach narrative as well and it occurred to me with this class that it could also be a useful way to teach persuasive and analysis as well. The students we are working with in today’s world are expert users of technology and the writing of formal essays is slowly becoming a dying art form. So, my question is how can we take these experts in technology and show them how to use formal composition skills with the technology? Obviously grammar is an important part of any composition whether in new media or formal writing. A missed spelled word on a paper is just as glaring as a misspelled word in a power point or video.
I have located a variety of resources for using media as a teaching tool and so far I have located a new media program at Columbia University that is intended to help educators incorporate new media in to their classroom. If programs like this one become a part of higher level education and continue to assist professors with incorporating new media the students will begin using new media technology in more creative and interesting ways. I am attaching a link to a video that one of my former students created as an assignment for a videography class. (Please excuse the obvious errors. It was not made for English class and he was 18yrs old and had serious case of Senioritis :))
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeOogtF3ivo
After looking at the way in which he incorporated the text it occurred to Dr. Rice and me that this might be a great way to teach narrative and also grammar in context. Videos are obviously an effective way of informing an audience, but I think that as composition teacher we could also teach our students how to use rhetoric and technology to persuade and analyze as well. This is a lot to think about and I am hoping that it will help me to add more creativity and technology into my classroom.
Elaine, you've offered up what appears to be a dynamic Composition project. I'm interested to see how you carry this out. Will you employ Camtasia for a vodcast? Would you consider somehow developing vodcasts with student groups? I don't know your student population, but my students thoroughly enjoyed analyzing their audiences and creating them in my Tech Writing class. It could help you see how your students think - what they include / exclude, how they incorporate it. They could also write individual reports that analyze each section of the vodcast in order to help you 'get inside their brains' - see how each student's brain functions for future reference. Just an idea that has assisted me time and again.
ReplyDeleteAs for the grammar aspect: Could you have students focus on a specific grammar issue and see how they facilitate learning it? That could be a dynamic approach for a mundane topic.