Tuesday Previews - Popcorn Provided
Collective Wisdom - Tips From Your Peers
True? Tips for Encouraging Active Viewing
8 Reasons to Use
Multimedia in the Classroom
Educational Media
This three-times a year newsletter is published by the Renton Technical
College Library. If you have any suggestions for topics, please call the
library at (425) 235-2331, or email Laura Staley at
lstaley@rtc.ctc.edu
The library has over 1300 videos and DVDs covering the RTC curriculum. Want to know if we have anything for your RTC program? Call us at (425) 235-2331.
The library is located at: 3000 NE Fourth St, Renton, WA 98056
Marcia Arthur believes in the educational benefits of videotaping in the classroom. “Videotaping students is valuable because it always makes them reach for a higher standard.”
Students in all levels of her ESL classes are taped as they work in pairs doing simulations or role-playing. They may be speaking from a memorized text, or improvising about everyday situations ranging from talking to a neighbor to ordering food in a restaurant. The tapes are then replayed during another class session. “They are amazed at how good they look.”
She first came across videotaping as an educational tool from the other side of the camera, when she was a student in a speech therapy program. Later, she refined her technique as an English instructor in Japan, where she worked at a school with its own studio.
“Use props – they make people relax and laugh.” Arthur’s students may use plastic flowers in a vase for a restaurant. The same flowers, wrapped in paper, reappear when asking someone for a date. A sling comes in handy for a going-to-the-doctor scenario. Hats are popular props. “The most popular one is the police hat. When they’re wearing that, they get to ask the questions.”
“Use it early in the class.” Arthur says. “It helps build rapport among the students, gets them to work together.” Arthur recommends getting close with the video camera, since ESL students may tend to speak very softly.
Arthur believes that videotaping might be useful in most disciplines. “We don’t see ourselves as others do - don’t see ourselves as we are. And it’s not hard – experience teaches you where to film in the room, to fade in and out between vignettes.”
True: Game Boy technology exceeds all the computer power used to send the first man to the moon.
RTC’s Information Services department offers services and resources for instructors who want to use media in the classroom. These include:
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Two video cameras that can be checked out for taping a presentation, lecture, mock interview, or special event. (The presentation on Managing Transitions by RTC President Dr. Bressler was one example of a special event.)
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Two still digital cameras for one week checkout.
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The Videoconferencing room is set up to allow some limited video- and audiotaping. One wall offers the standard blue background often seen in videotapes. Bill Kennedy can do the editing of the video.
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Assistance in creating a promotional video for your program.
For more information, call the Help desk (x5801) orsend an email to helpdesk@rtc.ctc.edu
Some titles you might enjoy and find useful:
Managing Student Conflict.
Call number: 371.1024 MANAGIN 1999 VIDEO
John Glenn: A Memoir
Call number: 973.927092 GLENN 1999 AUDIOTAPE
A Class Divided.
Call number: 370.193 CLASS 1997d VIDEO
(On discrimination.)
Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 “Eroica”.
Call number: 784.2184 BEETHOV 1990 No. 3 CD
9 Traits of Highly Successful Work Teams.
Call number: 658.402 NINE-TR 1995 VIDEO
Engineering Disasters.
Call number: 620 ENGINEE 1999d VIDEO