What is a Method?

Impact of Media on Method

How many times have you heard a student say that they love school?  It is sad to say that many of the children growing up in our society do not enjoy school, or at least not for the right reasons.  To some, school is valued more as a place of social interaction than as a place to learn.  So, why is it that many students do not see school as a enjoyable place to learn?  How can we, as educators, teach students in fun ways?  These are some tough questions that all teachers should ask.  The answer lies in technology supported content and its three elements of media, method, and the Message.  It is the responsibility of today's teachers to incorporate these elements into their classrooms, not to entertain students, but rather to engage students in learning. For us as teachers, engaging the students is very important. We want to grasp their attention and help them learn, rather than bore them. Teachers need to create other methods to keep the students focus. By doing that, students would pay more attention or even learn something.

Changes in the Method

One of the ways to get students more involved is by using media to supplement lessons.  This is rather simple to do, but using media affects the classroom in various ways.  In particular, incorporating media should change the method, or the way, teachers teach.  

Media Supports Method Changes

Teacher-centered Instruction --> Student-centered Learning

Single Sense Stimulation --> Multi-sensory Stimulation

Single Pathway --> Multi-path Progression

Single Media --> Multi-media

Isolated Context --> Real-world Context

This chart shows that teaching with media supports a new and stimulating way to teach.  Students would be able to go on virtual field trips or see things played out in dramatizations.  There are many ways in which teachers can implement a variety of forms of media; several of which are laid out in a website put up by North Carolina University.  A student developed a video on youtube explaining the ways video can enhance learning.  I have also posted on a blog some of the ways that media can change the way I would teach a history lesson.  All of these ideas are just samples of ways that media impacts the way we teach, and probably will be outdated in a matter of a couple of years.  However, the point is not to use these methods of teaching necessarily but rather to point out the importance of enhancing students' learning by supplementing lessons with media.  It will engage the students, and maybe history or math won't be boring but rather exciting and intriguing.

Self Test

A behaviorist strategy is to have students use schemas so they can be engineers of their own learning. (a) True, (b) False

Answer:

(b) False

 

Edited by:

Katie and Nikki (Jan '09)