home

media type="custom" key="4583454" [|Glog] [|I will Derive] [|Stand and Deliver] [|Fergie]  November 12, 2009 The reverse of homework? Vodcasting

Students watch lecture at home, do projects in class  //Josh Verges jverges@argusleader.com// When some Colorado teachers stumbled upon a computer program that let them record live classroom lectures, they saw it as a good way to keep absent students from falling behind.

In Sioux Falls, the technology is transforming the way high schoolers learn math and science. Rather than listen to lectures in class and work on problems at home, students now watch their teachers' prerecorded video lectures at home, then come to school ready to work through the material in class.

"Students were going home to do the homework, and if they didn't fully understand the material the first time, they were stuck, and what were their options?" Roosevelt chemistry teacher Deb Wolf said. "What they really need is me holding their hand and helping them through the tough, meaty material."

Wolf and eight other chemistry teachers visited Woodland Park, Colo., in January to see how video podcasts - or vodcasts - work there. She was the first in Sioux Falls to create vodcasts for her own classes. Now, every chemistry teacher at Roosevelt and a few at the other high schools are doing it, and so are some math teachers.

"If you spend half your class time on lecture, you just do not have that time for one-on-one," Kathy Sommers said. "We've just sort of turned the entire system around."

A chemistry and algebra teacher at Roosevelt, Sommers said several math teachers will use vodcasts in their classes next semester. They might be an even better fit for math, she said. The vodcasts allow teachers to gear their classes toward "mastery" learning: Students go at their own pace and don't move on to the next unit of material until they pass a quiz at 80 percent or better.

Like science, high school math is cumulative. If kids struggle early in the class, they'll probably have even more trouble later. The vodcasts give teachers more face time with students to make sure they get the material. "I think we're going to catch more kids sooner," Sommers said. **Rave reviews** To administrators and policymakers, the technology is a sparkling example of 21st century skills in the classroom.

An informational school board report on vodcasting Monday was met with more enthusiasm than usual. "It's a great concept," board president Kent Alberty said.

"Twenty-first century. Love it," Debbie Hoffman added.

"I think it's fabulous," Kate Parker said. "I would have done much better in chemistry ... if I had something like this." "For those of us and you who have trouble picturing how technology improves education, there is just the poster child for it right there, as opposed to the sage on the stage, which (has been) the model for how many years now," Darin Daby said. **System's flaws** <span style="font-family: arial,helvetica;">But Wolf acknowledges the system has its flaws.

It takes a long time to make the vodcasts, and slow computers for editing don't help. And some students prefer the traditional classroom model, where the lectures can be more of a conversation. <span style="font-family: arial,helvetica;">John Slunecka, a Roosevelt freshman who spoke to the board Monday, prefers to talk through new concepts as his teachers present them. But he's adapted to Wolf's self-paced, online lessons and has come to like them.

"There's really no time wasted, whatsoever," Slunecka said. "I hope they incorporate it into other classes."

Not all teachers using vodcasts do so in the same way. When Slunecka misses a math class, he can watch a video of the day's lecture. Other teachers record lessons in advance and leave them for the substitutes when they themselves are going to miss class. <span style="font-family: arial,helvetica;">Students have options for how they view the vodcasts, too. Wolf said the chemistry teachers make DVDs or flash drives available to students with no or slow Internet access at home, and several students without computers watch them during study halls at school.

Wolf has bought some of the vodcasting equipment herself, but school principals and area businesses have been eager to help. <span style="font-family: arial,helvetica;">"I really think that this is going to change education," Wolf said. "It really changes the way information is delivered and then what we can do in the classroom."

Reach reporter Josh Verges at 331-2335. <span style="font-family: arial,helvetica;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">Additional Facts <span style="font-family: arial,helvetica;"> <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">HOw it works <span style="font-family: arial,helvetica;">Two teachers team up to create video recordings of class lessons and upload them to a private Web site provided by the school district. Their students get user names and passwords to watch at home. They go to school the next day to put the concepts into practice in a lab or work through the material with their teachers. <span style="font-family: arial,helvetica;">