Technology Mentoring
Fall Semester 2001
Mentor: Hsueh-Hua Chuang
Mentee: Marcia Rosenbusch
Topic:
This semester my technology mentor, Hsueh-Hua Chuang, and I worked on the use of digital
video clips for my course, FLng/CI/Ling 486 Methods in Foreign Language Instruction:
Elementary School. I have access to digital videotapes of 14 one-hour Spanish classes for
children who have just completed kindergarten and first grade. These classes are part of a
summer institute sponsored by the National K-12 Foreign Language Resource Center and are
taught by an expert teacher.
I had the wonderful advantage of teaching in a technology-smart classroom this fall (N121
Lagomarcino) where I had access to laptop computers, wireless Internet connection, computer,
VCR, and Elmo, all connected to a Smart Board. This was the ideal setting for exploring how
digital video might effectively be used in my methods course.
I decided that I would like to use digital video clips in specific topics to allow pairs of students to
view the clips and reflect on questions related to them. With my mentor's assistance, and the loan
of an iBook and a CTLT digital video camera, I used iMovie to create short digital video clips
(3-9 minutes) on the topic of strategies for beginning and ending a foreign language class in the
target language. I prepared a sheet of instructions on how to use the digital video camera with the
laptop computer and how to view the clips using iMovie, and a worksheet of guiding questions
related to the specific clip viewed by each pair of students.
During the first class using the digital video clips, some of the pairs of students found that their
clip had distorted sound, even though the sound was not distorted when I prepared the clips. My
mentor, together with the CTLT staff, worked together to determine the cause of the problem.
Amazingly, the conclusion was that if an “older” model digital video camera was used to record
the clips, as it was in this case, the sound on the clips played on “newer” model cameras was
distorted. Certainly, without the tech support to resolve this problem, I would not have wanted to
work further with the digital video clips. Knowing the cause of the problem, however, I simply
reserved an “older” model camera to record the clips and “older” model cameras to play them.
Later, I experimented recording with a “newer” model camera and found that both the “older”
and “newer” cameras would play these clips without distortion. Therefore, I learned that for
greatest flexibility, I should record the clips in iMovie with a newer model camera.
I used digital video clips in my course on four occasions, addressing the following four topics:
1)
2)
3)
4)
Teaching strategies for opening and closing a class;
Analysis of strategies for teaching a foreign language;
Classroom management; and
Teaching of reading and writing in their foreign language.
I asked the students to reflect on the experience of using the digital video clips in the last class of
the semester. Although I have not had time to examine their responses in detail, representative
comments are included here.
It is clear that students felt that the advantages of using the digital video clips were primarily that
they had an opportunity to see “actual teaching.”
We have never seen elementary foreign language — so the clips were very exciting to
watch. I liked analyzing and watching for certain things. Watching the videos showed
many methods that we could use!
We got to see an actual lesson and also student reactions. It gave me a better sense of
what I could face in a classroom situation.
It allows you to look at real classrooms without actually going there.
The disadvantages of using the digital video clips related in part to the technical difficulties
experienced.
Technology isn't always reliable.
Technical difficulties.
Other comments were quite varied, including a preference for participating actively in the
lessons modeled by the methods professor, to viewing digital video clips; a preference for
viewing the video clip as a class and discussing it together; a lack of comfort in using technology
was perceived to have been experienced by some students; and the use of the clips in four
different classes seemed repetitive.
One suggestion a student made for change in the use of the video clips is one that my mentor and
I are currently exploring. That is the burning of the video clips on CD-ROM. Our concern about
this mode of presentation is that 1) the diminished quality of the clip on CD-ROM and 2) the
students will not be able to select a one- to two-minute segment to show the class as they present
their findings. We have an appointment next week to meet with a staff member of the
Instructional Technology Center on campus to explore the possibility of their assistance in
maintaining the high quality of the video clips as they are burned on a CD-ROM.
My mentor and I continue to explore the possibilities for using the digital clips in varied ways.
We have communicated with In-Time, a PT-3 project, and have received CD-ROMs they have
produced. We also have visited their Web site and examined their use of video clips on the Web.
Next semester I am scheduled to teach this course on ICN, so we are also considering the varied
uses of the video clips that the ICN will permit.