NECC Day 2 - Monday, Last Session

My last session on the day on Monday was just as exciting as my first one! I went to Podcasting Your Way to Measurable Results with Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams and these guys were great! Hilarious, fun, I would have loved to have been a student in their classes and they all teach high school Chemistry, which was not one of my favorite subjects. Bergmann and Sams teach at the school and often not only plan lessons together, but teach them together too--through their podcasts.

They started out by saying that the program they were presenting was something you could do over night-it took them three years to get to where they are now. I fully appreciated hearing this as I often forget that some things need to build and grow and mature over time and that you learn along the way and each things get better and (hopefully!) easier.

They got right to business and told us the programs and tools they use when creating their podcasts (making a joke that the participants only wanted this information-they were really funny!) They use (some programs are only mac or PC): Camtasia studio, Wacom Graphire, Wacom Bamboo, Samson CO3U Mic, Screenflow, Jing, and a Built in Mic.
And then they asked and answered three questions: Can teachers get more time?
Is mastery possible? Can differentiation happen? The answer to all was a resounding YES!

In year 1: Recording Live! They recorded their live lessons and put them on the internet.

They discovered:
They needed to Collaborate, share, and model together.
They found the students were taking ineffective notes, getting frustrated at home
and there were gaps in their learning.

They thought: We have to make our class time have value!
What do students think the most often when learning a new concept: I wish I could stop the teacher and re-hear it! Well, with podcasting they can. When students are struggling at home or in school to figure out a concept, what they really need is to have a teacher with them. Again, with podcasting they can!

Year 2: Pre-Vodcasting
One of the things they recommended was that if you are going to be doing podcasts/vodcasts, watch some so you get an understanding of what they are and how to set one up.
They decided in this year of their project that they were going to switch some things around; homework is now going to be to watchin the lesson - and in class let’s work on the problems! Which is where students seemed to need the most help. Switching the process of what goes on in the classroom.

They also decided that the podcasts were better with having both of them, because it was more like a conversation and it made it easier for the kids relate to.

Here's a re-creation of a chart they share with us. In one column was what their classes were like without the podcasting/vodcasting and in the next column was what it was like with it.

Without Vodcasting
Warm up activity, 5 mins
Go over previous night’s homework, 20 mins
Leccture new content, 30-45 mins
Guided practice, 20-35 mins

With Vodcasting
Warm-up, 5 mins
Q&A on podcast, 10 min
Guided practice, rest of the time!

They began to notice that they got to meet with every single one of their kids every day! They were also able to do more lab activities and engaging hands on activities, there were No D’s and and Fewer F’s and C’s in their classes. And they realized that on tests students who were watching the podcasts with lower math scores did just as well as the kids who weren’t watching the podcasts with higher math scores.

They ended up having positive student and parent feedback; parents were coming back saying thank you and that they were learning by watching the podcasts too!

Year 3: Mastery Learning
In this year, they got a foreign exchange student halfway through the year, and they were worried if she would be able to pass the class having missed a semester. She watched the podcasts and caught up!

By this point, they had realized that the vodcasts end up being sort-of self paced, that students were becoming independent learners, the gaps in understanding were diminishing, and those having trouble had no place to hide.

While listening to this, I realized that if we were to do this at my school, we could have students take test using a software program called ExamView and as teachers we could look at the reports to find out concepts where students are struggling and the students could then go back and watch the podcast on those areas. So if "Jimmy" hadn't mastered the concepts on Science 3.4, he could go back and watch the podcast where the teacher had covered concept 3.4. Instant review tool!

The students prefer mastery model Bergmann and Sams implemented in year 3, 2:1.

They also showed us an example of a Language Arts teacher who would pull up an essay astudent wrote, and then she would screen capture and record the edits and corrections of the essay so that student could be "walked" through those steps. She does this with every student's paper and she puts it on their webpages and then later the class heads down to the lab and with headphones, they all have her voice and explanations of the edits and corrections right there in front of them!
She said it doesn’t’ take her any more time than when she was grading papers before. She's calls it: “It's Hot Off the Press”

Another great reason to do this: When there’s a sub, you can still teach your kids while you’re gone, because you've already recorded the lesson!