Food for Thought: Video and Multimedia Presentations in the ESL and Science Classrooms

One of this week's course readings on Video and Video Editing gave me much food for thought. I found the New York Times article, Idea Lab: Becoming Screen Literate, well-written (I'm an online subscriber to the New York Times), thoughtful and thought-provoking, and rich in detail and examples. Combined with last week's reading of The Visual Literacy White Paper, I was left with much to think about in regards to my own teaching practice at International School Bangkok (ISB). Teaching high school ESL and science classrooms at ISB, language literacy and scientific literacy instruction is at the core of my pedagogical practice. I have seen the 'traditional' view of language literacy change in my twenty plus years of teaching English as a Second Language from a focus on a small set of basic skill competencies (RWSL) towards a more contextualized, individualized, yet broader view of language literacy that crosses disciplines (EAP and ESP) and incorporates not just ways of communicating but of thinking, knowing and understanding. Similarly in the sciences, there has been a shift towards a more constructive, interactive, and transferable view of scientific literacy. (See: National Science Education Standards definition of scientific literacy.) Having enrolled in this course, I realize that literacy for students in my ESL and science classes goes even further, cuts across language literacy and scientific literacy, and encompasses a range of other diverse and disparate literacies: information literacy, technological literacy, visual literacy, screen literacy, and ___?___, ___?___ , and ___?___ literacy (fill in the blank with your literacy of choice!). Finding an appropriate and effective place to introduce, instruct, assess, and build on such a range of diverse and disparate literacies seems beyond the scope and sequence of any one of my ESL or science courses! This clearly needs to be thought of in a K-12 curricular context. Food for thought...

A succinct and well-referenced overview of the paradigm shift that has led to our changing definitions of literacy in a range of fields, from more traditional skill-based definitions to more "interactive, constructive, strategic, and meaning-based" definitions is found at the following link, Definitions of Literacy by Julia Scherba de Valenzuela, Ph.D.. I also recommend the book, Science Matters: Achieving Scientific Literacy by Robert M. Hazen and James Trefil for both science and non-science teachers and students. (See Amazon.com link for the book.)

So, back to this week's blog question, "How has the explosion of web based video changed the teaching and learning landscape (in my ESL and science classrooms)?" Since starting my teaching career in the early 1980's, the teaching and learning landscape has changed as much as our definitions of linguistic literacy and scientific literacy. In my and most other ESL and science teachers' classrooms at ISB, video/multimedia has become integral to the teaching and learning landscape. I think this change is a welcome and valued change on the part of most students with the caveat that the inclusion of such multimedia can be done in ways the facilitate and enhance students learning just as easily as they can be included and used in ways that hinder and take away from student learning. As with any tool (and going back to my "food for thought" theme), the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Using a video to show students how to make pudding is not a de facto better pedagogical tool if it does not help students learn how to make (and discuss and reflect on making) a better tasting pudding! Having said this, some of the most effective uses of video/multimedia I have seen in my and others' ESL and science classes at ISB that support our evolving definitions of language and scientific literacies are:

Science Classroom

1. the use of online video to demonstrate various scientific concepts and phenomena (See my earlier blog post of October 5, 2009)
2. the use of screencasting tools to guide students through the use of various tools needed for data analysis in the science classrooms (Logger Pro, WORD Excel, graphpad.com)
   
3. the use of a "website-like CD 'Scientific Writing Guide' for teachers and students to use as a resource in learning to design, conduct, and report on scientific research" (See Jon's blog for more details)
4. the use of online interactive resources (See my earlier blog post of October 5, 2009)
5. the use of PowerPoint presentations embedded with still images, video, and active links to other web-based resources
   

ESL Classrooms

1. the use of a course wiki, and Ning (a social networking site) to develop language literacy (See SlideShare slidecast from TESOL 2009 Convention)
2. the use of a Voice Thread to create and share personal recounts
   
3. the use of an online glossary of words, with accompanying written text, images and voice
4. the use of podcasts and other online video as sources of information for the production of both written and oral text types (See my earlier blog post of October 5, 2009)
5. the use of Google Docs to collaboratively create shared text types
   

What I hope next to see in my and others' ESL and science classes at ISB is an overreaching scope and sequence of curricular outcomes for other relevant literacies such as visual, information and technological literacy incorporated in a K-12 curricular context into each of our ESL and science classes. There is a lot going on in terms of the effective use of video and multimedia in my and others' ESL and science teachers individual classes at ISB; however, these occurrences are not a fixed and articulated component of the class curricula and as such are experiences some but not all students take away from ISB. As a common team curricular document, the curricula for these classes has not been expanded to include outcomes derived from these new visual, information and technological literacies. Further food for thought...