An Ipod Classroom? - Journal Entry #2

1) I think that “v-casts” are a great idea. I believe that I am definitely a “kinesthetic learner” as I often find myself getting distracted or day dreaming away! “v-casts” could help me because if I ever did stop listening to the lecture, I could always play it over again. Taking notes would be much easier as well. I write rather slow, so being able to pause the lecture would help me to get everything I needed down on paper. Pausing would also be very handy. If I ever needed to go to the washroom or do something else of major importance, all I would have to do is press pause and I wouldn’t be missing out on anything. This would comfort students, knowing that they didn’t miss anything important – that could be used on a test or in a project – when they left.
Although “v-casts” may have many advantages, there are disadvantages as well. Using an iPod for your lectures, instead of a classroom, means you will lose teacher/student contact. Teacher/student contact is rather important at a university as a professor has many students. Also, talking to your teacher would be very complicated. Booking a chat time with other students means that your teacher won’t be able to talk to you one on one. Also, since “v-casts” are more for “kinesthetic learners,” getting some lectures explained over the internet may not help them as much as it would face-to-face. “Kinesthetic learners” would have an easier time understanding if it was drawn out for them, or if they were given an example – which is a lot easier in person. In addition, this gives students more independence, which isn’t really a good thing at university as you are already given so much independence. This freedom will probably end up being a bad thing for “kinesthetic learners” as they often need breaks. These breaks will become longer and longer as the student continues to put off watching the “v-cast” because they could do it at anytime.

2) I don’t think that using “v-casts” at Mary Ward CSS would be a good idea. The students are already given so much freedom that using “v-casts” might be going a bit overboard! Many people at Mary Ward can’t handle the freedom given to them now, and using video lectures would end up putting them further behind in their studies instead of helping them. “V-casts” would also reduce the amount of student/teacher contact – which is said to be one of the main rules to success at Mary Ward. Also not everyone at Mary Ward – or at any school for that matter – has an iPod [or mp3 player] so many people would not be able to use “v-casts.” Video lectures are a good idea, just not for an independent school like Mary Ward.