Category: edci337-blog

Could you see yourself using H5P in your practice? If so, how might you be able to use it appropriately for the learners at the grade level you’re teaching to support a pedagogy you are using?

I definitely could see myself using H5P in my practice one day. For my H5P trial video that I created, I decided to create it for the dance classes I have been teaching online. I always video myself and post it onto my Youtube channel so they can practice; this program allows me to link reminders and corrections about spacing or technique or ask students questions to check their understanding. Here is my trial Interactive video. 

I am excited to use this new knowledge with my future students in the classroom in order to further enhance their at-home learning experience. These interactive videos would be an amazing resource for home-learning and quick check-ins. I think for younger students these questions should be created to expand their thinking rather than using it as a summative assessment tool. For example, I could use a science video and at the end ask students to share, with words and pictures, three things they learned or connections that they made. For older students, these questions could be created to check for understanding about specific numbers, dates or key points.

My personal teaching pedagogy places value on students’ progress rather than their final product. I believe that H5P could provide a variety of opportunities for my students to engage in learning that provides continuous support. Rather than watching an hour long video and answering a handful of questions at the end, I would be able to ask students questions throughout the entirety of the video. If they still need more guidance they can ask me for help about a more specific topic from the video, watch it again or click on the further resources that I will link to the video. Additionally, this will benefit students who are looking for more of a challenge because I can link extension resources and projects to the video! Here is a screenshot of just a couple settings that H5P has to offer to help educators to create videos that are tailored to what their students need.

My favourite setting is “Prevent skipping forward in a video”, because I know many students wish to rush through the video as quickly as possible just to answer the questions; in turn, they missing out on a much more in depth learning experience.

Screenshot retrieved from: https://carlyscorner.h5p.com/content/1291035235698333628/edit

My Goals

I am extremely excited to get this blog back up and running as I learn about the importance of multimedia learning. One thing I hope to get out of the class is an enhanced ability to provide students with opportunities to learn and share their knowledge using a variety of modalities. I had the opportunity to observe a day in Rebecca Bathurst-Hunt’s Kindergarten classroom and she shared the importance of providing students with choice and giving them their own voice in their learning journey. This point really resonated with me because I believe that students learn best when they are self motivated and interested in the work. Much like Rich mentioned in his video lecture, the student-centred approach that accompanies multimedia learning is crucial due to the way it is created based off of how people learn. I hope this class provides me with resources and support to implement student voice and choice through multimedia learning and instruction into my future classroom.

This video I found highlights the importance of empowering students through voice and choice. It is also a great example of multimedia resource due to the amazing stop motion artwork and the voiceover. Please take a look!

Personal Experiences

After reading the article written by Richard E. Mayer, I spent time reflecting back on my personal experiences with the multimedia principle. I always have a hard time learning new material when it is presented verbally only. For example, when a professor’s computer won’t load to show a powerpoint, I find it virtually impossible to stay engaged listening to them speak alone. With that being said, I also would have a hard time learning if a professor simply put up slides and left the room without any explanation. This is reflective of Mayer’s quantitive rationale; by offering information using two different mediums, the learners are getting double the exposure and therefore, are more likely to retain the information.

One example of a positive multimedia learning experience that I have had was when I was in middle school and we were asked to create a project to summarize our learning about Ancient Greece. There was no criteria or limitations and our teacher encouraged us to try out something new. My friends and I created a 20 minute documentary that acted as a tour through all of the city states. Of course, I learned a lot about Ancient Greece through this project but I learned even more about video making and editing! Similar to Rich’s son, I was learning without knowing I was learning! This acts as an example of our teacher adapting to our needs and giving us the opportunity to explore a type of multimedia that interested us. To this day, this one of my fondest memories from school.

“Instead of adapting technology to the needs of human learners, humans were forced to adapt to the demands of cutting-edge technologies” (Mayer, 2020, p.15)

This is a quote that really resonated with me because it highlights the importance of meeting our learners where they are at, rather than forcing all students to meet you somewhere else. By structuring lessons using a student-centred approach, we are much more likely to see successful outcomes. To all of my learning pod members: I am curious how you would use this quote to influence your teaching practice?

References 

Mayer, R. (2020) “Introduction to Multimedia Learning.” The Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning, Cambridge   University Press, p. 1–14.

McCue, R. (2020) EDCI 337 Topic 1 – Introduction to Interactive & Multimedia Learning [Video file]. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V39sIKsRpUI&feature=emb_logo

Spencer, J. (2017) 7 Things That Happen When Students Own Their Learning [Video file]. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=6&v=N7S9kyk-odA&feature=emb_title