Snoring Fits or Video Clips

You’re sitting in a desk in a classroom filled with hundreds of peers. The person next to you is asleep, two people in front of you are checking their facebook status, and a girl with a new ring is looking up a variety of bridal dresses on beautifullymodest.com. Of course, you have the straight A students who have their notebooks open and pens in hand. However, even they are having a hard time paying attention and a forbidden yawn often escapes their lips. The classroom feels stuffy and cramped. Your mind starts to wander back to the class you had earlier that morning. You were attentive and actively involved with the learning process and would often raise your hand to make comments or ask questions. It surprises you that you were learning about the life cycle of a sponge and enjoying it. You left that class actually wanting to do the homework because you are interested and want know more. What made these two experiences so different? Hard to say. So many factors affect the classroom environment such as: lighting, student preparation, subject matter, distractions, etc. But, regardless of these factors, the main differences between these two classes were the methods used to present the material.

Now, I’m not making excuses for the students who stay up too late, who aren’t prepared for class, or who choose to use distracting deceives in the classroom. You can learn something from every teacher if you motivate yourself and take responsibility for your own education. However, there is something to be said about an engaging teacher who makes learning memorable and even enjoyable. It is only natural that students will learn and remember more from an engaging teacher than one who isn’t. I feel that students have the right to learn as much they can from their education and professors have the obligation to facilitate learning in the classroom.

So, why are some teachers more effective than others at engaging students? Well, you’ve asked the right person. I’m majoring in and working towards becoming an elementary school teacher. Now, before you think that what I have to say is irrelevant because I specialize in young elementary aged children, and therefore know nothing about higher level education, I am competent in effective teaching strategies that facilitate multiple learning styles. For instance, there are three main learning styles; visual (to see), auditory (to hear), and kinesthetic (to do). In other words every person learns differently, but most learn through the senses (sight, sound, etc). I have found that the most effective teacher is one who incorporates as many of these different learning styles into their lessons as possible.

However, in a college classroom setting incorporating these different learning styles can be difficult to do. The classes are large, time is limited, and the amount of material to cover is vast. But teachers can still to choose the most effective way to present the material while meeting the learning needs of each student. One of the best ways to accomplish this is through the appropriate use of video clips.

Notice that I said the appropriate use of video clips. Unfortunately there are ways that video clips can be misused in a classroom setting. Sometimes a teacher will attempt to use clips as a way to spice up his/her lecture by showing something comical. Although humor is a positive element to have in a classroom it can be far better used when the humorous clips are relevant to the subject. Another way that video clips can be misused is through improper length. A few years ago I had a Spanish teacher who was, how should I say it? Lazy. We spend an entire month of class time watching Fiddler on the Roof (a three hour movie). To give my teacher some credit there were Spanish subtitles. But that is all we did. We weren’t required to even connect the English words we heard to the tiny subtitles at the bottom of the screen. Class time could have been better spent learning how to understand and speak Spanish than watching a movie that most of the class had already seen. The best clips are short and memorable. As you can see there are in appropriate ways to use video clips; however, there are still many ways that video clips are effective and aid classroom learning.

First of all, they use multiple learning styles by appealing to both the visual and the auditory learners. By using these two learning styles video clips fulfill the needs for the majority of students. In fact about 65% of the entire population are visual learners, and 30% are auditory learners (1). This means that about 95% of the students learning needs are met through video clips.

Secondly, video clips usually involve narrative. They tell stories. Memory improves when subject matter is coupled with some kind of a story or experience we can relate to. For example, in my child development class we were learning about language development, and specifically how language develops through mimicry (copying the sounds we hear). My professor shared a clip of quadruplets and how they developed their own language through mimicry. They would see an object, like a book, make a sound and the others would repeat that sound. So when it came time for the final I remembered that mimicry was part of language development because I could easily remember the story of those quadruplets. Stories are just plain easier to remember than facts.

The last point I would like to make is how video clips increase attentiveness. Let’s be honest, it is hard to listen to a professor’s voice for an hour, or two, or three. A short clip helps to refocus the class and reminded them of the importance of the subject matter. Clips can also be a break from extensive notes. Instead of writing lengthy definitions that makes little sense, students can write down a key phrase of what the clip was about. Video clips help students refocus on key points made in the lecture.

It is clear that video clips are an effective way to increase the productivity of your education. That education is vital to you future. It is important to receive the best education possible and learn as much as you can while attending this university. After all you are spending your savings just to be here. Shouldn’t you care about the value of education you are receiving?


Works Cited
1.University of Phoenix. http://www.studyingstyle.com. 2010. LangVid Language Training.