Thursday, August 14, 2008
Education vs. Television
While I was in Mr. Boppell class for Spanish I, he would show us these educational videos that would teach us spanish. The videos included actors with love interests who would speak Spanish and had music. The videos were supposed to make us think that learning Spanish was fun and entertaining. That is the same concept of the show, "Sesame Street." It makes little children think that learning the alphabet and numbers fun. They even use celebrities on the show to encourage kids to learn. In Postman's book, Amusing Ourselves to Death, he discusses the topic of education and television competing for a person's attention. Before, classrooms used to be a "stale and flat environment" as Postman would say. Now, the education system looks for ways that children would find learning more interesting. It uses such things as television and music. I think it was a good idea for the education system to put entertaining things in it. It makes me pay attention more in the classrooms that show educational videos. What do you guys think? Do the videos encourage you to pay more attention to class?
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I had Mr. Boppell too and to be quite honest his videos were entertaining but it made me realize we paid more attention to the things we could make entertaining out of instead of trying to learn what was being taught. It has been a problem for entertainment and education both together because no child watches "Dora The Explorer" or "Blues Clues" to learn, they watch because they are merely attracted by the fun and excitement they experience watching it. For teens it is the same, when in any science class you are asked if you want to watch "Bill Nye The Science Guy" it is obvious you will say yes because it really is an entertaining show even when Bill repeats things over and over we still ignore it because we just want to watch him do something cool or fun. Education and entertainment are two things that just dont go together.
Yes and no, because I think it depends on how the information is delievered.
I remember having watched a few videos in chemisty that, to me, seemed pretty dull and didn't really pique my interest.
However, there are some videos that I saw in biology that interested me and those vidoes were "Bill Nye the Science Guy" vidoes because the experiments that he conducted made me curious and I sometimes looked into the subject further.
I think that those cheesy, semi-entertaining videos they show use in school definitely help to keep sudents engaged in learning, and it's a good thing when kids have fun learning. However, I also think it's sad that many kids need things like that to keep their attention on what they're learning. Is our culture is so restless and needy for constant stimulation that we can't get anything done without it?
That is so true. You pay more attention to the things that you like. I think it is good that the education system is adding new fun and exciting ways to help children learn.
The videos that they show in school are normally cheesy, but they keep us engaged and we do pay attention to them.
To me it depends on what subject i am learning, as well. If it is a historical video with commentary from people from that time frame, that gives me an inside view on what took place during the period of time and the event that took place there. There are times in school where a enjoyable lesson or a hands-on lesson can help you learn something better than reading out of a book. At the same I think we should focus on a subject that we are learning even if it is not the most interesting. That is such a hard thing to do these days because we are so use to being entertained in every other aspect of our lives.
My Spanish teacher also had us watch those "entertaining" videos in Spanish 1. It seemed like she would only put those videos on when she needed to work on something else and needed us to be occupied. I don't believe those educational videos in spanish helped much at all and I knew the teacher wasn't relying on the video to teach us the subject.
I guess it really does depend on the subject and the presentation of the information in the video. Some of the educational programs are better at presenting the information like the one Kristine mentioned, "Bill Nye the Science Guy", I believe I learned from the wacky way they teach you on that television program.
I do think educational videos can sometimes encourage you to pay attention in class,especially if its a subject you don't really understand.
Images and other entertaining factors can almost always make a subject more interesting.Sometimes I think teachers just put these videos on and expect us to automaticaly understand everything thats said.They don't feel the need to at least back the video up with a discussion after, which would really help elaborate the main ideas.
It depends what kind of educational video it is. If the video is really funny and entertaining like Bill Nye the Science Guy, then I would enjoy watching it. If it is a video like the boring ones my chemistry teacher made us watch, which kept on talking and talking, then its ineffective because usually no one pays attention to it. It's kind of sad how we need entertainment to learn or pay attention more, instead of reading from context. I think 20 years from now there will be no textbooks to learn from. I think kids are going to learn from watching shows like these. Companies have already made electronic forms of dictionaries, thesaurus's, and made tapes for books. Soon kids are not even going to remember how to use a dictionary or even know how to read without a tape. In ending, if the video is entertaining then it will encourage me to pay attention more, but I don't mind reading from context.
-Rishabh Mehta
Back to television and language learning -- there is sound pedagogical reasons for "immersing" someone in a language -- to hear and watch people speaking a new language helps us to learn. Before babies learn to speak, they are listening to us, watching us speak to them and to one another -- they learn about vocal inflection, the back-and-forth quality of conversation (babies who babble already know this -- you say, "goo goo" to them, and they look at you and say, "nnnh!") -- so the fact that my friend and colleague Mr. Boppell shows Spanish language video in Spanish I is a GOOD thing, a sound and defensible educational practice. Sometimes when I want to brush up on my Spanish, I watch a telenovela -- I can watch and listen to native speakers speak rapidly, use common vocabulary, etc. I cannot find a better way to immerse myself in Spanish -- the radio is harder because they often use slang, they speak so quickly and I can't watch their faces for cues. And even if I go visit my mother--in-law, she will speak English to me. If I want to hear Spanish, I have to wait until the holidays when she is surrounded by her sisters, daughters and nieces.
Kids don't pay attention to something that isn't in interest to them. I remember in chemistry class that not every one paid attention to the movies that were shown, only the ones that were interested and had A's really watched. They did have info. that was of good use to us but the more exciting ones got more of our attention. I think that the more interesting ones or the movies more up to date get more of our attention and help us learn things.
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