captions and powerpoint lectures

We discussed teaching with audio videos with translation captions vs. no captions vs. subtitles. If I don't know much about a subject, then captions would help me learn more faster. If I just listen, and I don't know a lot about the subject, then I won't retain much information cause I'm a very visual learner. But, if I already know about a subject, then I generally find captions distracting. I can listen to someone speaking, and pick up on new information if I'm not also struggling to understand the general topic. 

For students just starting to learn another language, I think the same is true, captions with audio enhance learning. Advanced students might benefit from no captions or subtitles in their L2. 

I've been considering how this might apply to the lectures I write for my Intro Oceanography class of ~170 students. The powerpoint lectures are packed with pictures, words, links to more information, and I show a lot of videos during class. I realize that most of the powerpoints I show have WAY too much information on them (cognitive overload), but the words on the slides partially serve as study materials for students. Next time I teach this course, I'm going to pare down the number of words on a slide (and the number of slides). But a complication I've come to realize is that when there is something on the board, students have to write it down (I'm guilty of this myself), especially if it's new info. So when I click to a new slide and start talking about it, the students aren't listening, they're just writing down whatever is on the slide (even though they can download the presentation before coming to class, or even have it with them in class). I think it's good that they're writing, I think it's a good strategy to commit things to memory, and maybe they are listening to what I'm saying...but my worry is that if I say something that isn't on a slide, are they going to write down what I'm saying? Or are they relying on their memory of what they've heard? Or are they only going to treat the written info as "potential test material"? Furthermore, I've recently had students ask me to "go back to that slide" so they can finish writing things down, which is annoying cause they're wasting precious class time since they already have access to it! Why don't they print out the lectures? That's what I do, then I take notes on that paper with the slide right there.

I don't record my lectures, although other Oceanography teachers have, so the lectures are made available for students to listen to later (over, and over again). At the other end of the spectrum, other Oceano teachers create sparse and short lectures, and mostly talk about the material. I'm trying to find a good middle ground to appeal to all types of learners without committing cognitive overload. Sigh, maybe I'll create a feedback survey and ask the students if they found the presentations too wordy or not wordy enough, too long, or an ok length. One more thing added to the never-ending end-of-the-quarter to-do list.

Google Earth

I presented Google Earth to our class, and tried to come up with ways it could be used to teach culture or practice language skills. 

https://www.google.com/earth/ 

I think it could be useful as a tool to explore, or walk students through a lesson. For exploration, you could show your class your screen and show them where something is -- maybe you're teaching your Santa Barbara-based class about Colombia, you could start in SB, spin the globe around to Colombia, and zoom in on places of interest. Or practice learning the countries surrounding Colombia. You could talk about the distance, or time it takes to travel in an airplane.

For creating a lesson that the students work through themselves, you could create a tour and annotate it with links to websites or pictures. You could create a worksheet for the students to work through, answering questions about the things they learn during the tour. Here are some guides for creating a tour and embedding media in Google Earth. Pro tip: tours work best over short distances.

Place descriptions

Adding photos

Touring

Embed audio

Ideas for tours: 

• become familiar with a town or city
• compare different university campuses
• compare cities in the same or a different country
• scavenger hunt: find certain buildings, monuments, businesses, parks, etc.
• practice giving/following directions (left, right, north, south, etc.)
• practice listening comprehension with embedded audio files (using something like Vocaroo)
• learn about natural hazards, points of interest, or environmental facts with the "Global Awareness", "Gallery", and "Ocean" layers
• practice or learn about the weather in different regions with the "Weather" layer 

What other types of Google Earth tours, lessons, or modules can you think of for your class?

It's been a long while....

I've always been a sporadic blogger...I get too caught up in other work and things, and forget to sit down and write. I think it's a very worthwhile exercise, to blog, or just sit down and write every day. Even if the writing isn't related to my research, it would be good consistently practice sitting down and getting thoughts out in a coherent manner. Then, maybe it wouldn't be so difficult to get back into the groove of writing when I need to get a manuscript out? Maybe the words, sentences, and paragraphs would come more easily? 

Practice, practice, practice.

It's hard for me to do any reading or writing that isn't related to my research (classic grad student guilt). But, realistically, any reading or writing is practice at improving those skills, not just an exercise in broadening my knowledge base (or confusing myself).

I'm overdue for a few blog posts reflecting on things we've discussed in class -- gaming/gamification, Google Earth, Twitter, Panopto/GauchoCast, reddit....