Multimedia Learning in Science Classrooms
Through learning about H5P, a few things came up. Firstly, making educational videos can sometimes be a struggle, as keeping them engaging while not over-stimulating is a fine balance. Myself, I remember one of the biggest resources I used in chemistry and calculus 3 and 4 was Khan Academy. It was a great resource for me as I could come home from lecture, listen to someone else explain the same concepts, and really hammer it home. Educational videos are a great resource when done right, and used right!
Another aspect of H5P which I discovered while playing around with it, was the ability to upload a video from another source online, and annotate it. Last semester I made a unit plan for the Evolution unit in Bio 11. I used some youtube videos to help as resources for teaching (sometimes I wonder why re-invent the wheel… if there is a fantastic video out there, use it!) which included the one below. But now, with H5P I added some interactive multiple choice questions embedded within it. Upon reflection, I think this would be a great tool for students. I can see it used as a study tool, pre-class homework, homework after class, even a diagnostic tool to see where students are at before we even begin the unit.
As someone who is learning to teach science 9-12, there is an aspect of learning that is independent to help foster study habits. With H5P tools, you are in a way ‘soft launching’ tutorials to students. It is an intro to what resources are available. That way when they nee help in Organic Chemistry 2 in post-secondary, they may think back to “Remember when Ms Rohlicek would find us videos to study?”
I am in full support of multimodal classrooms, when we make sure to respect the teacher’s time and students’ capacity. Sometimes I feel as though if a video is over-stimulating or not done in a way that doesn’t align with the Multi-media Learning Theory, we end up with students who zone out, get overwhelmed, or even get more confused. I think as educators we need to keep this theory in mind, and always consider it when adding resources or teaching strategies to our classrooms!
As a science teacher, some key takeaways I want to make sure to link with the Multimedia Learning Model is:
- Being picky about the diagrams I choose to use
- Doing diagnostic assessments to understand what prior knowledge my students already hold
- Balancing learning verbally by having visuals
- Always encouraging hands on learning to engage all senses
As a part of todays’s class, I recorded a video about “How to write a proper email” as I believe it to be a bit of a lost art! Feel free to watch below.