Section 7

The Internet provides educators with endless opportunities to enhance student learning. I teach World History, and for so long this subject has been taught in the classic sit and get format. Perhaps the notion is that history has happened and the teacher is there to teach the students what happened, why it happened, when it happened, etc. E-Learning provides an outlet in which students can apply their knowledge, and more importantly, expand on what they are being taught. As I have mentioned so many times before, we live in an age in which the information is easily assessable without the need of a teacher. Educators are now encouraged to be facilitators. Some teachers refuse to honor this because they feel the need to teach in a traditional manner. Whether it be arrogance or fear, the fact of the matter is that educators are not meeting the needs of their students. In my classroom, I can teach about the French Revolution. I can tell them the causes and effects, and even have them analyze the cause and effect relationships to other revolutions they are to learn. What E-Learning can do for my students, is allow them to connect with the French Revolution. They don’t have to stick with other revolutions from the textbook such as the Russian Revolution or the American Revolution. They can actually compare the French Revolution to modern day revolutions. For example, the Arab Spring has emerged in the last few years. Although some of my students have never really heard of the revolutions taking place, they can learn about them and visualize what an actual revolution looks like because of the Internet. They can understand the ideas of indoctrination and totalitarianism whenever they watch a youtube video provided my Lisa Ling (sp?) as she snuck into North Korea and gave us a glimpse of this sort of dictatorship first hand. This not only makes the content relatable, it ignites passion within my students. They want to KNOW why and how, and they DESIRE to learn more. It’s amazing to watch their minds race and their eyebrows lifted in amazement.

Reusable design is a great way to have our students interact with the course content. A program that was introduced to my department, and that I have not yet used, is called stratelogica. It is a program that provides maps from every era in history and can be as detailed as showing every battlefield in history. The students can interactively participate in this program and it gives them the opportunity to become a part of the learning process. For example, they can take a portion of the map and create their own legends and essentially design their own maps with the use of their new and old knowledge.  We no longer need to pass out copies of maps (what a waste of paper!) and we can instead give the students a digital means in which to learn essential geography skills. I plan to take some courses provided by our district that will give me a thorough lesson in how to facilitate learning through this fantastic program.

As I read this chapter, I immediately thought of Virgin Airlines. I have only flown Virgin once, but what an experience it was for me. As I have flown many times before, I cannot think of one time I actually paid attention to or listened to what happens if the plane were to encounter trouble. It was boring, and my thought was if we are going down then we are going down and there is not a thing I can do about it and I would probably have heart attack and die immediately anyway. But Virgin Airlines did it right, and for the first time ever, I paid attention and knew exactly what to do in case of an emergency. This airline used a video (not flight attendants) to explain what to do in case of an emergency and how to act on a plane. It was hilarious, innovative, and I literally wanted to watch it again after. In fact, whenever I got home I searched the web for the video so I could watch it again and share it with my husband. Now that is rich media! Here is the link:

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyygn8HFTCo) . As I began this course, media instruction began to weigh heavily on my mind. I began to scan the Internet for innovative videos to use in order to grasp the attention of my students. I found a guy, John Green, who has created a series of World History crash courses that are 8-12 minutes long and cover various periods of history. It is hilarious, relevant, and very innovative, much like the video I fell in love with on Virgin Airlines. Next semester I plan to start using these videos to introduce or conclude ( I have not decided yet) each remaining unit. I cannot wait to see the impact it will have in my classroom.