Audio and Video Aides

Everyone knows that it is better to read a book than see the movie. This principle applies most in academia. The text is always more indepth and detailed than an audio-visual presentation. Thus it is important to keep in mind that text cannot be replaced. The aides are for supplementary use: to boost and retain the textual learning. Also some times the audio-visual may approach the topic from a different angle, giving the student a whole new understanding of the material.

 

 

The place to source audio-video content may be closer than you think. Hundreds of content oriented media companies visit your institute to present their products and hold demonstrations. But most of the times, these are given to people who are in charge of accounting or administration, thus getting sidelined even when they are quite good. Check the institute library to see if CDs have been purchased. If not, check for brochures and letters that have been left at the principal’s office. You can always contact the companies directly by searching for them on Yellow Pages or the internet. Choose your package, ask for a demonstration and purchase it. Mostly these products are very reasonably priced. With grants that have been assigned for aides and audio-visual content, procuring them is easier than you think.

If you want free resources, audio-video material for generic topics and famous theories are on the internet. But these resources are mostly over simplified and do not fit a specific curriculum. In such cases, you have to depend on what you have at your fingertips: content and talent. It looks difficult, but it is not. Students can be involved, since they are adept at animation. If your students do not have the time, you can team up with another teacher and do it. It is indeed very simple. 

 

Follow these steps:

1.      Make a story line of the lesson. It can be one lesson or a larger story line in which lessons are like episodes.

2.      Once a rough story idea is formed, collect pictures, drawings, diagrams, cartoons and sketches for putting into the story. Use simple sketches, internet images or find a student artist to draw up scenes you can use.

3.     Remember your animation need not be like the ones you see on TV. Be realistic. If your story has the president of a company giving a board meeting about the importance of Vision and Mission statement, please do not try to make an animation in which he is mouthing all the words of the text. Instead: At the beginning of the scene, show the board room and the members, some of the points of the content projected on a screen and the president. The voice over can be of the president and the scene can be a still scene that changes every 5-6 seconds and not lesser. Easy animations can be produced with 12 second stills. The attention is kept and at the same time the effort is reduced.

4.     There are software such as Macromedia Flash, Swish, Gif Animator, etc. that can be used to make simple animations from related picture files. Try one and see how simple it is.

5.     Add a voice file for the characters. Ask other teachers to lend their voices for the characters.

6.      Shift the scenes from time to time to avoid it from getting boring. Remember, if it sounds like you giving a lecture on a screen, it is still a teacher lecturing: students will switch off. So use creativity and imagination to make it exciting for the students.

 

Audio/Podcasts:

World over, institutes are using podcasts to create teaching aides for a variety of topics. Fortunately many topics have been made into podcasts. It is available free or for a small subscription fee. The steps for finding or creating podcasts are:

1.      Download Itunes software for Windows or the operating system you have.

2.   Click on Itunes Store>> Browse>> Podcasts or Audiobooks. Choose the category you need. For instance:  Choose Education >> Higher Education and see which topics have podcasts relevant to your topic. Or search the Itunes store for the topic you need. Check similar educational websites like utilium.com 

3.    Listen and subscribe to a podcast even if you don’t get one that is fitting. Podcats are usually in a dialogue format rather than a lecture. Make your content into a conversation or an interview/dialogue rather than a lecture. Record it into your computer.

4.    For ease, keep the size of the file below 5 MB

5.   Make an account on any Podcast server like ourmedia.org and upload your file. If your institute has a website, you will have hosting space. Tell your webmaster to upload the file to the institute server.

6.   Then go to Itunes and click on Itunes Store. Click on Podcasts in this window. When you do, a box at the left bottom corner saying Learn More will appear. In that, click on ‘Submit a Podcast’. Upload the URL of the file and that’s all! You are ready to roll. Ask your students to subscribe to the podcast so they can listen to it before class and come. Alternatively, give them the link in the class so they can use it to revise the lesson.

 

 

 

 

 Next week

The series on teaching aides ends with this issue. In the next issue:  examinations are closing in, evaluation becomes an important consideration in a teacher's priorities. 

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Next Week: Evaluation >>

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