Visualizing Technologies

On a bright Spring day at Texas A&M University -  Commerce, I sat down to listen to a lecture about Shakespeare’s Othello in my freshmen-level English course. Shortly after the class began the teacher pulled down a screen and started showing maps online to show where the play was supposed to take place. However, instead of a short two minute (if that!) showing of the map, she spent over fifteen minutes doing her best to help us visualize the area with maps and images that, in the end, contributed nothing to my understanding of the play. A picture is worth a thousand words, and her words were all useless.

When using visualization technology, it is imperative that instructors make sure that the images are increasing the students’ understanding of the topic. For courses like math and science, visual aids are imperative to student understanding. Graphic visuals and models can help students understand complex ideas and organize their information. In courses like literature, video clips of plays are highly important to students’ understanding on how to read works like Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. Most students won’t be able to understand the stage directions and the small nuances that drastically change the meaning of the text. Through the use of visual technologies, these students will now be able to better understand the text and their appreciation for literature will hopefully increase.

Podcasting: Another Web 2.0 Tool

Over the summer, I took the bus to and from work every day. I enjoyed being able to sit back and relax instead of fighting Austin traffic on my way to teach pre-K. While on the bus, I would listen to different podcasts from NPR-it quickly became one of my favorite morning rituals! Podcasts are a great, and often free, way to learn about a new topic by using a source such as NPR or TedTalk. I also like that podcasts can be downloaded and then listened to later on a portable device, which is perfect when you don’t have wifi on the bus. I appreciated this week’s lesson because I also learned how to create my own podcast using the free software provided by Audacity. I hope to go and teach overseas, and perhaps I can make a few podcasts in order to talk candidly about my experiences.

Like other Web 2.0 tools, podcasting allows for people to share their ideas and knowledge with others in a relatively simple way. Through the use of free software like Audacity, users only need a basic understanding of technology in order to spread their ideas with a vast audience. Additionally, podcasts offer a depth and an insight that is more personalized that a website such as Wikipedia. Podcasting, however, is different from other tools since it is an audio source of information. While audio isn’t ideal for all situations, it is perfect when the user is unable to give their full attention, such as when driving. Just like other Web 2.0 tools, the audience of a particular podcast is ever expanding as more people gain internet access. This enables podcasters to reach a larger audience than a single radio interview would allow for.

I own an iPhone and, as I mentioned earlier, I use it to listen to podcasts frequently. I enjoy listening to podcasts as I ride in buses or even drive. I especially like that most podcasts do not contain commercials, which makes it a lot easier to enjoy. I think podcasts could be useful in the classroom, but I think I would rather use a video service, such as YouTube. One of the benefits of podcasting is that most podcasts can be downloaded and listened to later. However, since most schools have internet access, I would use videos so that my students would have both the visual and the auditory experience. I think podcasts are best enjoyed when alone and less so in a group setting.