Using Digital Video to Study History. (Advancing Technology)

THE MIDDLE SCHOOL YEARS are critical to the cognitive, social, and emotional development of students. Hence, many schools implement various strategies to deal with the complexities associated with this age group. Beyond placing strong emphasis on high-quality learning in traditional academic areas, middle school educators strive to develop and support the whole child. There are different ways in which schools address these issues, such as through the Character Counts Program, Canada's PREPARE program, (1) Sean Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens, (2) or by placing an overall emphasis on the whole student using Gardner's Multiple Intelligences (3) and other learning theories. In addition, local communities believe that a major function of schools is to prepare students to be contributing members of a society that uses an abundance of technology, according to a recent Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll. (4) Therefore, middle schools are also integrating educational technologies into daily teaching and learning environments. This integration benefits the students not only because they are learning to use the technology for learning but also because they are being trained to function in a technological society. The social studies classroom is one area in which a rich mixture of educational technologies can be used to enhance student learning. This article briefly focuses on the use of educational technologies as a mindtool for students, examines the power of using video, describes the use of video in a combined social studies and science sixth grade classroom, and discusses the benefits and barriers to the use of such educational technologies. Educational Technologies as David H. Jonassen writes about the power of using mindtools as a significant part of the learning process. He notes that the term mindtool is a concept and not a simple definition. Mindtools are computer-based tools and learning environments that have been adapted or developed to function as intellectual partners with the learner in order to engage and facilitate critical thinking and higher order (5) use programs that tend to be available to most schools, such as spreadsheets, databases, and concept mapping programs. When using mindtools, students learn with computers instead of about computers or from computers. That is, the computer application, the mindtool, performs tasks that it can perform better than humans can while the human is freed up from a computational burden to be able to think critically about the concept. can act as devices that encourage and stimulate critical thinking. Hence, mindtools represent a constructivist approach because students are actively representing, manipulating, and reflecting on a concept. Students are participating in a learning environment in which they, not the teacher, create the knowledge. Teachers can capitalize on children's natural enthusiasm for learning by making their classrooms places where students explore important and meaningful questions. (6) The Power of Video as a Mindtool Video production can function as a mindtool that promotes critical inquiry and motivates students. It can serve as a powerful visualization tool that helps learners convey meaning and make their messages more easily interpreted by others. In addition, video production allows students to better understand concepts in the designing and producing of videos. Producing videos forces students to grapple with the complexities of critical issues in order to document them before presenting the issues to others. This helps students understand the depth and breadth of a concept as well as helping them think about how to communicate their understanding of the material. In one study, fourteen- and fifteen-year-old science students took a video illustrating the concept of light, which was originally produced in Spanish, and wrote a script in English for their peers. …

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