You Tube and Teacher Tube

I love this video I found on TeacherTube- it will be fantastic to use with my Grade 11 Modern History class.

http://teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=1465&title=We_Didn_t_Start_the_Fire

Most students will be familiar with the song and even if they aren’t, it’s catchy enough to get them hooked immediately. The best aspect of the song is the story it tells - a perfect snapshot of modern history from 1949.
This video utilises a catchy song full of relevant and interesting information, along with images and titles/year, students learn so much in 4 minutes! And (I hope) it will leave them wanting to know more.
I would use this video to begin the lesson and then brainstorm to find out what students knew about any of the events depicted.
In small groups (2 or 3) students would then choose an event to research, focusing on the significance of that event and why it was included in the song.
The groups would then present to the class.

This activity sits well with Kearsley & Shneiderman’s engagement theory:

‘By engaged learning, we mean that all student activities involve active cognitive processes such as creating, problem-solving, reasoning, decision-making, and evaluation.
In addition, students are intrinsically motivated to learn due to the meaningful nature of the learning environment and activities’

Video is visual and can be entertaining and engaging if used correctly.



Best
Mia


References

Kearsley, G & Shneiderman, B 1999, Learning Engagement Theory: A framework for technology-based teaching and learning.
http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/resource/view.php?id=641 Viewed August 11, 2009.

TeacherTube
http://teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=1465&title=We_Didn_t_Start_the_Fire&vpkey=47c6a4cbc1&show=all