By Tiana Kelly
Sitting at your desk with your pen and notebook with the lights off taking notes on a Holocaust victim from the projector as the teacher tries to tell the story from the victim’s point-of-view is what one calls tedious. Now being able to have a Holocaust victim tell students what happened word-for-word makes class more interesting.
U.S.World History teachers, Polly Williamson and Dan Pulskamp’s classes have a chance to blackboard people from other states to help teach them about different concepts throughout history. Blackboard is a program similar to oovoo or skype. It helps students communicate with a person who can be miles and hours away through the Internet. For example they have blackboarded history teachers from other states to see what they teach and experience their teaching style.
“I think the students enjoy it because it is similar to what they are use to,” Pulskamp said.
A few years ago eleventh graders were missing questions on Andrew Jackson so the classes contacted an organization about the president to help with teaching the information. Afterwards students did better on the SOL tests.
“It is a good program that students like to use because of the twenty-first century technology in school,” Williamson said.
Technology in school can often help students in the future when they go off to college or into the work force.
“It helps people be more diverse in the way they learn because it is a different way of learning,” junior Gabrielle Jean said
Even though students do like the idea of blackboarding a teacher in school, others would like for the teacher to be in the classroom so they could explain curriculum a little more for someone who does not understand the material. When doing a video conference it is more difficult to ask questions or ask for more information.
“I like for the teacher to be there with me teaching me the material one-on-one,” junior Leah Johnson said.
Becca Soon • Mar 29, 2012 at 8:50 pm
I think technology makes kids want to learn more. Technology is interesting and different and our society now is revolved around it. I think it helps the class to be more engaged in learning rather than just having a teacher stand up in a classroom and talk for 2 hours. Learning things by actually seeing it and being hands helps people learn faster and understand things better. Technology can offer that kind of learning.
Rachel Pugh • Jan 5, 2012 at 8:06 pm
I think that Blackboard is a great option for students who are genuinely interested in a more in-depth learning experience or students who are interested in taking classes that their high school does not offer. However, the program should be limited to students who are capable of being mature and behaving in a classroom where they’re essentially without supervision. Therefore, perhaps teacher aids could be combined with teachers who teach via internet in an effort to integrate the program into more schools. As for PGHS, I think this teaching method should wait for a while, as something similar was used in the past to test out a Japanese Foreign Language Class and was unsuccessful.
Melissa Tomlin • Jan 1, 2012 at 3:46 pm
I think being able to communicate and be taught by a teacher not in the classroom is really cool. I think that in the future we might see this more often. This article expresses information about a class that many people may not have known, if they were not in that class. Even though, the students do not have the one on one time with the teacher, they can get a different perspective of the information from them.
Jessica Taylor • Jan 1, 2012 at 1:36 pm
If you have the technology, why not use it? I think that Blackboard seems really cool. I wouldn’t mind teachers using it in my classes. If they used it on occasion, I, personally, would pay more attention just because it is a change. I would also retain more because I would remember that topic as the one that that person talked about, versus everything just kind of running together with the same teacher.
Caleb Johnson • Jan 1, 2012 at 12:16 pm
It is impossible to replace an actual teacher in a classroom schedule but Blackboard provides students with an outside source and the opportunity to hear it from someone else which can be very positive. This was an interesting article and it would be neat to see the use of Blackboard spread throughout the school.
Sarah Beth Howard • Jan 1, 2012 at 12:12 pm
Although teachers are trying harder to incorporate recent technology in the classroom, this style of teaching can also be a hindrance to students. Having a conversation with teachers in a classroom help the students not only learn at their pace, but also helping the students in maintaining the social skills that the outside world still demands. That will be useful in college as well as the workforce, and programs like this may decrease one’s social skills. Another topic to think about is the fact that technologically being able to see a place and actually standing at that location are actually two different things. The feeling that one gets being in the location is much more insightful than looking at a picture or watching a video. Yes it is true that the economy is down, but students enjoy going on field trips. And going to places such as the Holocaust museum in Richmond instead of just watching someone speak in a “video”-like fashion may give the students much more insight into the subjects. Some learners are more hands on, and they are not getting the attention they may need.
Matt Schneck • Dec 30, 2011 at 9:56 am
Sitting in class rooms being talked at by teachers is something everybody has experienced. Students are plagued by conventional learning methods that clearly do not work that well when it comes to looking at SOL scores. These new methods of teaching can and will be quite beneficial to students looking for another way to continue their education without having to sit through a non-interactive lecture. I like how the newspaper is incorporating stories that the students can relate to. Maybe this article could include other methods of technology learning besides the blackboard program but it still poses a good point.
Matt Schneck • Dec 30, 2011 at 9:55 am
Sitting in class room being talked at by teachers is something everybody has experienced. Students are plagued by conventional learning methods that clearly do not work that well when it comes to looking at SOL scores. These new methods of teaching can and will be quite beneficial to students looking for another way to continue their education without having to sit through a non-interactive lecture. I like how the newspaper is incorporating stories that the students can relate to. Maybe this article could include other methods of technology learning besides the blackboard program but it still poses a good point.
Jordan Thompson • Dec 27, 2011 at 3:31 pm
I found this article to be very interesting because I had never heard of the program until I read this article. However, I wish the article would have given a broader perspective on how the program works and ways that a teacher can effectively use it. Also, why don’t other subjects use this program? I find it strange that it only seems to work for just the History department. I think that learning in this format helps and hurts students at the same time. It can help them gain more in-depth knowledge on a specific subject, but some students cannot grasp every bit of information that is thrown at them via video interview. What are some ways that schools can use the program, yet continue teaching students everything they need to know for the SOL’s? Just some food for thought.
Megan Jonson • Dec 27, 2011 at 1:27 pm
At the end I think it would have been interesting to see what the teacher’s opinion on Leah Johnson’s comment would have been. The commentary from students was nice and I would have been interested to hear even more comments from the students on this new program.