Entry #9 - Caught on Video - article

This article helped me to think outside the box when it comes to traditional classrooms and assessments. I have always thought videos have a place in the classroom. I used a video camera when I taught 7th grade for my students to communicate with their pen pals in my mother's 7th grade class. They had already been writing letters and exchanged emails or IM addresses; this was just another way to let one class know what the other was learning. These new flip cameras would make that process even simpler by foregoing the taping, rewinding, etc and instead editing the material on the computer and sending by email or posting the videos to a blog. That would have made my class project so much easier and faster, not to mention better quality. Of course, I can think of one draw back and that is the economic one. The cost associated with providing students cameras and computers would be great, not to mention the availability of computers to the parents who would want to view these videos at home. I continue to question my own traditional view of grading and assessment. I like how this author put it: not "how are you doing", but "what are you doing." That is what our assessments of students should be focused on.