Podcasting and YouTube in Religious Ed
Posted by simonsays on November 15, 2007
Every semester I have my students choose an ethical issue that is of interest to them and they complete a project on it. The project has consisted of a written report and a presentation to the class. I decided to change things up a bit this semester. Instead of the usual typed, double-spaced two page report and a presentation, usually on PowerPoint, which is usually a lot of text being read word for word from the screen, I had them do something a little different. I am learning more and more that knowledge is easy to access these days. So I am making an effort to structure my assignments so that students must do something with the knowledge they have easy access to. So this time I asked them to write a simple article on their issue of choice. This article was to be similar to an entry in Wikipedia. I called the assignment Catholicpedia and they were to put their article on our class wiki. However, it was the presentation that I wanted to be the focus of this assignment. Students were advised not to use their article for their presentation. They were told there was to be no reading. They were told that they were to present their issue in a creative manner of their choosing. And it was my hope that they would incorporate the use of technology in some way. They were to create a presentation that would leave an impression, not one that would be forgotten as soon as it was completed. The first two groups presented and twelve hours later I am still thinking about what they have created. Mission accomplished. The first group took their issue, capital punishment, and created a radio broadcast of a panel discussion on the issue. Part of their broadcast was a “call-in” segment in which the students in the class could ask questions and make comments. Wish I had recorded it! At any rate here is the audio file. I hope you’ll have a listen. Capital Punishment Radio
The second group created a video using a digital camera to illustrate how little, it would seem, that people know about stem cell research. The quality of the editing, I thought , was quite well done.
I wanted to post this group’s video as well. Their topic was child labour and I wanted to show their video because I think it demonstrates the kind of things I spoke about in another post. My students in this video point out that the labour practices of the supplier of our school’s uniform is somewhat suspect as they refuse to disclose the location of their production sites.
