You make some excellent points Paul. As always with technology, we must separate the "what might be cool/fun" from the "what is worth the time to do". In reflecting on this project I'll say that I learned the most from doing two things:
a) listening to and watching Skinner b) editing the audio from these interviews down to the essential few minutes where Skinner expresses his ideas best Editing the audio down to the essential quotes is very much like what we ask students to do all the time: read some literature and summarize it down to the essential ideas. Doing this with audio is, I would argue, worth doing because actually listening to Skinner really makes his ideas more clear and convincing. When I had to take a long audio byte and edit it down to something shorter, I had to listen to the sound byte again and again and ask myself, "What is the key point he's trying to make here?". That activity was the most valuable I think. As for creating the collage - I might agree with you that this piece of the project might not be necessary for achieving the primary goal. The collage could have value: if students wanted to share their work with other students just like any other type of presentation if the teacher asked/required other students to comment on the collage - either in writing or through their own sound recordings if students wanted to have something to include in their portfolio Of the technology employed to make the project I would say that audio capture and audio editing would be the tools most worth taking the time to learn and - though this depends on the teacher and student - I don't think these tools are difficult or too time consuming to learn compared to how much value they return. Michael Michael A. Britt, Ph.D. [email protected] http://www.ThePsychFiles.com Twitter: mbritt On Mar 7, 2013, at 12:11 AM, Paul C Bernhardt <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > > > Honestly, I think it is wonderful, yet I'll probably never do it in a class > for a simple reason: My goal is to teach psychology and tools directly used > in our discipline. While my students will know Youtube, they won't know > Archive.org. Would it be nice for them to learn Archive.org, maybe, but is > that something I should spend time in my psychology classes teaching? The two > audio tools, plus sound cloud, again, are things that I don't find are part > of psychology. It might be nice for students to learn about that, but should > I spend class time teaching it? Should I devote myself to hours outside of > class teaching it when I've got too few hours to teach the psychology > material I need to teach? Same thing for an image editor, and then creating > the collage there (or maybe Glogster). There are mass communications classes > that teach the use of those kinds of tools. > > But, that's not to say that I'm a luddite and don't want to use technology > tools to create engagement. I just want to be careful about what I teach in > my PSYCHOLOGY classes. (BTW, I know what psychology related class I might use > this for… more on that in a minute.) > > I have online discussions for some of my face to face classes. For the online > discussions I formerly used Blackboard. But, the students hated it, I hated > it… it wasn't a discussion in that you couldn't really see what people wrote > without endless clicking, clicking, clicking. Never mind following the > discussion and grading was a nightmare… but it was what we had. Then, I found > Schoology (there are others) that have discussions set up similar to > Facebook. All the students know Facebook's style of creating a discussion. > Easy Peasy, I moved all my discussions over to Schoology (not to Facebook, I > don't want Facebook making money mining student's information). > > But, note I formerly used a frustrating technology on Blackboard because > students were familiar with it and there is on-campus support for students > having difficulty. Therefore, I have my students use a Wiki system built into > Blackboard to construct as a team their results sections of a paper. The idea > is for them to collaborate and learn from each other. While there is some > learning curve to it, I see the gains for psychology as very worth it and > collaborative writing is increasingly common in the modern office > environment. And, note I now use an offsite system that I might have to help > the students with a bit until they get accustomed to it. Given they are > weekly discussions, and actually quite easy to use, I'm willing to help the > rare student who needs it. > > I use Youcanbook.me for students to easily schedule appointments with me > (thanks Sue!). Students love it and it is easy for them. It is not dead easy > for me, but easy enough and the gains in my time management and in students > coming to see me is immeasurable. > > The class I might use something like you propose is a course developed by a > colleague called Musical Lyrics and Life. The idea is to take psychological > concepts and illustrate them with song lyrics. Students get to show off their > favorite music (as well as the instructor) while learning psychological > concepts. In that class, taking time to learn some sound manipulation > applications, etc. seems worthwhile because it is more directly related to > the purpose of the class. > > This is how I approach all ideas on use of technology from 'Let's jump on the > Second Life' bandwagon to presentation software to online discussion to > plagiarism prevention… does it fit the goals, is the learning of the tool > burdensome for the students and/or myself, and to what degree? Will it help > them in their career, realistically, even if not directly psychology related? > I put that all in the equation and come out with a yes or no. Even if I think > it is kinda the coolest thing ever, if I can't justify it, I don't do it. > > I hope the feedback was helpful. > > Paul > > On Mar 6, 2013, at 8:04 PM, Michael Britt wrote: > >> >> >> >> >> >> >> I just finished putting together a little project that I think other psych >> teachers might want to use in their classes. My goal was to better >> understand what B.F. Skinner actually said about education, free will, etc. >> I put together a little "audio collage" that students could put together as >> a class project using any well known psychologist (for whom there is video >> and/or audio interviews available of course). Here's the link to the >> project: >> >> http://www.thinglink.com/scene/366016018553765889#tlsite >> >> Here's how I created it: >> >> Audio bytes were found all over the web - YouTube of course and archive.org >> I used an audio capture tool (Audio Hijack in my case, but many such >> programs exist) to grab the audio as it played in my browser >> I edited the audio down to the essential quotes using an audio editing tool >> (the free Audacity tool would be fine) >> Uploaded the audio to my www.soundcloud.com account >> Created a simple collage using Photoshop (any image editor would work) and >> arranging images I found from wikipedia and clipart.com >> After uploading the collage to www.thinglink.com, I linked the audio from >> Soundcloud to the various spots on the collage >> >> What's the pedagogical goal? Well, I personally gained a deeper >> understanding of and appreciation for Skinner and I think students would >> also gain such an understanding of whoever they chose to focus on. Also, in >> addition to just linking from a spot on the image to an audio sound byte, >> note that there is a small amount of text that can be typed next to the >> audio player. Students could be required to tell the listener why the quote >> is important - what does it reveal about the psychologist's theory? What >> misconception does the quote clarify? What does the quote reveal about the >> psychologist as a person? >> >> What do you think? Ways to improve it? >> >> Michael >> >> Michael A. Britt, Ph.D. >> [email protected] >> http://www.ThePsychFiles.com >> Twitter: mbritt >> >> >> >> >> >> >> --- >> >> You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. >> >> To unsubscribe click here: >> http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13441.4e79e96ebb5671bdb50111f18f263003&n=T&l=tips&o=24160 >> >> (It may be necessary to cut and paste the above URL if the line is broken) >> >> or send a blank email to >> leave-24160-13441.4e79e96ebb5671bdb50111f18f263...@fsulist.frostburg.edu >> >> >> >> >> > > > --- > > You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. > > To unsubscribe click here: > http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13405.0125141592fa9ededc665c55d9958f69&n=T&l=tips&o=24166 > > (It may be necessary to cut and paste the above URL if the line is broken) > > or send a blank email to > leave-24166-13405.0125141592fa9ededc665c55d9958...@fsulist.frostburg.edu > > > > > --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=24174 or send a blank email to leave-24174-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
