Week 9 Assignment.

Screenr was a very easy program to use and I actually had a good deal of fun putting together the powerpoint and then putting attempting to put together an adequate voice performance to accompany it.  In last week's blog I expressed the things that I didn't like very much about powerpoint presentations. I feel as if students don't listen and copy the slides furiously and I feel like teachers post word for word what they are going to say and that is not the way to go. Having said that I think there are times that these slideshows can be effective.
Would I use a slideshow with a voice recording on it in my classroom? Probably not. I do not see the value in having something recorded through a site like Screenr when I could just as easily speak the lesson myself. I do, however, feel that there is a place in education for this tool. Every year students miss days for being sick or fall behind because they just aren't grasping the concepts fast enough. The easy solution would be for the teacher to spend extra time with that student but when you have 120 students it becomes impossible for you to spend extra time with all of them. There just aren't enough hours in the day. As we learned earlier in the semester many teachers are required to have a webpage on the school site. Teachers could record their lectures and post the slideshows or the notes from class and post them on the site. This would give students an opportunity to go back and take a little bit more time to absorb the information. If a student is out sick and feels as if they have fallen behind the lesson is just a click away. There really is a difference between just going to another student and copying the notes and being able to hear what the teacher is saying. Students may ask questions that don't show up on the notes and if you are not present than you have missed out on this important information. I believe that Screenr could help teachers reach students outside of school hours in a way that not many other programs have managed. Bringing the classroom to students when they aren't actually in the classroom is something that can certainly help bridge the gap between very successful students and struggling students.