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Outline

Page history last edited by Nina Liakos 12 years ago

 

Using Online Lectures for Authentic Note-taking Practice

 

  • HOW IT USED TO BE
    • College and grad school: Professors lectured and wrote on the blackboard; students took notes
      • International students struggled to take notes while listening
      • Sometimes resorted to recording whole lectures on cassette
    • ESL classes: Note-taking textbooks with scripted lectures  
      • Developing Listening Comprehension for ESL Students (The Kingdom of Kochen) 1976 (Plaister) -- “simulated lectures”
      • Intermediate/Advanced Listening Comprehension (Dunkel & Lim (3e 2005); Dunkel, Pialorsi and Kozyrez 1982, 2005) – short scripted lectures on various topics
      • Noteworthy (Lim & Smalzer 1990, 1996, 2004) –short scripted lectures about US history, geography and culture
      • Learn to Listen; Listen to Learn (Lebauer 1988, 1999, 2010) – short scripted lectures about various academic topics
      • Contemporary Topics (Beglar and Murray 1993, 2002, 2009) – lectures “performed in lively and natural styles”
      • Real Talk (Baker & Tanaka 2006, 2007, 2008) – features “mini-lectures” delivered to an ESL audience)

 

 

  • HOW IT IS TODAY
    • Some professors still use the blackboard
    • Others lecture from PowerPoint presentations
    • Some students take laptops and iPads to class for taking notes
    • Recording lectures is easier than ever but still problematic
    • Bottom line: at some point in their university careers, students will need to take notes either by hand or on their computer

 

 

  • WHAT TO LOOK FOR
    • More sophisticated camera work (videos showing not only the professor but also the students and the board or PowerPoint when appropriate
    • Some sites may provide related reading assignments and discussion questions (e.g., Academic Earth)  
    • Some courses (e.g., MIT Principles of Chemical Science) provide lecture notes with blanks to fill in during the lecture (example), transcripts and pdf transcripts, captioned videos 

 

  • WHAT TO BEWARE OF
    • Videos that don't show visuals, e.g., Open Yale PSYC 110 Lecture 2) 
    • Videos that don't show the professors talking, just audio and visuals (e.g., Cosmo Learning UC Berkeley General Biology Lecture 3) 
    • Copyrighted videos excised from course videos
    • If there is no microphone, student questions can’t be heard (Economics 1, UC Berkeley)

 

  • CHALLENGES FOR THE TEACHER
    • You have to provide note-taking instruction yourself, e.g.,
        • Using indents to show relationships between general and supporting ideas
        • Using abbreviations, phrases not sentences, key words
        • Highlighting important information 
        • Using a note-taking system (e.g., Cornell) 
    • Lectures are not pre-digested for ELLs; you may have to create your own exercises, vocabulary teaching materials, etc.
      • You may have to provide vocabulary handouts, especially for courses that use vocabulary students are certain not to know (e.g., "The Founding of Rome and the Beginnings of Urbanism in Italy" (Yale, Academic Earth)  

 

  • ADVANTAGES
    • These are actual university lectures, completely authentic and given in real time 
    • Unlike class observations, they can be viewed again
    • IEP students can observe
      • Real professors' lecture styles (e.g., how fast they talk, what they write on the board, how they organize the material, How they emphasize what's important, how they use transition words for coherence, etc.)
        • They are often the best, most popular professors from the best schools in the country  
      • Real students' classroom behavior 
    • Decisions you must make
      • the most appropriate lectures 
        • Introductory courses and lectures are best because they don’t require prior knowledge
        • Courses of potential interest to everyone, excluding no one, e.g. philosophy, economics, business, psychology, art history,  political science) 
      • several lectures from the same course or all different lectures

 

  • EXAMPLES
    • Michael Sandel, Justice: What's the right thing to do? 
      • 12 lectures, each divided into two parts, on topics such as "The Morality of Murder" and ""Same Sex Marriage") 
      • Brief summaries of each lecture part
      • Discussion guides for beginners and advanced students for each lecture (, scroll down to Episode Resources on the right)
      • Professor speaks slowly and clearly and pauses often
      • Huge lecture class BUT interactive teaching style (à lecture not dense, constant note-taking not required)
      • Important concepts shown in writing (disadvantage: must pause video to allow students to write)
      • Disadvantage: cannot jump ahead until the video has loaded 
      • How I used it:
        • First two lectures (intro and Bentham’s utilitarianism) as practice
        • Multiple listenings
        • Open-note quizzes on content; evaluate notes for completeness and accuracy
        • “study groups” help each other to complete their notes and predict quiz questions
        • Sixth lecture Pt 1 (Kant’s categorical imperative) as final exam
        • Project on large screen, all watch together
        • Stop and discuss as appropriate (e.g., when Sandel asks the students for their input, I pause the video and ask my students for their input first) 
  • Kenneth Train (UC Berkeley), Economics 1
      • 20 lectures on topics such as “Demand and Supply,” “Competition,” “Monopoly”
      • Engaging lecturer, clear visuals
      • Disadvantage: cannot see students or hear their questions

 

  • CONCLUSION: an embarrassment of riches, but good planning a must

 

References

 

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