It made me smile to find myself listening to an audio tutorial about audio tutorial as a a learning system. I graduated from high school in 1978. I know that I listened to audio instruction in college (Spanish lab) but I don't recall any use of it before that time. In the years since I graduated from college I have used audio, video, or a combination of both as learning tools many times.
Nearly every company of any size that does any training for it's employees "in house" has used audio instruction. It can be a very effective tool for some learners. I think it is most effective if there is a subject matter expert somewhere close at hand to answer questions and give guidance to the learner when needed. That is probably the point where audio instruction breaks down for use as a distance ed tool - there has to be someone to take your questions to.
I teach computer skills to middle school students. I think audio lessons could be a very useful tool for me to use to to guide the students who "get" the lessons faster than the rest of the class and need something to move on to while I bring the rest of the students along. Audio instruction might also be helpful for the students who move more slowly. These students may benefit from the repetition (being able to pause and rewind) of the lessons to gain clarity.
I know the students all like to hear audio files from their computers and they certainly love videos as well. These tools can serve to teach as well as to entertain.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Another plus is that anytime you put headphones over the ears of middle schoolers they automatically close their mouths!!
ReplyDeleteBut seriously, you are right -- the A-T approach is a good way to help differentiate instruction within the same class. I teach Spanish, and I can't wait until the day when all students have a laptop with them in class so that I can use this approach to really get my advanced students as far as they can go!!