Communications • Networks • The Internet • The Generations

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The Generations, Digital Kids, and More

This week, you will continue your journey in becoming a digital teacher. During this week’s opening video, Ellen will first discuss the generations with you and then start reviewing some of the major differences between you and your students, differences that research is showing are not just “generational differences.” After watching this first video, scroll down for more information and an additional video.

Press Play

to view the videos below.

This second short video will show you how Ellen created the video you just watched, which was basically a PowerPoint presentation made into a video screencast. To create this video screencast, Ellen used an inexpensive microphone attached to her computer and a software program called Camtasia. As you will see, it is as simple as two clicks of your mouse to create a video screencast (three clicks if using Office 2007).

We also want you to start thinking about how you can make your teaching more relevant for your students. There are literally thousands of ways to make teaching relevant and we will be discussing relevancy throughout this course. If you notice in the first video, we made the video more relevant to you by adding in pictures and music. Thus, we made these two videos a better “learning opportunity” for you and have provided you with a simple example of using 21st century tools to make learning relevant. Don’t worry, we will show you how to add pictures, music, and more to your video screencasts later on in the course.

Important Note: Starting with this week’s Tips & Tricks page, you will learn more about Camtasia and in future weeks, the Tips & Tricks page will show you how to use Camtasia to create your video screencasts.

If you have completed this page, continue to the Tips & Tricks page.