Three quarters of the K-12 teachers in a nationwide survey report that they, or a colleague at their school, are assigning homework that requires students to use the Internet.
What’s more, students in 42 percent of schools are producing or creating their own videos as part of their schoolwork, with the number rising to 60 percent for high school students.
The survey of 1,436 classroom teachers and library media specialists was conducted online last April by Grunwald Associates LLC, in Bethesda, Md. It was released Oct. 23, by Cable in the Classroom, the cable industry’s education foundation.
Video creation seems to be catching on at every school level. Teachers at 24 percent of elementary schools say students are producing and editing video, a figure that rises to 43 percent in middle school, and to 60 percent in high school.
Peter Grunwald, who directed the survey, said the findings show “a sea-change in the extent to which teachers are employing mainstream technology by integrating new tools in their classrooms,” and bolstering the use of technology outside of school through homework assignments.
I wonder how parents are taking this. With some trepidation, I’ve been watching my 11-year-old and his classmate plan a short video they are making as a 6th grade social studies project.
Their subject: how to read a topographic map. They will compare features and symbols on a map with the actual topography of the “Billy Goat Trail,” which winds along the Potomac River near D.C.
I’m looking forward to hitting the trail to collect video. But viewing their disorganized progress, I’m wondering if, in a couple of weeks, I will be taking a crash course in video editing to help them finish it.
