Journal #4: Finding Students Who Learn With Media- NETS 1, 2 & 5

Bull, Alexander, and Ferster (2010). Finding students who learn with media. Learning & Leading in Technology, 37(5), Retrieved from http://www.learningandleading-digital.com/learning_leading/201002#pg1

In the article “Finding Students Who Learn with Media”, the authors described their efforts in developing and using Web-based authoring tools to help engage students in learning. The free web based tool they created is called PrimaryAccess MovieMaker and can be found at www.primaryaccess.org. This program enables students to create historical documentaries by inserting their own text and narration into a movie. This helps the students to understand and retain historical facts.

One idea behind PrimaryAccess was that it would eliminate the cost of using digital equipment to create movies--the program is free online. The program also eliminates the time spent learning how to use the digital equipment, which means more time focused on learning specific objectives such as history. The developers also created an extension to the program, called PrimaryAccess Storyboard www.promaryaccess.org/story), which only requires one class period to create a movie.

A number of studies were completed on how students learned from PrimaryAccess, and ultimately the developers determined that student engagement can be increased by using student-authored media in a classroom setting. However, this was only for a subset of students who enjoyed the subject they were learning and were interested in using PrimaryAccess. This led to a conclusion that student-authored media is one tool that can be used for differentiation in the classroom.

Is Primary Access easy to access and use online?

I was very excited to try the Primary Access website, so I could show it to my son’s fifth grade teacher. I decided to go into Primary Access and attempt to make a short movie. I was able to do so, but the movie was very short and I could only use information already available on the website. There were no buttons to navigate onto the web to download my own information and I did not see a way to save my movie. So with 20 minutes into the project, I would say logging in and trying to make a movie is not very simple. I’m hoping that when a teacher logs into primary access, they have more tools than I was given, and that perhaps I’m not seeing the whole picture (no pun intended).

Does the use of programs such as PrimaryAccess Storyboard help with differentiation in the classroom?

I would say Primary Access absolutely adds the element of differentiating. If this is a program I could access and use easily, it would be a really creative and fun classroom activity. Students who enjoy multi-media activities could use this movie-making program for a report about some aspect of history, while other students may choose an art-based project for the same report.