With the technology that is provided in the classroom today, teachers are able to show students a different way of learning, such as watching movies in the classroom.
“A lot of the time they show examples,” Jenna Harrison, senior Broadcast Journalism and Advertising and Public Relations, said. “In Dr. O’s [Osei-Hwere] class she shows videos to kind of give it real life and real world examples of what she’s talking about.”
Many professors use videos to give examples of their lesson plans just to give the students a different perspective, and it changes up the lesson plan for them as well.
“Sometimes it can get real repetitive like just sitting there in class and just listening all the time and her just lecturing about all these laws that we’ve never really experienced,” Harrison said. “For me it really does help especially in her class. Such as learning the different examples through different videos.”
For students that don’t like sitting in a classroom and taking notes off of a slideshow, feel as if the movie can be helpful because they are able to get that visual feel of the lesson.
“Some students don’t just like taking notes all day the video can give them something else to look instead a slideshow full of nights,” Kyle Tinius, senior Sports and Exercise Science major, said. “I think it can be beneficial.”
Some students like the idea of having a video to watch in the classroom but only if it’s related to the topic of what they are learning or have been learning. If the movie is “pointless” then some students feel like they’re wasting their time.
“If it gives an example of what the teacher is talking about then I feel like the teacher should use it when that’s the case,” Aaron Blair, senior Sports and Exercise Science said. “But I’ve been in classrooms where I almost feel like teachers play movies just because they don’t want to make a lesson plan for the day and I mean that’s obviously not good.”
Tinius also said that when some professors put on a movie not related to the topic then he finds it to be a waste of time.
“I’ve been in classrooms where teachers put on a video that isn’t really relevant and it just seems like they’re just trying to waste time to get through the lecture,” Tinius said.
Some professors think using movies can be helpful in the classroom and adding a lecture to the movie as well.
“I think that using media in classrooms is really valuable and it really speaks to the expectations of the typical millennial,” Dr. Sarah Vartabedian, Professor of Communication, said. “I think that they want some lectures, some application, and a little media and kind of put it all in one typing context and I think it’s a real great teaching tool.”
Vartabedian supports using media in the classroom, for both level of classes, because it is an additional way to help someone understand a lecture.
“It can apply to anyone and I think at least for me, using media for millennials is particularly valuable because you can kind of a punctuate ideas where as with an older generation I can lecture a little longer and maybe do some sort of application with a movie or an activity.” Vartabedian said. “With millennials, a little seven minute lecture then media then seven more minutes and then media. It’s helpful to break it up and keep people’s attention.”
