Video Tutorials for the Virtual Learning Community

This weekend I met with the Professional Development Center managers at a CALPRO meeting up in the Bay Area.  We discussed the need to expand professional growth opportunities for our virtual learning community in adult education.  We acknowledge how difficult it is for adult educators to regularly attend workshops due to busy and divergent schedules.  One way to address this issue is to develop more online opportunities to learn.  Read on to learn more about the virtues of online tutorials and view my top picks for video tutorials on technology-enhanced instruction in adult education.  Read on!  Lead on!!

A free online video tutorial taught me how to blog.  I also used free online tutorials to learn Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher, and iMovie.  Here’s why online tutorials are my choice for my own personal and professional learning:

• You always have them around…anywhere you have Internet access.
• You can refer to them often. 
• You can go at your own pace, skip steps, repeat steps… 
• You can learn in your own comfy spot. 
• You can learn WHEN you want. 
• Most appealing of all to my self-conscious self, you can practice over and over again and not look like a doofus in front of your peers. 
• They’re free. 
• And they’re really quite good.

Here are some exemplary online video tutorials.  Please add more in the comment field, and I’ll add them to the list.  I love video tutorials because you get to WATCH and LISTEN to the expert do what you need to learn.  Then you pratice.  Then you watch and listen again.  Then, eventually, you ARE the expert…and people are watching and listening to you.  How great is that?!Video/audio tutorials on technology:

• Microsoft Word
• Microsoft PowerPoint
• Microsoft Excel
• Microsoft Publisher
• Microsoft FrontPage
• Microsoft Access
• How Martha Learned to Blog

OTAN’s Instructional Technology Assistance Project (best practices for using computer-assisted instruction and Web-based instruction with adult learners):

Windows Media Document Camera/Digital Presenter Uses in Adult Education — Picture Matching  Running Time: 1:52 min. Production date: November 2006 Hongyan Zheng, an ESL teacher at Milpitas Adult Education, shares an activity with the document camera/digital presenter. Beginning English Language learners cut out and organize story strips, and by doing that practice language skills and demonstrate understanding of content. Windows Media Document Camera/Digital Presenter Uses in Adult Education — Magazine Group Story  Running Time: 2:23 Production date: November 2006 Ann Taguchi, an ESL teacher at Milpitas Adult Education, shares an activity with the document camera/digital presenter. Using a magazine image as a prompt, students collaboratively write a story and tell it to the whole class. Windows Media Document Camera/Digital Presenter Uses in Adult Education — Magazine Description  Running Time: 1:17 Production date: November 2006 Reva Larson, an ESL teacher at Milpitas Adult Education, shares an activity with the document camera/digital presenter. The teacher displays a photo and has students working in pairs. One student is facing the image and describing it to the other student who does not see the photo. Windows Media Document Camera/Digital Presenter Uses in Adult Education — Idiom Cards  Running Time: 1:37 Production date: November 2006 Ann Taguchi, an ESL teacher at Milpitas Adult Education, shares an activity with the document camera/digital presenter. Using magazine images as prompts, students create dialogs using newly learned vocabulary and idioms. Windows Media Document Camera/Digital Presenter Uses in Adult Education — How Do You…?  Running Time: 0:55 Production date: November 2006 Reva Larson, an ESL teacher at Milpitas Adult Education, shares an activity with the document camera/digital presenter. The teacher displays a photo of an action or process and has students working in pairs. One student is facing the image and describing it to the other student who does not see the photo. Windows Media Document Camera/Digital Presenter Uses in Adult Education — General Use  Running Time: 1:29 Production date: November 2006 Similarly to traditional overhead projectors Document Cameras/Digital Presenters are used to project an image onto a bigger area on the wall. This equipment eliminates the need for transparencies, and allows for projecting color images and three-dimensional objects. Teachers at Milpitas Adult Education Program talk about their favorite features. Windows Media Audio Card Readers – Creative Activities for the ESL Classroom: Supplemental Activities  Running Time: 4:05 min. Production date: July 2005 Audio card readers can be used by individuals or pairs to practice vocabulary and pronunciation. Beth Bogage, ESL and VESL instructor at San Diego Community College District, demonstrates how. Windows Media Audio Card Readers – Creative Activities for the ESL Classroom: Sequencing Activities  Running Time: 3:56 min. Production date: July 2005 Students listen to parts of a conversation on audio cards, and put the conversation into a sequence and then practice is. Steve Gwynne, Vocational ESL instructor at San Diego Community College District, demonstrates how. Windows Media Audio Card Readers – Creative Activities for the ESL Classroom: Following Instructions and Filling Out Forms  Running Time:8:26 min. Production date: July 2005 Audio cards can be used to teach following instructions in a variety of contexts as well as listening for information in order to fill out a form. Barry Bakin, ESL Instructor in the Los Angeles Unified School District adult education program and a pioneer of using audio card readers for instruction and practice, demonstrates. Windows Media Interactive Whiteboard in ESL: Overview  Running Time: 4:10 min. Catherine McNally of Eureka Adult School in California explains and demonstrates how she used the interactive whiteboard, along with a document camera, for a variety of ESL classroom activities. Windows Media Interactive Whiteboard in ESL: Using Web Sites  Running Time: 3:38 min. Projecting Web sites on the interactive whiteboard allows for capturing screens, capturing and dragging parts of a page or image, writing on the image and saving it, and more. See a demonstration. Windows Media Interactive Whiteboard in ESL: Dragging Objects  Running Time: 3:30 min. One of the features of an interactive whiteboard is that text and pictures can be selected and dragged around on the screen. For example, students can listen to directions and drag the picture of a lamp onto the night stand next to the bed in a bedroom. They could also write their names on the board, and then drag their names into alphabetical order. See a demonstration of activities that involve dragging objects. Windows Media Interactive Whiteboard in ESL: Instructional Software as a Whole Class Activity  Running Time: 1:34 min. Projecting software onto the interactive whiteboard allows the whole class to watch and participate, as opposed to the relatively private activity of sitting in front of the computer alone. In this demonstration, Catherine McNally projects the program Live Action English, and her students drag tools to the workspace in order to build a table. Windows Media Portable Keyboards for Writing ProjectsRunning  Running Time: 18:43 min. Production date: February 2003 Susan Gaer at Santa Ana College Adult Education introduces her beginning ESL students to portable keyboards. The lesson includes teaching the basic functions of the keyboard, practicing spelling words, and writing a short paragraph. Windows Media English for All: Online Model  Running Time: 6:52 min. Production date: 2003 Marisol Richmond from Winterstein Adult School in Sacramento presents her online ESOL class for Intermediate Low and above using English for All online. Windows Media English for All: Traditional Classroom Model  Running Time: 4:12 min. Production date: 2003 Caroline Bjorklund from Winterstein Adult School in Sacramento demonstrates how the videos from English for All can be used in the classroom with Beginning High ESOL students. Windows Media English for All: Television Broadcast Model  Running Time: 9:30 min Production date: 2003 Caroline Bjorklund from Winterstein Adult School in Sacramento demonstrates how the videos from English for All can be used as the basis for a “wrap-around” television class. Students watch the show and call in to practice the lessons. They also mail packets of work to the teacher, and some communicate with the teacher via email and also visit the English for All Web site. Windows Media ABE: Making a Calendar  Running Time: 3:05 min. Production date: January 30, 2002 Debbie Kerr at Baldwin Park does an ABE lesson on time management by having her students work in groups to find calendar information, and then to make their own calendar for the month. Windows Media Using Computers in a Beginning ESL Class   Running Time: 3:02 min. Production date: January 29, 2002 Sharon McMarr at Harbor Adult School in the Los Angeles area uses laptops with her multilevel ESL/Family Literacy class. This short video shows a lesson that included using the digital camera and a beginning writing activity using Word. Windows Media Computer-Based Projects for Adult Secondary Students   Running Time: 3:48 min. Production date: January 31, 2002 Instructors in the High School Lab in Chula Vista have their students using the computer in a variety of ways, including using powerpoint for chapter notes, and creating text and graphics for projects in a variety of subject areas. Windows Media ESL: Making a Business Card  Running Time: 13:44 min. Production date: February, 2002 Susan Gaer at Santa Ana College Adult Education teaches her beginning ESL strudents to create a business card for themselves. The lesson includes warm-up, presentation, practice activities, the dictation of computer instructions, grouping strategies for creating the business card on the computer, printing, and an application activity.