Today's class was meant to be a wrap-up, a finale for both the projects and the major ideas I was trying to get across. After seeing how excited the students had gotten while working in the lab I was very excited to see the final products, and honestly was shocked at the level of quality in some of the work I saw.
There were of course technical difficulties abound since edmodo is relatively new technology for everyone involved. I got lost navigating the class page, some of the videos wouldn't download because of the format they were saved in, and some of the students sent their videos to the wrong page. We managed to correct several of these issues but it cut into class time, which was disappointing.
Nonetheless, the work displayed was, overall, quite good. One group made a video that honestly looked professional enough to be placed on television. Their editing was superb and they demonstrated an understanding of the material by highlighting their main argument and their supporting facts. One student, working alone, even built time into the video to weigh the other side of an argument, which I believe is the mark of college-level reasoning.
I'm not sure how efective the final discussion was because I was anticipating a lot of back and forth, and didn't get a whole lot. I did, however, get a chance to get the students to reflect on the influence of media on their opinions, and I can tell from the video evaluation sheets handed in that I at least got my point across to some of them and challenged them to think critically about politics and the media.
The final class ended very cordially. The students gave me a round of applause and a few wished me well with my teaching career, which is certainly satisfying. For a first effort at a high school class teaching a high school level unit I have to say I'm pleased. The students produced good work and demonstrated an understanding of my points. Moreover, I managed to help a few become more effective arguers, and helped a few more refine their political beliefs by challenging them to research them and express them in a reasonable, respectful manner. Overall though, I'd say the most learning happened on my part. This unit has helped me shape my teaching style, understand high schoolers more, and has helped me discover some great new ways that I can incorporate modern technology into a class.
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