A Web of teaching

Missing class or forgetting a concept is no longer an excuse for not keeping up in at least two Woodland Park High School classrooms.

Science teachers Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams this year began converting their classroom lectures into video podcasts.

The basketball player who misses chemistry because of an away game doesn’t miss class, because it’s on her iPod. The study group that gets stuck on how to balance an equation can head to the Internet and watch the teacher do the example problem again.

Bergmann demonstrated how he starts with a PowerPoint presentation of his lessons and adds notes and diagrams to it as he teaches.

“It’s essentially a mouse,” Bergmann said while demonstrating writing on a special wireless tablet that feeds notes into the PowerPoint, “but it’s more than a mouse.”

A wireless microphone records his lecture along with comments and questions of students in class.

Everything from the lesson is turned into a podcast and posted on the Web.

In August, Bergmann and Sams will teach a class for other Woodland Park teachers about how to use projectors, wireless tablets and podcast technologies.

If students can’t understand the notes they took in class, Sams said, they can watch the podcast and see each step the teacher went through to solve a problem.

“They can back it up. They can watch it again,” Sams said.

And it isn’t just Woodland Park students watching the podcasts.

“Parents, kids all over the world can watch me teach,” Bergmann said.

A girl from California e-mailed Bergmann to let him know she found the podcasts on the Internet and used them to review for her Advanced Placement chemistry test when her teacher decided not to.

“It was cool she was able to get the help she needed,” Bergmann said.

Teachers have also found the podcasts while searching the Internet and sent messages to say they liked the lessons or to correct Bergmann if he made a mistake, he said.

Next school year, Bergmann and Sams said they plan to try something new with the podcasts. They said they’ll tape their lectures in advance and have students watch the podcast for homework.

When students get to class, they can have specific questions for Bergmann and Sams to answer and be ready to jump into hands-on labs and activities.

“We think we’ll be able to do twice as many labs,” Sams said.

Doing work in class means students stuck on a problem can immediately ask the teacher, rather than wait until class the next day, Sams said.

If students don’t have an iPod, Bergmann said the podcasts can be converted to a DVD.

Sams said he is considering writing a grant application for flash drives, so students could download the podcasts to watch on computers at home, school or the public library.

Bergmann and Sams plan to keep data on whether student achievement improves under the new system.

The teachers said they aren’t computer whizzes but have found things that work in the classroom.

Bergmann, a 21-year teaching veteran, taught in the Cherry Creek School District in Denver; Sams came from Southern California. He’s taught for six years.

This past school year was the first year teaching in Woodland Park for both of them.

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0394 or shari.griffin@gazette.com