Enhancing Learning with Texts and Visuals

In my role as an adjunct professor at Trinity Washington, I have the privilege of teaching an Educational Technology Class (EDCC 250). In my class, the NAEYC position statement on technology is a guiding document for our practices. One of the assertions of NAEYC is “Interactions with technology and media should be playful and support creativity, exploration, pretend play, active play, and outdoor activities.” To support my educators in bringing the spirit of this quote to life, I designed a lesson using HP Reveal, an augmented reality app.

 

Using HP Reveal in a classroom involves taking a picture of a drawing, or piece of finished writing, and attaching a video to the image. When scanning the drawing or writing in the HP Reveal app, the video appears on the screen and plays.

 

Bringing this into the EDCC 250 classroom, I had the undergraduate scholars create an anchor chart for the steps and ingredients on how to make guacamole. From there, the students videotaped themselves explaining the steps, featuring the anchor chart and the ingredients. Next, students snapped a photo of the anchor chart and attached their instructional video to it. When using HP Reveal, and scanning the anchor chart, the instructional video appears. The process of making guacamole went from being teacher directed, to being student lead in that students do not need to ask a teacher for information, they can simply scan the anchor chart provided.

 

This lesson using HP Reveal enhances learning with text and visuals because it allows technology to be used to empower students. The teacher creates the literacy and visual component (both in an anchor chart and a video), and the student is welcome to watch the video as many times as needed to be successful in their exploration, activities, and creation.

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In reference to using text and visual tools for parent communication and family support of instruction, HP Reveal can be used as well. Creating the connection between a students finished work and a video of them reflecting on the process, or demonstrating their skill, allows parents to view and observe their scholar in action. This video reflection or documentation encourages parents to ask questions about students’ work, and allows them to see the instructional practices in action.

 

 

Using text and visual tools for parent communication and family support does not have to involve an app at all! Simply making a weekly newsletter that can be sent (digitally or physically) allows parents to know the happenings of the classroom. Including information about upcoming events, lessons, and school functions allows parents to be in the know and ask clarifying questions as needed.