National Education Telecommunications Network

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COMMENTS FOR LAW (4) and OTHER SUBJECTS

     1.  Assumption - That people learn most rapidly in a setting of what they are most accustomed to, i.e., TV, radio, short and to the point data, a dramatic or traumatic experience, repetition, and self involvement.

     2.  Assumption - That all people see and hear the same.   Of course they don't, so allowances have to be made for appropriate classroom seating as well as other environmental factors.

     3.  Methodology - Video taping of lectures, (of a person talking only), though O.K. for some purposes,  were given a poor rating for this methodology.

     4.  Methodology - Getting students ready to learn becomes very important.  An attention step or short activity step, was important.  A relaxed state with students of what to look for in the video, a 5 minute story, a short video, short current event discussions, all worked well.

     5.  Methodology - The TV sequence must be short, to the point, exact, one concept at a time, 5 - 10 minutes.

     6.  Equipment -

          A.  Mounted two (2) color televisions, of larger screen size, ( I used 24" but even larger is better), mounted in left and right corners in front of room. Sight level from seat to TV is suggested to be 20 - 30 degrees.

          B.  One VHS-recorder mounted in closet at the rear of the room, making sure every fire hazard precaution is taken.  I had mine chained in there and still would carry it home at night or lock in school safe.

          C.  Coated insulated coaxial cables (I used 60' for each) going into an inexpensive 2" X 2" signal spliter leading from it to the two TVs; and a small single cable from VCR to spliter.

          D.  Two inexpensive RF converters, one for each TV fastened on the rabbit-ear connection (newer sets usually have separate plug-ins).

          E.  Access to a computer that will run a character-set program in color, producing large characters that will scroll or remain stationary, and can be connected to a VCR.  I used an Atari 800 because it had an RF generator built-in that was computer/TV compatible.

          F.  A portable color video camera with sound applications.

     7.  Program Production -

          A.  The Plan, written down in a notebook.  Write down everything.
               (1)  What is the concept to be taught?  i.e. What is consideration in a contract?
                (2)  What are the absolute things a student must know to define, i.e., consideration.
               (3)  To provide an absolute core concept, sometimes it's best to write your test question first.

          B.  The Computer Character Set Software -  Produce titles for program or consider for emphasis.
                (1)  Inject the character generator for repetition, review, and summary.
                (2)  Inject the character generator for use creating separate titles, credits, and/or thought breaks if desired.
               (3)  Write all of this in your plan.

          C.  More Planning - Ask students:  How are we going to show on video tape, i.e., what is Consideration in a contract; why is it required; what is adequate; is an existing obligation consideration; is forbearance consideration; and is past performance consideration.  Write down each suggestion in your plan and select the best course of action by some means - vote?  Select more than one suggestion?

          D.  Video Taping - Assuming you selected consideration, and who, what, how, you are going to film, and do so.  Some of my best successes happened when we used animals in the film.  Everybody seems     to enjoy animals.  Either my personal dog or a Kermit the Frog puppet, opened each major lesson. The students soon knew my dog better than I did.  Experiment by adding a separate voice.  A contract is usually an agreement when one party says to another:  "If you do this for me, I shall do that for you." The thing which one persons asks another to do in return for a promise is the consideration.  It could be another promise or an act.  It can also be forbearance, which is refraining from doing what one has the right to do, i.e., not playing your trumpet for one week for the promise of paying $20.  To be enforceable, consideration may consist of a return promise, an act performed, or consist of forbearance.  It must be lawful, not already required or prohibited by law, and must be definite.

          E.  Examples for Video Taping - We filmed a Canadian Goose with voice injected saying the things in D above; followed by words put on the screen in large, colorful letters; followed by video taping a young man offering to use his pocket dictionary to look up something in return for scrubbing the floor under the student's desk.  One student brought the brush to school, another surgical gloves for the scrubber to use.  Followed by this, another young lady was shown walking into the classroom late with a small box full of pennies and was told to take her seat quickly by the teacher.  Instead, she emptied the box full of pennies (about 5 rolls of them), slowly on the floor from about waist high.  The students had arranged for one of their favorite custodians to stand by to help sweep up the pennies after the event which showed that Consideration could be just one of the pennies, though it usually is greater.  Even with more video lettering following behind this, this segment took about 5 minutes.  Some 10 years later, I was told by one student in the class, who is now a practicing Attorney, that he will never forget the pennies and ALL THE CONCEPTS OF CONSIDERATION.  I also requested that everybody critique all the performances.  Extra credit was afforded the players and participants in the scenes, but, it wouldn't have made any difference because out of a class of 30, the most difficult of test questions provided nearly straight "A" results.

          F.  Parent Permission - Remember to consider Parent Permission if you are going to travel away from the school; single out an individual for repeated filming; or for any reason of future monetary gain to students, parents, teacher, or school.   I never planned any future monetary gain.

          G.  Nothing Dangerous or Detrimental to the student, parent, teacher, school, District, etc., is a rule that cannot be broken.   Don't film anything or anybody if the situation is risky, immoral,  in poor taste, or anything bordering on such.  I found out that students generally believe most anything if it comes over TV, so one must be very careful and exact.  Keep the Principal informed of what you are doing.

     8. Time for Incorporating this Method into Your Teaching -  Trying these steps above for the first time seem time consuming and one questions if it's really worth it considering all the other time consuming tasks of teaching.  I can assure you, it gets easier and is well worth the effort.  The learning  pace and motivation skyrockets.  Most of my worries were that students who might be sick would come to this one class, miss others, and go back home.  Absences in this class were practically zero.  Surveying other schools within and out-of-state, offering this subject, would spend a week on on the subject of Consideration.  By incorporating the video, I could teach it in 2-3 days plus include a mock trial on the subject, include short segment lecture, discussions, and accomplish testing.  Student performance was near perfection.

     9.  Adaptation of Method to Other Subjects - I believe the video methods could be adapted to any subject, however, methodology will vary.  For example in Aerospace Science, the overall concept was different because it was like bringing the outside world into the classroom.  I would take students to the airport after school to film aircraft parts, fueling techniques, Airport apparatus, and even take students flying in my personal plane to film a lake with obvious pollution, all with parental permission of course.  For Accounting, again it was different.  I filmed my own lectures, short, entertaining, and to the point.  Usually about 5 - 10 minutes.  Accounting requires a lot of practice, but the structured video lecture allowed me more time to provide individual help during student practice.  I filmed the answers to problems and forms prepared by students using a zoom method so images were displayed on TV very large.  I then established an "auditor's pool " with numbers 1-30 + in a container.  On auditing day, a student would draw a number and audit another students work from the TV.  For every error the auditor would find, the number was added to the auditor's score.  The teacher would be the tie-breaker in disputes and would also offer immediate assistance at student's desk.  I worried when I found out that students were more critical than my own scoring and most were getting few auditing points.  The gratifying results came at test time.  Nearly all were perfect scores, which I graded.  A critical analysis revealed that students were greater exposure was created by looking at other's work; they became more cognizant between correct an incorrect methods; competition was elevated; and the teacher became a quasi referee.  Performance was elevated, across the board.
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