As we prepared to launch TechSmith Relay, a new enterprise-wide video solution for schools and businesses, we spent a lot of time with pilot site Forest Hills School District in West Michigan to observe how it would be used in the real world. With over 10,000 students in the district, Forest Hill works hard to create active learning environments to better engage students.
What we saw there was not the stereotypical top-down approach to technology rollouts but instead a genuine excitement among teachers, staff, and students. In fact, TechSmith Relay spread like wildfire!
Now anyone in the district with a desktop computer, tablet, or mobile device can make videos, build in-video quizzes, and share content in private, online groups. Teachers and admins can keep track of how students are comprehending new information using TechSmith Relay’s analytics. From music class to American history, learners and teachers at Forest Hills have been amazingly quick to put this new technology to good use.
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Forest Hills staff and faculty are a real inspiration for how to integrate technology deeply and well. Here are a few other insights they’ve shared with us along the way…
Q: How would you describe your approach to educating students in the digital world?
Amy Forslund-Amos, Elementary Music Teacher at Thornapple Elementary School: In school, I was taught that teaching is a three-step process. 1.) You give instruction. 2.) The students do what you’ve instructed them to do. 3.) You give the students feedback. The feedback usually needs to be instant so you give students positive feedback and also tell them what they need to improve on. Feedback is really important in learning music. Technology helps me deliver that feedback much more efficiently. (tweet this)
Stephen Labenz, High School Social Studies Teacher, Central High School: I’m a big fan of cross-curricular education. I think kids learn better when they’re learning from a lot of different angles. Kids are so grade centric, but getting them to be learners and ask why, while challenging themselves opens up a whole new conversation. (tweet this)
Daniel Behm, Superintendent, Forest Hills Public Schools: We are preparing kids today for careers that haven’t yet been created. We’re really trying to give students the building blocks of knowledge and skills to use when improvising for whatever economic situations call for and whatever they want to do in life. (tweet this)
Q: How has TechSmith Relay changed the way students learn in the classroom?
Amy: Before TechSmith Relay, I would have nightmares about being chased by people with recorders! TechSmith Relay and Fuse have changed the level of students’ engagement with music in so many ways. They are able to record videos, share them with me, and then I can watch and assess their play at any time. If they’re recording a video and they make a mistake, they delete it and start again. Students are practicing and they don’t even know it. The more they practice, the better they get at playing.
I am also able to record videos of myself playing all the songs with the accompaniment in the background or pointing at the notes as the music plays. I then upload the videos to my TechSmith Relay account and share them with my students. It’s kind of like having me in their computer. The kids who use these videos are the ones who have advanced and are already learning the harmony parts. (tweet this)
Daniel: Teachers are no longer the gatekeepers of knowledge and information in the classroom. Instead, knowledge and information is accessible in so many different ways, and kids already know where and how to find all sorts of bits and pieces of information. Teachers are then able to guide students and help them assemble those bits and pieces of information into meaningful lessons.
Stephen: I think TechSmith Relay and Fuse are great because they include so many things that the students have to do. We try to get students working in different groups, and getting them outside of their comfort zones by getting up in front of the class — a lot of things that they would probably like to skip all together. However, this technology, I think for some kids, is a gateway for feeling more comfortable with the class.
Q: How has TechSmith made your job as an administrator or educator easier?
Amy: Instead of listening to each child play during recess, I watch the students’ videos on commercial breaks while watching television at home, in the car, or really anywhere I have Internet. I have a smartphone or I can do it on my computer, it is really fast. Now that I can watch them play on my time, I don’t have to skip lunches or worse, ask students to choose music over recess.
Comparing last year to this year, the students are playing cleaner because they have to play on their own. They are achieving faster and that could be because they don’t have to wait for my time. I would definitely say it has improved their play because they have more freedom. That’s really what the technology has provided them with, the freedom to do it on their own and achieve at their own pace.
Daniel: Part of creating the conditions for people to feel that they have the building blocks to do something great is to have a clear destination in mind. We need to know where we want students to be by the end of our lessons. That starts with trusting and empowering teachers to find multiple pathways to get students to an endpoint. Great educators know where the endpoint for students should be and how to set the learner on the path that works best for them. By allowing learners to figure out their own path to learning, we create the authenticity, and the engagement, with learning. Technology like the tools offered by TechSmith help us customize learning on a mass scale. (tweet this)
Stephen: I grade a lot of essays so it is nice to have it all on there so I can give the students immediate feedback. I just finished grading 89 essays last week and it was a lot faster to do online. The kids are going to be using it, so let’s get involved with that. It’s going to happen either way, whether we get on board or not, so why not be on board and guide students’ experience in a positive way?
Read more about Forest Hills School District’s technology rollout!
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