Production of vodcasts by Geology students of the 12th grade: An experience in analysis

There are various ways to use digital technologies for teaching. In this research, they were used with the objective of making the students design and produce Digital Educational Resources (DER), in this case vodcasts. These vodcasts covered all the curriculum content of the discipline of Geology, 12^thGrade, in order to promote learning and to verify their effects on educational outcomes. To achieve these objectives we have developed, over a school year, teaching and active learning strategies, where students were asked to search, select and critically evaluate information to produce vodcasts and reflect on these processes. The vodcasts were produced taking into account some of the principles of the cognitive theory of multimedia learning and the cognitive load theory for the production of multimedia messages. Students joined with enthusiasm and commitment to this methodology and have made a very positive review, stating that this allowed them to acquire scientific and technical knowledge, develop digital and communication skills, and work in teams, in a learning environment that provided them with a high degree of freedom, personal satisfaction and autonomy. The vodcasts were inserted into a rich technological classroom environment, such as the use of Moodle and the production of ePortfolios. The results of the formal tests in this discipline were quite good (mean = 14.7 points, in a 20 points scale). When compared to the results of students in previous years, with the same teacher, who kept constant the use of Moodle and of the ePortfolio, we noticed that there was an improvement. In 2012, students that used the Blog and the ePortfolio had an average of 14.1 in formal tests and in 2011, only using ePortfolios, had an average of 13.2.