TV 411: Interesting, Educational Multimedia for You and Your Learners

The best learning occurs when the learner has a passion and interest for whatever they're doing. Becoming literate in English can be a difficult task, and a good way to keep your learner excited and interested in learning their new language is through the use of multimedia. TV 411 is an educational, fun site full of videos and other resources.

Have you ever been determined to learn something new, like a skill or topic of interest, but then gone to open a book or website about it and been discouraged by the endless lines of wordy text? The best part of learning is the joy of discovery, and your learning tools should encourage that feeling, not crush it.


Image Source: The Gallery of Hearts

Multimedia platforms are being used more and more in classrooms and private learning settings today as teachers try to maintain this sense of excitement for learning in their students. Videos, presentations, images, and interactive games are supplementing and replacing the classic read-and-memorize method of learning. TV 411 is a site with a collection of entertaining, educational videos and related activities for the areas of reading, writing, vocabulary, math, science, and finance. The site is geared towards learners - it uses common vocabulary and phrasing, and the content of the videos aims to prepare learners for success in their studies, careers, and personal lives. It will improve not only your learners' literacy, but the cultural knowledge and social skills important for living in the U.S.

For example, this video about the dangers of infomercials is useful because many commercials on TV try to entice people who may be new to the system of misinformation and tricky advertising. If your learner is new to the U.S., they should know about the pitfalls to avoid when buying products from TV ads. Reading the fine print and working out the total cost vs. per month cost, etc are important things to do when considering buying from a commercial.



TV 411 videos have several characters who make repeated appearances. "Question Man" is one such character. The "Question Man" videos follow a generally clueless guy as he tries to learn things like reading a map, avoiding bias in newspapers, and using apostrophes. The videos are comedic but explore very important topics that your learners may be having trouble with. It's the characters like Question Man that make the videos memorable and informative at the same time.

After you're done watching a video, you can find several related online exercises to the right. With the infomercial video, there are two exercises. Both will help educate your learner about how to navigate through the information presented in advertisements to find what's really important. Your learner will build their reading comprehension and critical thinking skills while gaining valuable information that should help their finances. The exercises are often set up as multiple choice questions based on a passage or image. They provide in-depth explanations of both right and wrong answers.

TV 411 is a valuable resource, and a flexible one too. You can build your tutoring strategy around these videos and the related exercises if you choose to, or maybe you'll just use one that you particularly like when you're teaching a certain topic. Either way, the site and its resources will hopefully help you to build memorable, fun, and very educational tutoring sessions.

Happy tutoring!
Kris

Kristofer Pieper
Programs and Social Media Intern, English At Large
Tufts University, Class of 2016


ENGLISH AT LARGE
Literacy and Learning for Life
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