Wednesday 20 February 2013

Classroom Video

I'm going to start by letting everyone know that I'm incredibly biased when it comes to video. I've lead two video making/editing projects with grade 7s and a professional development session at BU on making video in class. Making videos also makes up a significant portion of my spare time. If you click here you can see my previous thoughts on video use in the classroom.

I AM going to use videos in my classroom:

- "Educational" videos, like the Perimeter Institute's Challenge of Quantum Reality.

- YouTube videos, like
To provide students with another way of looking at the course material. 
Video can often be a great activator, too. I used this playlist
when going through Macbeth in my second placement. When we finished an Act students got time to work on their ongoing Macbeth project, a facebook profile for a main character. So, before we started reading the next act I played a brief summary of the previous act from this playlist. This got them back into the story and also showed them how other students around the world have interpreted the play.

- My videos, like

- And most importantly, I'm going to get students to make their own videos together. Video making incorporates teamwork, storytelling, critical thinking, ICT and fun.
My dream ELA project is this:
Thanks to Lisa for hashing this out with me last year.
We would study a novel and create a collector's/special edition box set of a video adaptation. It's all the language arts in one project! It would be filled with varied writing tasks: A summary and blurbs promoting the film on the back jacket, critical responses to the novel, film-maker's diary, the script. There would be representation tasks to: cover art, concept art, storyboards, back jacket thumbnails. And then the videos! There would be the feature, a making-of featurette, cast and crew interviews, bloopers (you HAVE to have bloopers, but including them on a separate DVD means half the feature doesn't get taken up with bloopers), deleted scenes, perhaps even a few versions of theatrical trailers and promos.
I feel like using video this way would get students excited to create and maybe even excited to write an essay if it would be part of their very own special edition DVD! Also, to make a video adaptation of a novel requires a thorough understanding of the novel itself: themes, imagery, character, plot.

So I say yes to using videos in class, especially if you can use video to complement other modes of representing.

4 comments:

  1. I remember talking about this last year. Imagine how much fun the students (and teacher) would have creating a project like this. So exciting!
    I love using video in class. They are awesome activating activities, and a great way to engage students.

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  2. "Video making incorporates teamwork, storytelling, critical thinking, ICT and fun." You couldn't have said it better. I love your idea on the DVD. Students who wouldnt normally like the content will find a whole new dimension to their thinking and creative sides when they add that content into technology such as a movie, picture, podcast etc. It comes alive when you have to collaborate on storyboards, promoting and producing. Thanks for the great post. You are so correct, I try to incorporate a video or two of everything I teach. I'm not always the expert :)

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