World-Shaker

Just saying.

6 Tips for Successful Mobile Video Assignments in the Classroom →

An emphatic “YES!” to everything in here. These are the first two:

1. Good video doesn’t always mean good audio. While it’s easy for a student to see what their mobile camera “sees,” it’s impossible to hear what their mobile microphone is hearing without wearing headphones connected to their device. In our first in-class interview practice, students almost always hold their devices too far from the interviewee. Yes, it can be awkward holding a phone near someone’s face, but unless you have a handheld microphone that plugs into the phone, the device should always be within arms length of the interviewee’s mouth for good audio. The common “camera position” of holding the phone near your face doesn’t work for video interviews. it’s always more important that the device be closer to the interviewee than it’s to the interviewer. TheMobileActive web site offers more tips for good mobile audio.
2. Brevity is the soul of wit. Tell students to keep their interview questions focused and video clips as short as possible. With some practice, it’s relatively easy to stop and start the recording instead of capturing an entire 15 to 20 minute interview. (That also results in a huge video file.) With the right mobile app, each clip can be automatically uploaded to the cloud while the interviewee starts the next question and recording. In general, students should have only three or four good questions to ask.  If the interviewee rambles for several minutes, stop then start recording again asking the interviewee to summarize in a minute or less what they just said. This also produces a more focused and shorter clip for online viewers to watch later.

35 Sources for Curated Educational Videos →

Here are four (click through for the rest): 

1. NeoK12: This site features free educational videos, games, lessons, puzzles and quizzes sorted by topic.
2. NOVA Teachers: PBS’ full features and magazine-style shorter stories are available here for classrom use.
3. SchoolTube: This site is set-up to serve students who wish to get ahead at home and at school, as well as teachers who want to access digital resources. Teachers can also create their own channels and upload their own videos.
4. Sophia: With more than 25,000 tutorials from a range of expert teachers across many academic fields, Sophia is a first-of-its-kind social education platform created to reach 21st century students.

Teachers’ Ultimate Guide to Using Videos

In collaboration with educator Catlin Tucker,MindShift presents Teachers’ Guide to Videos[PDF], to answer these questions and more. You’ll find a slew of valuable resources, including video links for all kinds of subjects — history, math, science, language arts, and more — and ideas on how to inspire students to use videos as a conduit to dig in, ask questions, and learn.

Awesome free resource. Snag this while it’s up.

How to Make a Low Budget Green Screen 

A great little project for teachers who work with video.

(by techsavvyed)

6 Simple Ways To Use Video In Education →

Here are two:

Show an experiment that cannot be done in class

Whether due to the cost of the materials needed or the danger of the experiment, there are some things that just cannot be demonstrated at school. For these occasions, video provides a way for students to experience the experiment without having to complete it themselves

-Possible uses: rocket launches, flame throwers, chemical reactions

Take students on a virtual field trip

It is not always practical to take an entire class, or school, to an off-campus location so that they can experience it. For students in rural areas, a trip to a museum may not be possible, for others, their teachers simply wants them to experience something that cannot reasonable be accomplished

-Possible uses: trips to a world-renown museum, trips to space, underwater adventures

How to Plan a Memorable Parent Night: Classroom Videos →

An extremely interesting article. It’s not detailed enough to be step-by-step, but more than enough to get you started. Here’s an excerpt:

Scripts

Ask students, “Why do we study music?”

Blank stares usually follow. As far as many students are concerned, school consists of a series of random activities or tasks that teachers plan. It’s interesting to ask students to address on their video the reasons they study what they study.

The next question for the students: “What do you think our parents want to know?” This leads into an authentic discussion of voice and audience.

Finally, students should address both what they do and what they learn. Most groups miss one or the other unless it is highlighted. Why do we play math games? For what purposes do we use computers in the various subject areas?

Students usually want to open iMovie right away. Help instill the idea that “Content is King” by requiring scripts be approved before any video clips are imported into the movie-making program.

SloPro for iPhone and iPad

SloPro (app link) is a fun iPhone and iPad video-making app that allows you to slow down your videos without losing any image quality. When you shoot a video within this app, it will shoot it in 60fps (frames per second), as opposed to the usual 30fps.* This will allow the resulting video to be smooth and not pixelated, like when you slow down video in various movie making software.

Click through for some interesting teaching ideas!

7 Fun (and Cheap) Classroom Projects to Try with Video →

An awesome collection of ideas! Here are two of my favorites form the list (click through for the rest):

1.   TURN AN iPAD OR (OTHER MOBILE DEVICE) INTO A VIDEO MICROSCOPE. For less than $8, an iPad can be used as a 45x microscope to capture still images or videos from leaves, household objects, insects, or anything that warrants closer inspection. With an $0.80 grommet from a hardware store, super glue, and a 45x power microscope (usually found for less than $5), the camera in the iPad or mobile phone can become a microscope. This is how it works: the grommet (think of it as a ½-inch rubber washer) is glued around the camera opening, and the microscope plugs into it. You can see how it’s done on this YouTube video, step-by-step.

3.   VIDEO-MAKING ON THE iPAD/MOBILE. A huge variety of sophisticated video effects can be done on mobile devices — some of which used to require a television studio and entire crew! You can use fun effects like Green Screen MovieFX, an app for iPads, iPhones, and Windows phones, which allows for a color in a video shot live to become a pre-set video. Cinemagram, a new app that allows part of a video to be frozen while the rest of video continues, is also fun to play with. Coaches Eye, which allows coaches or teachers to slow down, mark up (like on ESPN), and comment on student videos shot on cameras or phones works great for assessing videos. And MadPad, a multiple-screen video display that can be crafted into a math, social studies, or vocabulary game is another great tool to play with.

10 Uses for Video in Education (Flip & iPad) →

Here’s one of my favorites:

3. Science Experiments

With every science experiment there are results and what better way to document an experimental process than video. An iPad can quickly and easily record the day’s experiment allowing the teacher to build up a library throughout the year. What better revision resource can a teacher offer than the ability to review the experiment itself via the digital projector or embedded in the subject’s VLE course. All easily achievable in minutes.

On a sidenote: If your school has the resources and decides to provide students with a device to record a school-related event, make sure you train the students on how video works first.

A former client’s school had provided an iPod Touch to some of their students who were on a Washington D.C. trip. They asked the students to record video of what they saw and did. These recordings were supposed to be collected and edited into a longer video for the parents. But when the students came back, the tech staff realized almost all the video was worthless.

Why?

The students recorded all their video vertically (like a profile picture). 

BBC Nature Video Collections →

The BBC Nature Video Collection is a large library of video clips from the excellent BBC Natural History archive, many narrated by the legend that is Sir David Attenborough.

The video clips include some from the amazing Frozen Planet, the latest exploration into the remote and isolated polar environments. Some of the scenes are totally jaw-dropping. For example the Brinicle; icy finger of death.

An outstanding collection for educators. Plus Sir David Attenborough can make anything he narrates sound interesting.

The New English Major →

I was at a reception this week and one of the presenters made a comment about Film & Media becoming the new English major. This was in relation to the growth of our program with over 500 undergrads. Now instead of aspirations of writing the Great American Novel I guess the goal is to develop the next great viral video series.

I let this simmer for a few days and have to admit that it’s an intriguing notion. If this is true, what does it mean for communications over the next decade? Are we seeing a shift from text to video as a primary form of expression? Perhaps in pop culture this has already happened with television, movies, youtube, and the web—but what if it stretches into academia? In fact, we’re already seeing this with math.

I had a brilliant friend when I was an undergrad who was convinced that television series represented the evolution of the novel when you considered the writing and story arcs involved.

Some of you will immediately dismiss that, but could you imagine each season of Breaking Bad as a novel?

jtotheizzoe:

Schrödinger’s Cat illustrated by minutephysics.

Simply THE best explanation of this quantum physics problem I’ve seen. “Our curiosity killed the cat.”

Minutephysics is quickly becoming one of my favorite YouTube channels.

"For those completely new to working with video, Schiefelbein recommends creating a narrated PowerPoint as a good starting point. Once you’re comfortable with that, screen captures are effective for explaining processes that might be difficult to follow in text alone. For example, Schiefelbein likes to use screen capture to show students how to navigate within the learning management system. For complex tasks, where interaction with both the instructor and the content are needed to boost understanding, you might want to try what Schiefelbein calls a “teaching head” video, which is similar to a talking head video but also gives the instructor latitude to use teaching props to help explain a concept."

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Effective Uses of Video in the Online Classroom

This info was gleaned from an online webinar, linked to in the article. There are also some helpful guidelines in there.

To learn about using QR Codes in school, you can also take a look at Tom Barrett‘s Interesting Ways presentation on the topic. Or view this video from McGuffey School District in Claysville, PA.

Love this.