classroom videos

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Permalink Reply by Rob Letcher - www.21stcenturyed.com on February 9, 2009 at 8:18pm

Teachers in the online schools I support have taken to creating videos of themselves completing the labs that students are to do, particularly when they include tricky equipment or procedures. Parsing long videos into pieces helps with the upload time, although I have found TeacherTube generally slow as an upload service. Unfortunate, really. I found that a simple $80 investment yearly into my own webspace has provided me with enough space to upload all of the videos I want to the web. I then simply provide my students with a link to them.

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Permalink Reply by Charlie Haffey on February 10, 2009 at 6:05pm

The reason we went with TeacherTube is the universal audience. We have 40,000 hits since 10/07. The video I made on how to fill out a Scantron bubble sheet has well over 10,000 hits alone. I have tried to slim down the videos, timewise, but they are meant o be a guide for teachers in the classroom and I don't want to cut out too much content. But, as with everything else, I am learning as I go along.

Charlie

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Permalink Reply by Kevin H. on February 10, 2009 at 3:22am

Charlie
I gave up on TeacherTube a while back -- it became too slow, it had too many ads in the sidebars and it wasn't playing nice with Edublogs. I used to use Google Video but that is on the way out, too.
Now I use Vimeo and it seems great (I did pay to have an upgraded account but there is a free version, too). You can eliminate any links back to Vimeo, which is important to me because I don't want my kids having anything to click back on. We then embed the videos on our blog or other sites.

My sixth graders have been involved in a stopmotion video project with another school and we have created short movies around literary themes. The group is called Longfellow Ten and the movies are planned, filmed and edited completely by students.

The Longfellow Ten site is: http://lf10.wordpress.com/ and we are looking for more classes to get involved. (contact me if you are interested in joining us)

Good luck
Kevin

PS -- here is one of the movies from my students (an inclusion class)

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Permalink Reply by Charlie Haffey on February 10, 2009 at 5:59pm

Thanks for the invite. I enjoyed the inclusion video very much.

Charlie

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Permalink Reply by Mark Mitrowski on February 10, 2009 at 5:26am

This year our elementary school has purchased two inexpensive ($125 or less) video cameras that work great for classroom videos. Our cameras are simple to use and easy to upload the video to our school webpage. I have produced scripted videos and spontaneous videos and both work great. I use the software included with the camera plus I have used Microsoft Movie Maker and both work fine. The only drawbacks are the sound quality and the zoom capabilities but if using the camera inside these shortfalls won't matter. I have nothing but good things to say about self generated video and the ease in which they are created. There is no end to the creative projects that this simple tool provides. Good luck!

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Permalink Reply by Charlie Haffey on February 10, 2009 at 6:01pm

I need the high quality of the cameras I use, plus I switch back and forth while shooting. I use a remote zoom for closeups, along with Final Cut Express for editing. I am interested in getting kids into flip camera video work, but one thing at a time.

Charlie

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Permalink Reply by Lavendar on February 10, 2009 at 2:02pm

Charlie, I received a Flip video camera for Christmas. No cables or special software is necessary, and you can edit videos by using a slidebar to "cut" fuzzy scenes, etc. We are fortunate to have a new 46" TV that is connected to my desktop pc. I just get out the Flip video, set up the mini-tripod to diminish shaky images, aim it at a kid or group, and turn it on. Minutes later, but usually the next day, the kids can watch themselves. I've used it for many projects. I don't know whether I will put the videos on my school webpage due to privacy issues, but it has been a positive addition for the students. You may want to buy your own Flip or try to get your school to approve a purchase order for one from Amazon.

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Permalink Reply by Eric Biederbeck on February 10, 2009 at 5:49pm

I agree about the us of flip cameras- depending on the age of your students many of them may have used them before and are prepared to do more advanced story boards. We have three on our team of 45 students and often us them for projects to demonstrate understanding- for instance I had students create a news video about a particular biome we were studying in science or my teaching partner is having them do a talk show about an East Asian country. We use Windows Movie Maker to add some zing to the presentation but the software that comes with the Flip is great too. I also use the Flip to film students doing simulations or science labs and share it with parents- for the price (less than $150) the Flip is really a great use in the classroom

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Permalink Reply by Charlie Haffey on February 10, 2009 at 6:03pm

The only way to stay clear of privacy issues is to shoot from behind the students so their faces are not visible, or do close-ups of the student work.

The way things are going in my district, I am going to have to buy a Flip camera myself. Good thing they are not that expensive.

Charlie

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Permalink Reply by Charlie Haffey on February 10, 2009 at 5:52pm

The reason we went with TeacherTube is the universal audience. We have 40,000 hits since 10/07. The video I made on how to fill out a Scantron bubble sheet has well over 10,000 hits alone. I have tried to slim down the videos, timewise, but they are meant o be a guide for teachers in the classroom and I don't want to cut out too much content. But, as with everything else, I am learning as I go along.

Charlie

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Permalink Reply by Charlie Haffey on February 10, 2009 at 5:55pm

Check out Charlie Haffey's TeacherTube home page at

http://www.teachertube.com/uvideos.php?UID=27180

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