Videography

There are so many ways that students can produce videos to share their understanding. A few possibilities are documentaries, book reviews, commercials, music videos, celebrating school events, tutorials, orientations and procedures, flipped/blended lessons, interviews, TED Talks, and news reports whether current day or in a historical context. Video production supports project-based learning and collaboration. Screencasting on the iPads with apps like Explain Everything or on computers with software like Screencast-O-Matic gives students the opportunity to use visuals, annotation and voice to make their thinking visible. Take a look at the "Creativity" section of the iPad Uses page of this site for more information about screencasting.

See below for specific examples of video production pedagogies to support learning. A resource book to help you plan and manage student-created documentaries is the And Action!: Directing Documentaries in the Social Studies Classroom. Classroom created videos can be found at the TeacherTube and the Teaching Channel educational video sites.

As for shooting and editing video, you and your students can shoot fantastic videos with the iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, Android smart phone, computer webcams and even regular digital cameras. You can also use a camcorder. :) iMovie on the Mac and iPad is a helpful editing software for you and your students.


Book Reviews

"Book Bites” is a term that one elementary librarian used with her students as they recorded video book reviews. She had students in front of the camera but students could also do screencasts where they create a mashup of themselves, images they drew, illustrations from the book, etc. with narration in multimedia videos. Here is an example of a "Book Bites" student produced video.

Digital Storytelling, Goal Setting and Reflection of Learning

Lobsterman by Toby Choyt from The Telling Room on Vimeo. An example of digital storytelling.

Video creation to tell digital stories using student recorded images and video along with their voice narration is a powerful pedagogy that really engages students as they reach out to members of their community to record their stories. Digital storytelling supports student learning on so many levels as they use their listening and questioning skills to gain further understanding of individual and community history, multiple perspectives, global awareness, etc. Helping our students to have local experiences helps in the process of expanding their global competence.

Supporting Sites:

Goal setting and reflecting about learning are a regular aspect of our classrooms. Video creation offers a way to differentiate this process while also being connecting to brain-based research. We can have students produce videos to record their goals for the year as well as for each unit of study. The same goes for reflection as the students make connections in their learning at the closure of each unit and at the end of the year. When students put their minds through the process of searching for memories and making connections to build further understanding, they build neural connections. Add in the power of finding images to match those understandings (visual literacy) along with students verbalizing their thinking further develops their minds and their learning. Students can record videos whether on their MacBook with iMovie or the iPad with a screencasting app or iMovie. Students can store their goal setting and reflection videos in Google Drive, their eFolios or other cloud service.


Documenting and Celebrating the Year of Learning including Field Trips

As noted, video helps students individually document their learning through the goal setting and reflection process. One can also document whole class learning that takes place throughout the year. We naturally guide students to be cognitive of their learning so the next step is to have them speak up throughout the year saying "Let's get a photo or video of what we are doing". Whether you assign students to be "documenters of the week" or just have students with their devices naturally recording learning, look to create videos that communicate the learning journey of your class. The videos can be shared with parents to further paint the picture of what you are doing in your classroom. Here is an example of one teacher documenting and sharing the learning with her parents.

Don't forget the learning journeys that you and your students take on field trips. As highlighted in the Field Trip section of this site, students can document their learning by taking photos and video. Another approach is for you, your instructional technologist, or well-trained student(s) to record the overall experience of the trip. You can then share the learning with your community. Here is an example of a Pre-Kindergarten trip to learn about shapes in the city. Please excuse the video quality as it was recorded many years ago.

Celebrating the year through video whether as a class, grade level or whole school is a wonderful way to remember, reflect and appreciate. Here is an example of a year end video shared at the final school assembly.

Newscasts & TED Talks

Helping students make connections to the world around them is an important part of the PYP programme and global aspect of many school mission statements. Having students work as reporters to produce news shows is one way for them to take on authentic roles of reporters, script writers, newscasters, video editors and technical support staff. Besides reporting the news, students can stay connected to world events by using student-friendly news sources like the BBC Newsround to also report on international news in their newscasts. Another avenue for students' news reporting is to have them role play newscasters in time periods they are studying. Think of your students communicating their understanding of the French Revolution as they “report” on it to your school community. This is an excellent transfer task. You might look to use a green screen to have your student reporters with a background that supports their report. Looking to have your students as news reporters, the two sample student generated newscasts inserted below demonstrate the results of how classroom teams planned their shows, found the news, did interviews and edited the episodes.

Videography also supports inquiry and presentation skills when students research topics and produce TED Talk style videos. The following are some examples provided by students at the Mary Ellen Henderson Middle School in Virginia.

Tutorials by Students and Teachers (screencasts)

The widely acclaimed Khan Academy provides videos for individualized instruction that are easy to create. Teachers can create their own using screencasting video apps (e.g., Educreations or Explain Everything). Take a look at how one MS teacher mixes her own videos with Khan’s as she implements the flipped classroom model. The Khan videos will work on the iPad and also can be viewed from home computers. A math teacher in California put together a site called Mathtrain where his students post their “mathcasts" that make their thinking visible to teach others.

The following is a student created "BrainPop" video that mixes digital and analog technologies. There is no doubt that the student researchers will not forget how baby chickens are born. :)

Just as can annotate images using apps like Thinglink, we also can insert tags, Web links, text, etc. into video. You can create your own video to upload to YouTube or find video there that you can make more interactive. Whether you are teaching media literacy, wanting students to analyze a scene from a play or go deeper as they view a science experiment, using an annotation tool can prompt students to really focus to build more understanding. To learn more about using this took, take a look at the Getting Smart blog for more information.


Sharing Classroom Practices & Presentations

Finding ways to communicate pedagogy with exemplars is a terrific way to paint the picture of what is going on in one's classroom. It provides an excellent way for prospective parents to really see the value-added instruction that one's school provides. Documenting learning videos take some planning but they are well worth the effort. If you don't already have a video section for your school Web site, look to create one and populate it with a wide variety of exemplars. The following is an example of a Second Grade Primary Years Programme unit of inquiry.

Our busy parents sometimes cannot attend student and teacher presentations. They can, however, attend by connecting to live video feeds of events via their phones and computers. Google Hangouts on Air is a good way to provide the feed while also recording events for parents and extended family to view. Parent information sharing sessions whether through formal teacher/admin presentations or informal coffees can be recorded and shared out as well. Having a parent portal with listings organized around a variety of topics along with video recordings of presentations is a nice way to support one's parents. The following is an example of virtual parent presentation on ICL that was shared with parents at one school.