Key Concept 14
DIGITAL VIDEO
14.1 Candidates will be able to create screencasts for instructional purposes and/or professional development.
Throughout this program, our instructors have encouraged our cohort to think of creative ways we can use to technology to instruct our colleagues and our students. One of my favorite tools is the screencast. My first screencast was on the platform Screencast-o-Matic, but I have since graduated to Screencastify for its ease of use, its low premium membership price, and its quality. My artifact below is actually a YouTube playlist of screencasts tha I have created. Some of these are rudimentary, and one early screencast doesn't even have sound. But as I have become better at creating screencasts, I have made them more engaging for my viewers.
My primary use of screencasts now is information. My students and colleagues often have questions about how to do something with a piece of technology, be it our school's LMS or a platform like Voxer or Twitter. I find that by creating screencasts for them which they can access any time, day or night, helps them learn on their own schedule. If they still have questions, I make myself available, but often these screencasts give them exactly the information they need to overcome barriers and obstacles.
Now, screencasts are enjoyable for me to make, and I have even had students complete projects in which they create screencasts, and they find it a great presentation, tool, as well.
14.2 Candidates will be able to create live videos for instructional purposes and/or professional development.
Live videos used to give me nightmares. I saw other people create them, and I marveled at their poise and presence. Then I began meeting people in my PLN whose live videos I had seen and I realized that they were only doing their best. They weren't perfect, and many of them confessed to their own fear and discomfort in making the videos. It was then that I learned that sharing via live video was another way to connect more personally with my PLN, so when I had the opportunity, I created a video as opposed to a voice recording or a text-based response so I could practice.
The playlist below contains live videos of all kinds. Some are responses to questions I have been asked in our program, ranging from whether we can define online learning as transformative to judging myself on iNACOL standards and competencies. Included is a live webinar I did with colleagues and a Periscope video I created for EduMatch. As you can see, I am still not a master of this genre, but I feel I communicate my positions well and engage the viewer, and that is what live video is all about.
My live videos tend to be about professional development, my own and my colleagues, but in the future I would like to employ this method of sharing with my students content instruction and engaging directions and introductions to course materials. If I were to ever go online or blended with my teaching, the idea of live video would become a staple, a way for me to connect with my learners and them with me. I have experiemented with this a bit with Flipgrid and my students really enjoy it. I would love for that platform to become the foundation on which I build a large library of videos that range from introductions to responses to literature to deeper, ongoing discussions about the literature we are reading.
14.3 Candidates will be able to create interactive videos to meet learning objectives or professional development needs.
Early in the EdTech Master's Program, in my ET605 Tech Spotlight, I discovered Edpuzzle. Edpuzzle in an interactive video tool that allows users to create or upload public videos and then add audio tracks, audio notes, and reflective questions. The purpose of this platform is to help guide students as they watch these videos toward the objectives or the learning you hope they gain. I began using it for my classes at MSJ in 2017, and since then I have continued creating Edpuzzles for my students. I usually introduce a topic with them, and Edpuzzle helps me keep track of who has watched the video and delivers their answers to my questions to me. This tool would work extremely well in the flipped and/or blended classroom.
Below are four of my Edpuzzles. The first is on Chigozie Obioma, the author of one of the novels we read in World Literature, The Fishermen. The Edpuzzle helps students understand some of the culutural differences between America and Nigeria. The second Edpuzzle asks a more philosophical question about the protagonist of Into the Wild, a book we read for summer reading in American Literature. This Edpuzzle explores whether or not the real-life main character should be considered heroic or tragic, and it is designed for use after students complete the novel. The third entry is an interactive final four minutes of the film version of Of Mice and Men. I ask the students to consider how the filmmaker apporached this scene and what imagery and symbolism they can gather from it. Finally, the last Edpuzzle focuses on a speech Frederick Douglass delivered at a July 4 celebration. My African American Literature class reads this and then watches this adaptaion of the speech with James Earl Jones reading it. We discuss the literary device of irony and how Douglass evokes this, and the interactive portions of the Edpuzzle focus on this.
Overall, this simple tool helps me provide a multimedia, interactive way to help stdents meet learning objectives, and I can see using it in the future to help colleagues through some of my screencasts as they learn new technology tools. The possibilities are truly endless.