In their support for the flipped classroom, the folks from EduTopia stressed the importance of teachers making their own short videos. While a search of the YouTube library (or the other online video archives) of videos may find videos that are "good enough" for teaching, often times there are specific points that are not covered the way you want and even an inserted comment into an EDpuzzle is not enough. Here we come back to the point that EduTopia was stressing: Make your own video, even if it's not perfect.
Here are two homemade videos for teaching poetry to Israeli EFL high school students in one particular school in the Upper Galilee. Nevertheless, students from all over the world have watched these videos over a hundred thirty seven thousand times, many of them leaving very favorable comments in the often toxic YouTube comment section below other videos.
Of course, the videos could have been posted privately, so that only invited students could benefit from them; but the quality of the videos, both in content and presentation, seemed "good enough" to share. You will find that YouTube, SchoolTube, TeacherTube, Vimeo, and other video sharing services are full of such lessons about any subject matter that you could imagine.
Please watch at least one of the videos.
Please watch these two snippets of Russell Stannard's 2 August 2024 tutorial. This is a powerful tool that is easy to use! Stannard demonstrates how to use the free options of Canva.
Create video clips that your students and talk and write about. Get them to make and present their own videos!
Here's an additional Russel Stannard tutorial (OPTIONAL) from 7 August 2024 about using CANVA for creating graphics, worksheets, flashcards, and other teaching tools.
Probably the easiest video tool is the Online Video Recorder, which is part of the 123apps site.
This one way to use the tool for teaching:
Go to the webpage.
Allow access to your webcam and microphone.
Press the red RECORD button to record your video message.
Press the red button again to stop recording.
Check if you are satisfied with the video clip. (If you aren't, you can trash the video and start again.)
Download the mp4 video file, which gets saved automatically in your DOWNLOADS folder.
SAVE the mp4 file in your Google Docs and mark it to SHARE with "anyone with the link."
Screen capture technology goes way beyond just making a video of yourself. It allows you to show your students anything appearing on your computer screen (a webpage, a WORD doc, a PDF, an EXCEL sheet, a PowerPoint presentation, etc.) while you talk over the images. In addition, you usually have the option of showing yourself as a "talking-head," if you want.
This is an incredibly powerful technology for teaching! You can use the video to:
access the students' previous knowledge about a topic,
introduce a totally new topic,
actually teach the nuts-and-bolts of the topic,
summarize the lesson,
help students who missed the lesson,
remediate the content for students who didn't fully understand the first time, and
use it as a review right before an exam.
Not only that, you now have a video that you can use with future students and share with other teachers, which increases the profit from your initial investment of time and thought while creating the video.
It's obvious that putting together a screen capture video takes a bit of thought and effort, so you should consider making this type of video for all your important content, or most complicated items, to show students beyond your current class.
Obviously, a well-made video would have value in asynchronous online teaching.
"ScreenPal" (previously "Screencast-O-Matic" is currently is one of the best free "screen capture" tools for teachers. (The commercial educational versions of ScreenPal offer even more options.) There are others (like the new free "TechSmith Capture" or the commercial "Snagit"), but let's focus on free version of ScreenPal, which is quite easy to use. You have up to 15 minutes of video to do so with the free version of ScreenPal, but remember the formula for maximum lengths suggested by the EduTopia folks (grade level X 1.5 minutes).
You can upload your finished video to your YouTube channel for future use and easy access. Or, you can SAVE your video in your Google Drive and mark it as "SHARE WITH EVERYONE WITH THE LINK." Alternatively, you can store your videos at the ScreenPal Web site, but this option is the least advisable because ScreenPal might go away or demand payment for everything. It's better having your video where you have (almost) total control over it. Unless your school filters out YouTube, your personal YouTube channel is probably the best solution. The chances of YouTube disappearing are very small, considering that the service is a major part of the Google empire, so storing videos in your personal YouTube channel seems fairly safe. Storing the video in your local computer does not allow you to share it easily. Finally, sharing videos from your Google Drive (rather than your YouTube channel) probably demands more administrative work to make sure your students can actually see the video. On the other hand, if you school does filter out YouTube, your Google Drive is definitely a reasonable solution for cloud storage and access.
Here is a section of an excellent tutorial about ScreenPal (formerly Screencast-o-Matic) from April, 2023 created by Russell Stannard. This section explains how to use the tool even without an account.
Please note: When you click on PAUSE, you can change the image. Then click on RECORD again to start speaking again (after the count-down). Stannard shows this in a later section of the video.
After you master the basics of ScreenPal, Stannard's second tutorial is well worth the watch to learn about the advanced options in the free version. Click here. (OPTIONAL)
Please note: Some of the commercial versions of ScreenPal allow insertion of interactive quizzes, but you already know a great free work-around! Make your video with the free version of ScreenPal and SAVE it in your YouTube channel. Then use Edpuzzle to insert interactive questions into the video.
Vimeo is a video creation and sharing service. With a free account, you can easily aggregate images, videos, and music to make impressive videos. Unfortunately, the free account does not allow sharing or downloading of your videos. But you can see the video on the screen, which means you can "capture" it with ScreenPal (or other screen capture tools).
Screencastify requires a Chrome extension, so if you prefer using a different browser, stop reading here.
The free version of Screencastify will allow you to create videos that run up to 5 minutes long and that have stronger editing and other options than in ScreenPal.
ScreenPal is particularly good for presenting material from different types of sources (WORD docs, PowerPoint, Websites, pdfs, images, etc.). If, on the other hand, you want to present a video version of only a PowerPoint presentation, then you can do this in PowerPoint itself. Please see this video tutorial, here and/or read a PDF tutorial.
Earlier in the course, we discussed the differences between synchronous tools and asynchronous tools. But even then, it was obvious that some basically synchronous tools could create asynchronous output. Zoom and some of the other synchronous video conferencing tools allow the "owner" of the session to record everything, or part of the session, and to have the mp4 video automatically saved to the local computer of the owner. Zoom and some other tools also have an option to save the videos in the computers of all the participants of the meeting. In any case, you can upload the video to your YouTube channel or to your Google Drive. You then can let students access the video as many times as they need and also use the video in future classes. You can do this as supplementary material in a f2f class or as part of an online class.
Please watch this March 2023 snippet from the people at Zoom.
Please note: Late homework will be penalized 20% of the initial grade. Your first post is worth 60% and the second post (a meaningful response to some one else) is worth 40%.
Open a free account with ScreenPal. (Please note: This is one of the most powerful and useful tools we will be learning in the course.)
Prepare a screen capture with ScreenPal:
lasting from 30 to 60 seconds (You just have to prove that you know how to use the tool. The products for your own students will probably be longer.)
[IMPORTANT!!] containing at least TWO different TYPES of screens (e.g., from WORD, PowerPoint, Excel, the Internet, a PDF, etc.). This means thinking about the size and location of the capture frame (i.e., the broken-line box).
Including Audio (required) - Presenting a "talking head" is optional.
Presenting content that you would use for your teaching, but this is not required.
Make sure that your video works (e.g., Make sure the volume is loud enough or clear enough.) and then SAVE it in your Google Drive OR directly to your YouTube channel. Make sure you SHARE it PUBLICLY and/or with "anyone with the link"). Your teaching environment will determine your choice. Then publish the SHARING LINK (i.e., the URL) of your video to the Lesson 09 MOODLE discussion forum.
In your initial post to the Lesson 09 MOODLE forum (i.e., along with the URLs):
Please write your opinion of ScreenPal (or whatever alternative screen-capture tool you used).
How easy/hard was the video to create, save, and share?
Would you encourage your students to create their own videos with CANVA (or some similar product) and present their work in class (in English)? Why? Why not?
After watching at least one of the other students' videos AND reading all the initial posts, REPLY to at least one with a meaningful response, including a comment on the videos you examined. (Please note: "I agree." or "Great!" is not meaningful without a thoughtful presentation of why.) Perhaps choose the most controversial or most helpful. If you disagree with someone, please do so politely and constructively!
Please note that the first draft of you Literature Review (of your seminar paper) will be due on April 20. This is the last day of the Pesach Vacation. Of course, I urge you to get this done as soon as possible, but setting a deadline will help some of your focus in on the seminar paper. Like submission of the seminar paper proposal, submission of your first draft of the Literature Review will be weighted as three times the grade of a normal task.