Video for Learning Resources
Here are some sites and resources teachers can use when considering how to use and create video for education.
Screencast-o-Matic: this site doesn’t require a log in and captures a video of what you are doing on the computer screen. The best use for this type of video would be if you wanted to show your students a quick video of what to do or how to navigate a particular assignment.
Slideshare: this site allows you to share and embed slideshow presentations. On the site, you can upload a slide presentation and add any audio you’d like to accompany the slide presentation. I might use this type of video to add lyrics to music video when look at music in a French or Spanish class. I could create a slide presentation of the song lyrics, then add the song itself to accompany the slideshow.
Fotobabble: This free technology tool allows you to set audio (record your voice) to an individual photo to create a “Talking Photo.” All you need to do is upload a picture, then record your voice to accompany the image. One way I might use this in the classroom would be, in a unit on describing people in French or Spanish, to ask students to find an image of a person and record their voices describing the person in the image. Another activity could be to ask students to find a picture of a landscape and record their voices describing the landscape in the target language. The only downside to this tool is the students will need to create an account.
Voicethread: This is a great tool, but it will definitely take the teacher a little time to familiarize themselves with the site before using it in the classroom. The site is a collaborative slideshow that holds images, documents and videos and allows students (or viewers) to watch the slideshow and leave comments in 5 ways: voice (microphone or telephone), text, audio file or video (webcam). Voicethread allows users to doodle while commenting, use many different identities without creating multiple accounts and to moderate all comments that are made on the presentation. To ensure security, users can control the settings to limit what viewers can do and control comments. It might take a little time to figure out how to use this, but it’s worth taking a look!
Animoto: A tool that makes creating videos easy for you and for your students! The site allows you to import images and videos, then will do most of the editing for you. You can upload your own music to accompany your video, or choose a song from the music catalogue. Then, you can share ythe video you created via twitter, facebook, through a link or by embedding it onto a blog. Teachers can apply to a free Plus plan (rather than the Lite plan) in order ot have access to unlimited videos. The lite plan would only allow you to create 30 second videos. The free plus plan lets you download your videos (which is definitely a bonus in schools where internet access is patchy and limited. Once Animoto has approved you for an educator’s account, they will assign you a code that you can use to apply for up to 50 student accounts that can also have access to the free Plus tools. I found most of this information on Mr. Avery’s Edublog and he provides some good video tutorials on how to navigate and use Animoto.
This is a video I created for a classroom culture assignment I designed. I made the video using screencast-o-matic, which took a few tries but was pretty simple! The video shows students how to navigate the website “the Art Project Powered by Google.”
