Video and Multimedia in the Classroom

Video is a great piece of multimedia technology to implement within the classroom, especially for the visual learner. Visual learners are students who need to see things in pictures and have mental images to retain the information they are learning. They learn best by seeing the teacher’s body language and facial expressions to understand the content of the lessons. The videos or digital storybooks should be from 2 to 10 minutes long according to the University of Houston’s The Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling website (http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/index.html). I really like the following quote I found in Gail Matthews-DeNatale’s overview of digital storytelling: Tell me a fact and I’ll learn. Tell me a truth and I’ll believe. Tell me a story and I’ll remember it forever (http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI08167B.pdf). I think this applies for all learners, not just the visual learner. A story, whether it is a video or a digital storybook, captures the students’ attention and really engages them in the content.

When I think about the ways I use videos within my classroom, I think of indoor recess, enriching a lesson, and rewards. These are the primary times I have used video. I have not had my students create a video nor have I created a video for a specific lesson. In some ways, I think I am a little nervous about having my students use the flip camera (it is already hard enough for me to let them touch the digital camera) as well as being concerned about the students understanding how to use the editing programs. When I think about the price of the technology and the fact my students are 5 and 6 year olds, it makes me nervous. I want them to have the opportunities to use this type of technology but I also would like to keep it in working condition! As I was looking through the 45 Ways to Use Your Pocket Video Camera in the Classroom (https://docs.google.com/present/embed?id=dhn2vcv5_6tv55j7g9) I saw some great ideas that even Kindergarten students can do. After seeing these ideas, I feel comfortable about implementing some of these within the classroom.

During indoor recess, one of the students’ choices is to watch a movie. Some of the videos we use during this time are Leap Frog (reading and math skills), Discovery Education, and preschool characters (Elmo, Dora, Blues Clues, etc). The students love watching videos which have characters the students are familiar with and already enjoy watching. The videos are filled with fun activities and songs. This is also an activity where the students are quiet so if I need to pull students and assess them during this time, I can. I do need to be careful of my kids who are really engaged in the movie. These students do not want to do an assessment during this time. They would rather be watching the video so they pay more attention to that than what I’m asking them do.

I use Discovery Education to enrich a lesson. There are great educational videos. Many of these videos are older which is not as engaging for my students. They do not want to sit and watch a video that is in black and white or where the kids in the video were 5 years old in 1982. I have found some good videos to enrich science, math, and social studies lessons. These videos are good to use after I have taught a new concept and the students may need a little more help before moving on to the next part or a new concept.

If you have young children and have not checked out the Leap Frog videos, I highly recommend you do. The students love these videos. They are great for teaching reading and math skills as well as introducing students to skills they will need when entering pre-school and Kindergarten. The kids watch these over and over throughout the year and do not get tired of them.

We were just given permission to use youtube this past year. I have not spent a lot of time looking around youtube for videos that will help enrich lessons because I was already using Discovery Education. This is something I will be looking more into this year as well as seeing what teachertube has to offer.

I actually did not have a pocket video camera until today. I was able to purchase a nice Sony (I got the Bloggie 4GB) for $140 from Target. It comes with the software needed for the computer. This cost did not seem too bad to me for what I got. Of course, when you need to purchase at least 10 cameras (so students can work in pairs), the price adds up quickly ($1400 to be exact). I have a regular digital camera already at school. The one I use in my room is a Canon PowerShot A95 and retails for $199.99. For the computer, I would need a program such as Windows Live Movie Maker. If we were ever to switch over to Macs, I would then be able to use iMovie as the editing program. We have District provided headsets with microphones which would cost any where from $6 to $84. Ones that I found on the internet that look similar to what we have in the building were $10 which for two classroom sets of 25 would be $500.

As I think about next year, I can see myself using video within my classroom with my students. I think they would enjoy using the Flip cameras to capture some fun activities in our classroom or to help me with assessments. With assessments, I could have the students interview a peer and ask them the questions I give them. Based on their answers to the questions, I would know if the student understood the concept I was asking about or if I needed to provide them with additional support in that area.