Video Creation Becoming Accessible to the College Community

In recent years, several technologies have emerged which have allowed teachers to experiment with new teaching activities. Video creation, which was once the domain of the professional, has become more accessible and easier to use in educational settings.

Examples of Video Use

Here are some examples of videos used in the college network. They come from teachers’ stories which have appeared in Profweb.

1. In Video Supported Mathematics for Commerce, Matthew Marchant, a mathematics teacher at Dawson College, explains how he works with a digital tablet to create videos using Windows Moviemaker and Camstudio.
2. Rappin ‘on YouTube Calc is a story from Pooyan Haghighat, a mathematics teacher at Centennial College, who created a music video to help his students “rap” calculation rules. The music video is also used by other teachers, including Marie-Josée Drolet, a French teacher at Cégep de Jonquière. Her article, Un balado rappant les règles de base des participes passés explains the creation of videos where the rules for French past participle agreement are sung.
3. In Technology in the Gym?, Laura Morrison, a physical education teacher at John Abbott College uses the videos in the CCDMD’s resource Resistance Training, to help each of her students design a personalized fitness program in order to reach their goals and improve overall fitness levels.
4. Many animations as video clips are part of the site La relativité animée by Stephane Durand. The physics teacher at Collège Édouard-Montpetit uses video to popularize and explain Einstein’s Theory of Relativity.
5. Pourquoi répéter quand on peut filmer?!, is an account of the physics teacher Jean Bourbeau at Cégep de Lévis-Lauzon, who creates video clips to help students prepare for their labs. His videos demonstrate how to handle materials, using sampling devices and screen shots featuring animated software simulations.

Advantages

If more and more teachers are using video as a teaching tool, they must be seeing its benefits! In reading these teachers’ success stories, the following results appear:

• improved motivation and success
• better student preparation
• increased time available for practice
• certainty of a clear explanation
• easier memorization
• large-scale free distribution
• creation of a personal and departmental course archive.

Limits

Since the video is not a tool used by most teachers, it must have its limits! The experiences of teachers who have used the video illustrate the tool’s principal limitations:

• significant preparation time
• complex technology
• requirement for long-term usefulness

Findings and Recommendations

These stories about teachers making videos allow us to identify a number of factors for success:

• Evaluate cost-benefit. How many students or groups can use my video? How long will it take to produce a video? What savings in time for myself and my students will be created? Does the subject remain important over time or change each session?
• Consult an IT Rep. Almost every college has a local representative (or IT Rep ) for the academic integration of ICT who can guide the teacher towards the right choices: teaching methods, tools, equipment, software, etc..
• Choose the distribution that suits your needs. There are several places to distribute your video clips, depending on whether you choose to share your work with the world or to restrict its use to your students. If you want to share on a large scale, there is naturally YouTube. But, why not broadcast your videos in World of Images, an environment designed by the College Centre for Educational Materials Development (CCDMD) for college education? If you prefer to limit the distribution of the material to your students, you may choose to put the resource into Moodle or to upload it to your Profweb’s Web Space.
• Sharpen your skills. To produce quality videos that will attract your students’ interest, you may need additional training. A professional development project on software such as Jing or Moviemaker might be available at APOP.

Do you think video can be an interesting tool to use in an academic context? How do you use video in your classes?