Mission Impossible: My New Teaching Assignment (VideoSharing Part-1)

August 29, 2009 8:37am
Welcome back Mr. Chan. Here is your teaching assignment for this coming school year. Multimedia Studies 20, Multimedia Studies 30, Financial Management 10, Financial Management 20, Financial Management 30. Oh, the Financial Management 20s and 30s will be in a combined class. Computing Science 10, Computing Science 20, Computing Science 30. Since they are closely related, we will also combine the 20s and 30s. Office Studies 10, Office Studies 20, Office Studies 30. Since there are only a few students in each course, we’ll put them in with your Computing Science 20/30 class. How about we just call this section a ‘dog’s breakfast’?

So what is a CTS teacher with multiple preparations to do? How can video sharing be a possible knight in shiny armour coming to my rescue?



As I started thinking about this blog topic, some of my casual conversations over the past year with my colleagues came back to mind as I assumed my role as Technology DH. How about the use of an electronic resource repository as a means of banking resources that will allow for just in time(JIT) learning? I had dialogued with some of the math teachers to record some of their lessons onto video and then post them onto our school network where students absent from class could go to watch the lesson and/or students could review the lesson outside of class time.

But now as I face my own daunting teaching assignment, maybe video sharing can also help my students and their learning. Students in more advanced levels could make use of web2.0 tools like YouTube or Viddler to easily record clips of video that teach the viewer on how to perform a certain skill or task. For instance, a student in Multimedia Studies 10 might need to know how to operate a particular model of digital SLR camera that they are not familiar with. Now instead of raising their hand and waiting for the teacher to give them a quick mini-lesson, they can now search the repository and watch the short clip that was recorded by a previous student. Screencasting is similar but now a more advanced student can record how to perform a task on a computer and simultaneously record an audio track narration to go along with the visual of the computer screen. Again the video can be saved to the repository and viewed by others. Wow, students teaching students and students learning when they feel compelled to learn. Students could generate their own how-to videos or can link to other sources! With the Web 2.0 tools being free to download and install and a simple webcam or digital video recorder now being affordable, every student can now become a teacher. Teachers are no longer the only ones who can do the teaching.

I came across Viddler.com just by accident during my research into video sharing. Yes, many (free) sites allow you to post your videos and allow others to view your videos. But what really excited me was that Viddler.com seemed to allow you to easily either upload a recorded video file or record video directly to the website! Almost any video file format is supported. Nothing to install on my workstation except the software for a webcam and Adobe Flash 9 player(also a free download). So, I completed the standard registration and gave it a try. Right away, the website detected and activated my Logitech webcam. It gave me the option of what quality I wanted to record in(low/medium/high). Then I pressed the record button and voila, I recorded my first direct to website video. Check out my very first effort!

Uploaded videos can be made either public, shared, or private. Groups can be formed and communities established on this site.

So why did I choose Viddler.com? YouTube also has the same features. Because most school districts still block YouTube but chances are Viddler.com may come in under the radar and not be blocked. Viddler can support a wide array of file types but you are limited to 500 MB per file with no limit on number of clips. YouTube is a bit more limiting on file types but allows for up to 2 GB or 10 min video clips. From the readings that I’ve done, many experts recommend that the clips should be kept short in length anyways– possibly due to short attention spans of many students. Neither YouTube nor Viddler have video editing capabilities so to any post-production editing will require the use of another software. Likely, there are freebies available on the internet but also Windows/Apple computers usually come with a basic video editing program such as iMovie or Windows Movie Maker.