Digital Video Cameras in the Classroom: Part 2

Greetings,

Digital video can be a great lesson enhancement idea because video can provide pictures, illustrations, concepts, new ideas, innovation and steps for breaking down projects. With the new technology of the pocket digital flip camera prices pretty low.

The New Pocket Digital Flip video camera can be purchased for as little as $150. If you visit www.theflip.com/en-us/buy/Educators.aspx you can find various programs that will help you get these new video cameras for your students.

When we try to teach and reach students, digital video cameras can be used to capture their attention in an innovative way. Teachers or students can use them to create products for teaching others. When you use video it can be encouraging and motivating with students. Let's face it video usage online has gone up over the past year.

According to the National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers (NETST), effective teachers model and apply the National Educational Technology Standards for Students as they design, implement, and assess learning experiences to engage students and improve learning; enrich professional practice; and provide positive models for students, colleagues, and the community.

All teachers should meet the following standards and performance indicators. Teachers also exhibit knowledge, skills and work processes representative of an innovative professional in a global and digital society. Teachers can teach students how to demonstrate fluency in technology systems and the transfer of current knowledge to new technologies and situations. We can communicate relevant information and ideas effectively to students, parents, peers and anyone using a variety of digital-age media and formats.

Here are a few ideas of how teachers can use video cameras in the classroom.

1. Other teachers have created video clips for video blogs that teach a particular idea or concept.

2. Writing - Use videos as writing prompts. I have listed a few writing prompt that you could use: Imagine if you were the character in the video, how would you feel and what would you do in their situation? Please describe with great detail the video you just watched, as if you were teaching another student who has not seen the video.

3. Reading - Video tape yourself reading words, sentences, a story or a report to the students to demonstrate how to speak fluently or present information in front of others.

4. Language Arts - Video tape yourself using various sounds in fluency with younger children. To see an example of this fun technique please visit: Victor Borge & Dean Martin - Musical Phonetic Punctuation or click down below to see it.

5. Mathematics - Create a video to demonstrate a certain concept or objective in geometry or using word problem solving skills, demonstrating multiplication, division, and fractions. You could also demonstrate how decimals and percentages work by filming you actually going to store and buying an item that is 25% off. You can break down the process of how to figure out how much 25% off is. You can demonstrate measurement of different objects using time, units of length, perimeter and area. One teacher made a video of comparing different items in size to relate geometric spatial relationships.

6. Science - Document the growth of a plant or animal, the changing seasons, weather conditions, science experiments. One teacher created a science experiment using soda pop and mentos. For new teachers, you can borrow a sample of a science board from other experienced teachers to show your students ideas on how to construct a science fair project on a three fold white card board using the following: Purpose, Hypothesis, Procedure, Research, Data, Materials, Results and Conclusion.

I personally created a video with pictures from a digital camera for second grade students last year on living and nonliving matter. I showed pictures of items made of matter on the screen and added my voice as the narrator. The students had to identify the items being displayed as living and nonliving using a double bubble graphic organizer. Click on the play button down below to see this idea.

The students were mesmerized, because they could actually hear my own voice on the video. You can also who how to set up arrangements or a science experiment or safety practices for a discussion. We had a science fair last December at our School, and I used the digital camera to interview the winning students in grades Kindergarten thru fifth grade. They enjoyed the experience of describing their science fair project to me, as if I was a news reporter. Once you record it, you can put it on a DVD and give to the student to treasure.

7. Social Studies - Create video essays on historic locations and show clips of different facial expressions and emotions for students to create a book. You can interview a person of interest, maybe a war veteran and bring the video back to the students. Students could also take notes and document what they are learning from the war veteran. You could also have the students reenact a significant person, event, or speech in history such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Barrack Obama, Cesar Chavez, Susan B. Anthony, Helen Keller, Florence Nightingale or others.

8. Art - Video a student artwork portfolio or you can show the various steps on how the art project evolved over a time lapse. You can also create a video of interviews of artists in the community enhancing an idea, concept or technique in art.

9. Physical Education - Show how to videos and step-by-step procedures to explain a technique or a game. You can also video tape a sporting event and create a discussion about the event with your students. You can also interview coaches or athletes on a particular strategy to teach an idea or a concept.

10. Music - Video student shows, programs, plays, acts and speeches. I used my flip digital camera to record the Holiday program in which prekindergarten and kindergarten students were dressed in a holiday manner while singing songs together on stage. You can video performance techniques, such as the correct placement of fingers for certain chords if you’re playing a guitar, piano or other musical instrument.

11. Speech - Video record speeches and give constructive feedback to students.

12. Business - Video a business and how to operate it as if you were the CEO.
Hopefully these ideas will help you come up with more innovative ideas on how to use the video camera. I know when I was younger I use to watch the Mr. Wizard show, and I would get ideas for science experiments that I could reproduce. I only wish I could have recorded them back then. Other ideas for instruction can be found on the following web sites:

Digital Video Project Ideas
www.chesapeake.edu/library/com101-VideoProject/ideas.pdf

Digital Video in the Classroom
www.zardec.net.au/keith/digvideo.htm

Digital cameras are so common these days. However, it is very important to obtain Parental permission to take and use videos of student due to privacy concerns. You want to not use any identifying information in the video of your students. You also never want to post videos of students online.

Other forms of permission may include the following, securing arrangements with venues and locations to video buildings, performances, artifacts. You may want to contact the place you plan to visit before you get there to learn about photography or video policies.

Digital footage can be used in multimedia products. However when you add different forms of media such as music or text the products become more engaging and exciting! The Educational Multimedia Fair Use Guidelines provides the a list of guidelines you can follow regarding how much of various types of copyrighted works can be used without infringing on copyright laws.

Make sure to include citations and credits in the project. It is always best to get permission for products that will be shared beyond your school. Remember never post videos of students online or on any social networks or any online services. The following online resources provide a wealth of information on this contemporary topic:

Copyright and Fair Use in the Classroom
www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html

The CCUMC, Consortium of College and University Media Centers
http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/tutorials/copyright/

The UT system Copyright Crash Course
http://www.utsystem.edu/ogc/intellectualproperty/ccmcguid.htm

Social Media in Plain English
www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpIOClX1jPE

Next week I will be talking about how to use the pocket digital video camera, including the various parts, set up, specifications, basic operations and some helpful hints and tips. So I will see you next week. If you have used a digital camera for instructions and wish to share your wonderful ideas, please email me at mybarra@verizon.net and I will add it to this blog post. Thanks again, and have a great week!