Instructional and Interactive Videos

For one of my courses in the NC State University Instructional Technology Master's Program, I created a short video called Dogs: A How-To on Food and Training. I posted my video on Viddler which allows commenting anywhere in the timeline of a video. I want to discuss the importance of integrating video creation into courses, the tools I used to create this video, my experience using Viddler, and suggest ways you can incorporate videography.

Importance of Integrating Videography

Integrating videography can greatly enhance the engagement in any course. To do so properly takes much time, thought, planning, and resources. When a teacher creates a video for a course, students may be more interested and impressed. It gives the teacher the opportunity to tailor the video to their class needs, something mainstream videos can't do. When students are put in charge of designing their video storyboard, filming, editing, and presenting it puts them in charge of their own learning. This is all part of the 21st Century Skills we want to be encouraging students to learn.

Equipment
The equipment I used was the Sony Handycam MiniDV Recorder and camera stand (borrowed free from NCSU Library) and a $4 Digital Video Cassette that had sixty minutes of recording time. I am fortunate to live near NCSU and be a student in order to rent the camera equipment. If you are not a college student check out your local or school library to see what technology they have available to lend. You can also purchase a flip video camera for around $100. For video editing Windows computers come with Windows Movie Maker and Macs come with iMovie. I have a Windows PC and used Movie Maker but I used iMovie at the NCSU library for a previous video and I definitely prefer iMovie. These are the basic tools that you would need to create your own video.

Video Tips
Before filming your video be sure to have the storyline in mind. I like to storyboard each scene on paper so I know what video footage I need to get. I also jot down the camera angles I want to use for each scene so I don't have to remember what I need to do each take to make it more visually interesting. This site from MediaCollege.com has the different shot types with images and descriptions. For sound and lighting, remember to eliminate too much background noise and always add more light! I knew my video was going to be dark but it turned out even darker than I expected or wanted.

Viddler
Viddler is an effective way to encourage 21st Century communication for students. Whether the teacher or the students post a video on this site it allows  users to comment any where on the video timeline. The video could pose a question that users then comment on or users can comment on questions they may have. This site is free for non-commercial use with 500MB video limit.

Ways to Integrate Videography
Each of these videos could be student and/or teacher made.

• Create a brief public service announcement: http://tinyurl.com/4anzdeq
• Create an oral history of a person relevant to your course: http://tinyurl.com/6few8dk
• Create a news report on local events
• Show how a current event is impacting the local area
• Create a tutorial

Using videography does require additional and expensive resources that your school may not be able to access. It also requires additional time to teach how to use the tools, film and edit the video. Please comment on your success or lessons learned of implementing video projects in your classroom!