Mar 2 2008

‘How To’ Videos Come of Age…

So is YouTube all there is? Even though it has only been three years since YouTube led the streaming video world into the new millennium, time does not stand still and over those three years there has been a diversification in new websites showing and displaying a much more specific variety of videos for your viewing. Educationally these sites allow great opportunities in a variety of ways including the ability for students to understand the complexity of multimedia and its advantages and disadvantages in learning along with the ability for them to learn almost anything independently.

Not only can it be a learning tool to pick up how to tween within Flash MX but also it now allows students an ability to create something that can effect people throughout the world. The moving image as suggested was once a medium that only those with expensive equipment and expert know how could do, but now with the democratisation of the medium due to the price of hardware needed and easy ways to publish any one can be a film maker including your students. Below are some of the video sites that are now available for students to peruse and find videos showing how-to solve problems both serious and silly.

Linking these videos to other areas than independant learning and the silliness and fun of How To Spin a Penny…might seem a long one. But there are now many sites that also enable students to take the use of video in more serious and collaborative ways. Pangea day showed this with a wonderful site and competition to produce videos which highlight issues around the world. The BigAsk has taken this idea a little further with the idea of a virtual march of videos….sounds complicated well go and check their website to find out (note I will post mine when I get around to it.)

These video streaming sites, begin to show the power of being able to see and also create videos in which those watching might with such powerful moving images change their ideas and views. Another great site can do similar in a much wider subject area such as ‘Can Technology Make Us Happy?’– the site needs a bit of development but again gives students food for thought and an ability to discuss important issues of today.All these examples along with recent experiences of my own with using videos in modern languages, along with the ongoing How-To video project over at Techbribe suggest the use of video can create many great learning opportunities in the classroom today.

By drtech • Delicious Links • Comments Off on ‘How To’ Videos Come of Age…