This blog post is a formal evaluation of using student-created videos in the classroom. This tool is perhaps one of the most broadly applicable and accessible tools available to teachers and it certainly has inexpensible utility. My assessment of this tool comes from the PLN edutopia.com. A strong overview of the four main uses of this technology tool can be found here at https://www.edutopia.org/article/student-created-videos-classroom.
Since the topic of the module we are studying at Fort Lewis College is “Students as Collaborators,” I thought that student-created videos would be a perfect tool to look into for the day. By having students watching and creating videos, interaction with the subject matter goes from something relatively superficial to something personalized and intimate. In my experience, students love assignments in which they are required to create videos because it allows them to explore their creativity and make something totally unique. A mentor of mine often tells us that she is not a creative lesson planner but tries to keep assignments as open-ended as possible in order to allow her students to be as creative as possible. When a student comes up with a unique idea, she sees it as her duty to encourage them to run with it. I like the idea of student-created videos exactly because of this open-ended nature. According to my PLN, edutopia, there are four main uses for student-created videos: learning product videos, response videos, reflection videos, and tutorial videos. Each of these are unique and all of them provide opportunities for students to dive deeply into the material. You can read more about them in the aforementioned article written by Courtney Sears just this last September. Jon Spencer’s article, “10 Tips for Global Collaboration,” mentions that student choice is seen very differently from teacher to teacher. In other words, every teacher seemed to have a different opinion about whether or not students should be given multiple chances on assessments and also disagreed about what the role of cooperative projects should be in the classroom. One of the tips that he suggests for global collaboration is using asynchronous tools. This has become obvious to me as well as I continue my educational studies in an online format. Student created videos are an excellent example of asynchronous tools that circumvent to drawbacks and limitations of time and space. Global collaboration is but one of the many possible uses for student-created videos. Jefferey Carpenter’s article, “The Virtual Workroom,” talks about about the benefits of social media use in the classroom. One of the more memorable sections of the article speaks about how a certain teacher felt very lost and unable to transform lessons until they discovered a certain hashtag used by a PLN. What I gained from this article is that social media (there are 54 listed sites in the article) can be incredibly useful in transforming lessons. I feel as though one of the main features of using social media is to create videos in order to overcome the aforementioned limitations of time and space. With the ease and availability of creating videos in the modern world, as well as our responsibility to teach digital citizenship and literacy, I would recommend that students in all classrooms have some form of video-creation. In regards to students learning in the 21st century, videos are the epitome of modern learning. At any moment, a student could use a video to look up the cell cycle, learn a song on guitar, watch a TED talk, or really anything else they wanted to learn. Not to mention the fact that making videos is now easier than ever and will most likely be an expected part of any job or academic environment a student finds themselves in. Videos are the fearless leaders of 21st century learning. Student directed videos meet all 7 of the ISTE standards, especially empowered learner, digital citizen, creative communicator, and global collaborator. They also meet the SAMR model expectations of transforming lessons as there are many designable lessons that would be impossible without the use of student created videos. In regards to the TPACK framework, I think it falls to the teacher to integrate this tool in an effective way, especially on the PK side of things. Videos have drawback and can be used negatively if the pedagogical consideration isn’t taken. TQS standard 4 seems to fall to the teacher and TQS standard 3 takes a lot of responsibility to find accurate online information, but if integrated appropriately, student-created videos, especially as assessments, can bolster both of these requirements.
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