Adventures in Videosharing

In order to share videos, one must take videos... but much like my experiences taking photographs, it has been quite some time since I last recorded a video. When our daughter was young, there seemed to be ample opportunities to capture those precious moments. Transferring the footage to VHS tapes allowed us to share these special moments with family. But as she grew older, and as technology changed, we stopped... I don’t think I’ve ever used the video capabilities on my digital camera. But with the video sharing possibilities of today, grandparents must be thrilled that they are able to watch their grandchildren grow right in front of their eyes!

Exploring Various Video Sharing Tools

As stated in Wikipedia, YouTube is a

video-sharing website on which users can upload, share and view videos

But because YouTube was often blocked in our school and was known to have some contentious content, I had not considered Davies and Merchant's perspective of YouTube as a “... free space that could be fruitful for learning”. That is until this past summer when I was taking the Inquiry-based Learning course. As part of an assignment, I decided to create a wiki which provided ideas in developing a project revolving around Global Citizenship. Catered to the elementary level, as a launch to the inquiry, I contemplated reading a picture book or viewing a video with the premise, “You Can Make a Difference”.



By simply conducting a search within YouTube, I was able to find a variety of compelling footage that would arouse the students’ interest. And as Davies and Merchant point out, another

... really useful facility for teachers is the ability to embed a video into another site...

Not only can we search and find clips that are appropriate for our needs, but we are also able to collect and store these finds in one “easy-to-access” location.

Using a more critical eye when browsing the site this time around, not only did I notice advertising clips pop up with each video but I also stumbled across several comments that, in my opinion, were quite inappropriate. I was curious as to whether Teacher Tube, another video sharing site, was set up in a similar manner. It also embeds advertising and allows for comments, but seems to cater more specifically to teacher and student created videos. Previewing some of the clips, I realized that not all videos had been recorded as videos but had been created using photo clips and were put into a slideshow type format. Watching all of these clips propelled me to want to make a video of my own. Seeing I did not have any recent video footage, I decided to enlist the help of a colleague who I had heard speak of some recent video footage she had recorded. I downloaded the video clips on my computer but wanted to explore combining the clips into one video. As recommended on Flickr, I decided to try Movie Maker 2.1, a tool for creating, editing and sharing videos.

Movie Maker was fairly easy to use, providing interesting features that enabled me to get creative with such things as transitions and visual effects. Integrating text into the storyboard was a little trickier but once discovered, was quite manageable. Sharing the video, on the other hand, is still a work in progress. Although attempts failed to upload my video onto Flickr, I was able to save it onto Mydeo, a video hosting provider. (I had hoped that the “increase light” feature would brighten the clips a bit more... they’re still quite dark. Sound effects are good though!).


www.mydeo.com/videorequest.asp?XID=3102&CID=308850


Future Use

Although I was initially fearful at the prospect of producing a video, I was encouraged by Richardson's words,

while quality is important, what’s critical are the writing, producing, and publishing skills that students learn in the process

My video is still very much “amateurish”, but I can see the overwhelming potential (and enjoyment) students may gain from taking part in such a project! I will certainly look for opportunities where students may embark on such a challenge.

As for the sharing aspect of the videos (and photographs for that matter) that are generated in the classroom, I would feel more comfortable posting them on Flickr, where we may limit the viewers to staff, parents and community members only. With no technician either in our school or at the board level, I still feel very leery having students participating online and would want to take every precaution I could.

In the past, I have taken video footage of class performances, particularly in French. Thinking about the last time I shared footage with colleagues at another school (I dragged the video camera and all with me), I now know better and will simply transfer the video to a video sharing site and may access it from any computer!

Although I will be less inclined to use YouTube as a tool for sharing videos, I value its potential for providing educational footage that inspires, raises questions, promotes discussion and provides information. Although some of the content may be inappropriate, students may also be taught “how to read the content critically, be aware of how one represents oneself and remain safe online”.