Videos in the classroom have power, BUT, we have also noticed that after watching the video content, students have a tendency to lack the comprehension of the information we had hoped for. Here are some ideas to combat this...... These ideas and tools will, hopefully, help you students view videos more deeply and critically. In reading, we talk about close reading. Here are some ideas to promote close watching in your classroom.
One great tool that will help students takes notes and reflect while watching a video is Videonotes. The best and frankly, only way I would use this tool with students is by integrating it into their Google Drive accounts. Why? Then, their notes documents will save in a folder in their Drive account. The power of this tool is that students can put the video URL (Youtube videos seem to work as do other video sources... but not all sources work. Teacher Tip: Test the video before assigning to your students). The video plays on the left and the student is able to take notes on the right. You need to give this a try! I think this tool could have great power in the classroom.
If notetaking online is not a critical skill you want students to do, you might consider creating a Google Form that students interact with while watching or after watching the video. Students will need to learn that watching a video for learning is not like watching their favorite show. Rather, they will pause and start frequently to answer teacher posed questions or to take notes. One teacher created a WSK (wisk) format for student to use when watching video content: Watch, Summarize, and Question. Read more about this here and/or watch the video.
Another great tool that may help when using video content is tubechop. This tool is helpful when you find the perfect youtube video, but it is just too long. Shorter segments of videos are more successful than long videos. Tubechop allows you to chop the youtube video and save only the most relevant part.
Looking for good video to use in the classroom. A great source of standards aligned videos, which can be searched by topic, subject, grade level, or common core standard is Open Ed. This would be my first stop when looking for video content that aligns which the standards I am teaching.
Of course, youtube is a powerful classroom tool. Click here to learn more about ways to use YouTube effectively in the classroom.
How have you effectively used video in the classroom? What videos tools have used and want to recommend to others?
