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Working with Video

Page history last edited by Mallory Burton 13 years, 10 months ago

Finding Instructional Videos

Teachers have traditionally used videos in the classroom, but this required ordering them in advance from the resource centre and playing them on a small TV. Today, there are many quality educational videos available for free online, and these can be displayed on a large screen if you have a computer and projector. If you have a SMARTBoard, you can pause the video, make annotations, and save those annotated frames for notes! That is a great way to make sure video viewing is an active rather than a passive process.

There are many historical clips and documentaries available online which are ideal for teaching Social Studies. Simulations and videos of animals, space, and weather are useful for teaching Science. Webcams are a great way to access real-time information. News channels host videos of their current and archived broadcasts. Many novels and plays are also available in video form. Video is also a good way to capture sequences or processes such as solving a math equation or providing step-by-step instructions.

	YouTube and TeacherTube are the most popular sources of video.
	WatchKnow is a collaborative attempt to catalogue educational videos. In a great example of social networking, volunteer teachers are finding and rating videos anywhere on the web and linking them to this site.
	How Stuff Works has a tremendous collection of educational videos about almost anything. I searched for "life cycle" and got 106 videos on the life cycle of frogs, butterflies, bananas, stars, etc. The geography section has an astounding collection of Canada videos introducing the provinces and the geographical regions.
	NeoK12 is another great collection of kid-safe videos.
	During the online session Rae recommended Alberta Math Spy Guys as a source of instructional math videos with accompanying printable activities and glossary. Her team has had success importing the printable activities to the SB using the NB virtual printer.
	Schools can also order subscriptions to sites such as Brainpop and United Streaming (available in BC through ERAC) which provide instructional and informational videos. Brainpop always has a selection of free videos that you can use with your students. Teams who trialed Brainpop in year 1 reported that they were good quality, the students found them engaging, and it was nice to have an "instant" lesson on just about any topic. Rae's team is using Brainpop this year and reports they are very popular with their middle school students. Students who are away can log in to watch the same video the class is watching and complete the accompanying downloadable activities. During the session Wayne recommended Learn 360 which is in use at his school. Wayne reports that the videos are high quality and linked to the BC curriculum.

Here is a downloadable list of resources for using Video in the Classroom.

Video Formats

When you are buying a camera that records video clips, you will save yourself a lot of hassle with conversion if you check the specifications to make sure your video recorder uses the same format as your operating system. For most classroom purposes, you will be working with files of the AVI and WMV type on Windows and the Quicktime and MPEG4 type on Mac. Buying a Camera

Hover your mouse over a Windows file to see its size. Select a Mac file and choose Get Info under the file menu to see its size.

Here's an online explanation of the most common video formats. The most common types are:

File Type	Description of File Type
AVI	is a large file high quality file type used mostly on Windows and on some models of the Flip video camera
WMV	is a smaller file type created by using Windows Movie Maker
MOV	Quicktime is an extremely high quality large file used mostly on the Mac
MPEG	is a smaller compressed file type used by iTunes and the Flip HD video camera
FLV	is a popular flash video format used on both Mac and Win platforms; used by TeacherTube and SMARTBoard

Downloading Videos

Videos are large! They take time to download and require lots of storage space. Copyright may also be an issue, so it's often better just to link to them. However, sometimes you don't have access to the internet and may want to download certain short videos.

	You can download YouTube videos using the free downloadable Tooble (Mac and Windows.) Paste the url of the video into the bar at the top and click the blue arrow to start the download. After the download, you can export the video in .mp4 format, which will play on your computer or on an iPOD. You can access 20 other sites including TeacherTube with the paid Pro version ($5.99).
	YouTube Video Downloader is a shareware program ($30) that allows you to download YouTube Videos in a number of formats.
	For serious computer geeks with lots of time on their hands...often the real location of the streaming video is hidden behind the website interface; the free URL Snooper finds the source of the video.
	Here are instructions for downloading files from YouTube, Teacher Tube, and United Streaming and converting them to the .mp4 format that will play on an iPod.
	The GooTube utility allows you to input a url and download an .flv version of video.

Converting Video Files

	The free Windows Movie Maker that comes with Windows can convert AVI files to WMV format.
	On the Mac, Quicktime and iMovie can be used to convert MOV files to MPEG4.
	There are also free video converters such as Prism (Windows and Mac) that will convert downloaded videos into many formats.
	The free online utility Zamzar can also be used to convert from one file type to another. After Zamzar converts a file, it sends you an email with a link to a url where the file is available for download for 24 hours.

Video in Notebook Software

There are several instructional videos and many flash activities in the NB Gallery. Search for the keywords "flash" and "video" to view items of this type.

You can create videos of your lessons in progress using Notebook Page Recorder and SMART Recorder. For example, you can solve an algebra equation and preserve that as a movie that can be played back. With a microphone, you can also record your voice.

As you play any video using the SB as a screen, you can always pause it, make annotations using the floating pen tools and capture those to NB software. The SMART video player does this in a nicer "package" but there are some issues with file types.

If you play a video using the SMART video player, the video will pause when you pick up a pen. You can make annotations on the video and save these to NB pages. You are supposed to be able to paste in a url and get this to work with a streaming video. I'm not having any luck with youtube videos because the real streaming url is hidden behind their interface. However, the SB Video Player works very well with videos on your own machine if they are in .avi, .wmv, or .mov format. For example, it plays my Flip videos in .avi format very well.

You can embed the .flv flash type of video in Notebook software. The GooTube utility allows you to input a url and download an .flv version of video that can be inserted into NB. The program documentation for Notebook says that if you want to use other video types in Notebook, you will need to install additional encoders. Just remember that embedding video files rather than just linking to them will greatly increase the size of a Notebook (or any other) file. Often, it's better just to link to the file on the Internet or your desktop. To link an object in a Notebook file to a website or video that will open, right click the object, choose Link, url, and paste in the address.

Creating Videos

Shooting video at the highest quality setting results in the largest file sizes. The HD setting available on some Flips is probably overkill for most classroom uses and may result in huge file sizes. Here are some tips for reducing the size of AVI and WMV files.

You can leave your video footage in unedited format and simply play it on your own computer. Or, you can edit the footage produce your own movies using the free Windows Movie Maker utility on PCs and iMovie on the Mac. These programs allow you to add Title pages, credits, annotations on the screen, splice clips together or delete portions of your raw footage, add a music or voice over soundtrack, etc.

	Many of you have purchased the Flip Video recorders. Aren't they great! This ppt describes 35 ways to use the video recorders.
	At DotSub, you can add subtitles to your videos and translate those subtitles into different languages.
	Viddler allows you to add comments to videos.
	The free program Xtranormal allows you to select backgrounds and characters, type in text, animate your characters, and create instant movies. Teams in year 2 reported success motivating very reluctant writers with this engaging program.