Learning Through Video
Technology is all around us and constantly at our fingertips. Children love screens and engaging with technology from a young age- so much so that medical institutions such as Mayo Clinic release yearly screen time limit recommendations and provide screen safety tips. When children engage in media, it is strongly encouraged that programs are high-quality (Mayo Clinic, 2023). As an educator, I am constantly striving to engage my students in the best ways. Engagement through technology is my most successful tool in the classroom. From pre-schoolers to 5th graders, students get excited when we use technology (robotics, Chromebooks, videos, etc.) in school. The encouragement from Mayo Clinic has pushed me to reflect on my technology use to determine if it is high quality for my students.
High Quality Media in the Classroom
There are constantly more expectations placed on educators for teaching with technology. Whether it is the educator teaching using technology or having students use technology, the expectation is for students to learn using technology. How do educators teach using high quality technology? Perhaps one way is through video! Ads on Facebook which contain a video are typically more engaging than other ads (Lawrence, 2022, p. 108). Our students will naturally be more engaged through video, as adults are more engaged through videos on social media. What are some ways to use high quality videos in the classroom?
- Find a fascinating video on endangered species to spark student interest in a research project (Strassman and O'Connell, 2007).
- Create short educational videos for students to refer to when going through a math unit.
- Have students create videos to express learning (this can be used for any content area!).
- Have kindergarten students narrate an already-made video to encourage storytelling and creativity.
The ideas above are not an exhaustive list but will hopefully inspire ideas for any classroom as educators integrate quality video into teaching. When educators use emerging technology tools, it "seems to affect creativity positively, and each kind has its way of promoting creativity" (Li et al., 2022, para. 5 conclusion). Whether an educator has always used videos to increase student learning or has yet to attempt to use a video, anyone can use easy-to-use tools like Canva! Researcher Li et al. (2022) states, "with the growth in digital tools, educators have been paying attention to the need for using emerging technologies to appropriately support creativity improvement". Educators, look no further! Using Canva will support student creativity and your own!
Want to know the Canva video basics? Watch the video below!
Canva has been an instrumental tool in my classroom this year. From making flyers for Fall STEAM Night, designing t-shirt logos, and creating a presentation for our school stakeholders, it has a template for everything! Canva helped me transform an introduction video I recently made. Before using Canva to enhance my video, it needed to be more varied and engaging to everyone. Now, the introduction video is engaging because of the presentation template I was able to use. Pictures can be inserted for engagement, music to enhance the sound aesthetic, and more! Watch my new and improved video below!
Lawrence, Dan. (2022). Digital writing: A guide to writing for social media and the web. Broadview Press.
Li, Y., Kim, M., & Palkar, J. (2022). Using emerging technologies to promote creativity in education: A systematic review. International Journal of Educational Research Open, 3, 100177. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedro.2022.100177
Screen time and children: How to guide your child. (2024, June 19). Mayo Clinic. https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/childrens-health/in-depth/screen-time/art-20047952
Teaching Tips: Authoring with Video | Reading Rockets. (n.d.). Reading Rockets. https://www.readingrockets.org/topics/curriculum-and-instruction/articles/teaching-tips-authoring-video
I enjoyed reading your post! I like your approach to using videos in the classroom to enhance learning experiences. It's human nature to enjoy motion and animation (Lawrence, 2022, p.107). You also mention using tools like Canva to support creativity. Using tools like Canva is thoughtful and shows you're dedicated to finding new ways to make learning exciting and meaningful for your students. Thank you for sharing.
ReplyDeleteReferences:
Lawrence, Dan. (2022). Digital writing: A guide to writing for social media and the web. Broadview Press.
Meredith, I feel so behind in the technology world. I hope I can reach out to you during the year and ask for Canva advice, especially since you have already used it in the classroom setting. I enjoyed your video presentation on this particular blog. I don't enjoy being in front of the camera and that would have been a great way to do my presentation. I was thinking about creating a QR code presentation for Meet the Teacher, Canva would be a great way to set that up. According to Lawrence (2022), "...because videos are incredibly persuasive and ubiquitous and a heavily utilized medium;..." (p. 112) Your video was a perfect and eye-catching way to make your presentation.
ReplyDeleteLawrence, D. (2022). Digital writing: a guide to writing for social media and the web. Broadview Press.
I really like your use of Canva here. I need to explore more ways to use it in my classroom, as I have historically used Adobe Express and Spark. This looks to have more professional looking graphics. I agree that teachers need to constantly learn new technology to keep up with the ever changing digital world. Students will most certainly have to be proficient in many kinds of digital media when they enter the work force of the future. "Videos and graphics are key components of multi-modal writing; because videos are incredibly persuasive and ubiquitous and a heavily utilized medium; and because writing professionals are often tasked with creating videos for education, for marketing, for entertainment, and for political and ideological purposes" (Lawrence, 2022, p. 122). Tasking students with creating their own videos for the purpose of learning adds many layers to the assignment and improves not only creative skills, but also their critical thinking skills. "The student-created video is an output and a result of a socio-cognitive process that contains meaningful processes that shape learning. Behind the scene, the students would spend a lot of time and effort to explore the video-making process starting from pre- to post-activities which involved the student’s social practice and cognition, reflection, adaptive learning, flexibility and a sense of creativity" (Anas, 2019, p.40). Canva appears to be a great tool to foster student created videos in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteReferences
Anas, I. (2019). Behind the scene: Student created video as a meaning-making process to promote
student active learning. Teaching English with Technology, 19(4), 37-56.
Lawrence, D. (2022). Digital writing: a guide to writing for social media and the web. Broadview
Press.
Great Blog!! I love how you made your video into a presentation with visuals and text to follow along!
ReplyDeleteI agree with your statement 'From pre-schoolers to 5th graders, students get excited when we use technology (robotics, Chromebooks, videos, etc.) in school.' Even my kinders get so excited when we have the STEAM teacher come to our classroom to give lessons utilizing the Chromebook.
& even your point about using high-quality videos in the classroom resonates with me, especially for younger learners. As Strassman and O'Connell (2007) point out, 'Students can often tell us more sophisticated things than they can write about.' Video creation tools can help bridge this gap, allowing students to express complex ideas that they might not yet be able to articulate in writing.
Reference
Strassman, B. K., & O'Connell, T. (2007). Teaching tips: Authoring with video. Reading Rockets. https://www.readingrockets.org/topics/curriculum-and-instruction/articles/teaching-tips-authoring-video
Meredith,
ReplyDeleteVideo is such an important tool in a teacher's toolbelt. It is a quick way to reach all the learners, both through visual and auditory means. I too discussed how Canva can be such a great tool for creating videos. There are so many great websites and platforms out there now that allow users to easily and quickly create videos that can resonate with all students. Ling et al. (2024) discuss how helpful virtual classes and video can be by stating, "...virtual classes can be recorded or archived, allowing students to catch up with lectures and use them as revision material." (p. 92). Lawrence (2022) also states that a quick 30 minute video recorded on a smartphone can benefit a classroom. He states, "If well-thought-out, they may require minimal to no editing or sound design." (p. 108). Using video in a classroom has so many benefits, and doesn't have to be time consuming and requiring mountains of technology knowledge. Teachers can utilize this tool as a way to supplement the best teaching practices that are already implementing in the classroom.
References
Chan, M., Engkamat, A., Khalid, M., Ling, S., Ling, S. (2024). Identifying issues of video conferencing tools for teaching and learning using the PACT framework. Electronic Journal of e-Learning, 22(5). 91-102. https://doi.org/10.34190/ejel.22.5.3543
Lawrence, D. (2022). Digital writing: A guide to writing for social media and the web. Broadview Press.