I’ve been tangentially involved with BBC Class Clips for some time. I thought I’d share some ideas for using short clips in the classroom as I’m preparing a short INSET presentation.
1. Write a short critical response – in You Tube style, or following more formal guidelines.
2. Play “stop the video.†Give students three questions in advance and get them to pause the video when the question has been answered.
3. Turn the sound off, so that students can write their own voiceover. This could be recorded using Audacity.
4. Pause the video: guess what happens next?
5. Remake the video using Flip videos (could be done in puppet or stop motion style).
6. Embed the video in a PowerPoint or blog post.
7. Give students a selection of clips, they have to choose the clip that best represents the theme.
8. Sum up the video in 3 words / 3 sentences / 3 paragraphs.
9. Use the video as source material for completing a writing frame.
10. Get students to write down 5 words associated with the video. Save to a shared folder and analyze the contents with Wordle
And a naughty bonus, just because you can…
Geo-locate the video (BBC class clips can be viewed directly in Google Earth) Here’s the procedure:
Locate the url of the Flash video version of the clip and paste it into a new browser page.
Right click to view the source code.
Copy all the code between the emp here comment tags (towards the end of the source code and beginning with div id = player.
Make a placemark as desired in Google Earth and right click to edit its properties.
Paste the video embed code directly into the placemark description.
All geography teachers are welcome. More details at the wiki and the SLN forum post.
Please request access to edit the Wiki, when permission is received, add your name to the attendees by editing it. If you feel brave and want to speak about a resource, topic or issue, please add to the agenda.
We are limited to a number of 20, but have the possibility of increasing numbers; we will also record the meeting so that they can be viewed online. There is a demo facility on the FlashMeeting site. As well as allowing you to test your webcam/microphone, it lets you see what the meeting willl look like. Hovering over various different features (eg the chat, broadcast button, etc.) brings up a box telling you what that feature does. It is dead straightforward and will be well worth coming along, even if it’s as a “lurker” at first!
Here’s a short video to demonstrate AR Sights, an augmented reality application that uses a webcam and marker to display 3D models from Google Earth on your desk. The resulting output is really compelling; models can be resized rotated and moved around as illustrated in the video.
I’ve been meaning to make this film for ages. It’s a simple time-lapse of a day in my classroom. My camera was mounted on a tripod and I used a fisheye lens to capture the whole room. The 700 photos were batch resized in seconds using an Apple Automator script and the film was made instantly in Quick Time Pro. I added the music in iMovie.
The day started with a free period, so I’m on the computer doing some SEN reviews. I taught a lesson on floods to my year 7, then it’s break. Afterwards it’s my GCSE class doing a case study of Darfur, followed by Year 8s looking at different volcanoes. Lunch time is spent with the camera club then it’s registration and a final year 7 lesson.
I need to teach the Aral Sea to a GCSE class tomorrow. Aware of schemes to save part of the Aral, I used the Time Slider feature in Google Earth 5 to check the imagery for the area. Amazingly, the  whole ecological catastrophe is covered by the imagery database. I made a brief  video to illustrate:
Google Earth isn’t just an essential resource for teaching the Aral Sea issue, it’s a powerful political tool and students should be aware of this. Governments are becoming increasingly accountable in the face of unequivocal evidence from the Google database which has revealed slum clearance in Zimbabwe and genocide in Darfur. The Aral Sea crisis was kept secret for many years, and while Google Earth reveals the astonishing rate of evaporation, it is interesting to note that the current image (if it is indeed the most recent) does appear to show a slight reversal of fortunes.
Finally, could it be that Street View is coming to the UK in March?  I’ve heard a rumour
A 60 second public geography film that is the first in a planned series, showing the impact of Olympic decision-making on a small business located on the Isle of Portland.
I don’t own a pocket video camera, relying instead on a combination of a very old digital compact camera, a web cam (which has now been stolen) and the built in iSight video on my Macbook to record classroom goings-on. I am totally sold on the idea of students making videos, indeed its an essential teaching strategy that can result in very deep learning indeed. Equally, using a conventional video camera with a tripod and fiddly controls, followed by hours of editing large files can be quite demotivating.
The advent of pocket video cameras such as the Flip means that video is a much more accessible teaching tool. The specifications of simple one button recording, direct usb connection and instant editing with onboard software all sound very appealing. My Head lent me her personal Flip this week giving me an opportunity to evaluate it’s usefulness and practicality..
The Flip
For the first test I gave the camera to a student, with instructions to film the important parts of the lesson. I chose an individual who usually finds learning quite frustrating. The experiment worked very well – the only instruction I gave was to “press the red button and point it at anyone who speaks”. I was very impressed with the results – the student made a brilliant job of recording the important detail, and even began adding a narration. In fact the footage will make a good teaching resource, and has provided me with some useful feedback on some of my more irritating classroom mannerisms!
Friday, being a snow day, was an opportunity to test the camera in a fieldtrip scenario. Heading into the Blackdown Hills for the morning, I made the following short film:
I think the resulting footage is quite acceptable for use in the classroom. The light was low, it was cold and snowy, but the camera performed very well. It was easy to carry in one hand while snowboarding. Although there are editing facilities in the Flip software, on this occasion I dropped the footage into iMovie for a quick edit.
I’m definitely hoping that eventually we can budget for a class set of Flips at school. I’d be tempted to get the HD version for my personal use, but the Mino version I used is perfect for students to create and edit their own films.
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