Adventures in Teaching with Social Video created by Jeff Ritter from St. John's School, Houston

INTRODUCTION

The availability of high-speed Internet in schools has made video and streaming media an important resource for the classroom. Bringing the real world in to the classroom is now just a click away, and with the advent of social networking, Interactive Whiteboards, and other ways to distribute media, there are multiple ways to distribute media resources and have students learning outside the classroom. Add free video software tools, and the ability of a teacher or their students to create their own video or build mashups of multiple video clips, and the power of video is ready to be harnessed.

21st Century Skills, Themes, and Characteristics

  • Story
  • Interactive Content
  • Collaboration
  • Student Ownership
  • Formative Assessment

There are four adventures you can take at this station. They do not need to be done in any specific order so feel free to look around. If you have any questions, look for a docent or just ask the person next to you. Learning is a social activity. Feel free to socialize as you explore the world of blogs and blogging.

Adventure 1: Create a personal account at YouTube.com
Adventure 2: Rate and comment on a video
Adventure 3: Create and share a playlist
Adventure 4: Save a video to your machine
Adventure 5: Investigate other possible video and media resources

ADVENTURE 1

Objective:You will log onto YouTube and create a personal account.

DIRECTIONS

YouTube is probably the most well-know, talked about, shared video site on the Internet today. Started by 3 former PayPal employees in 2005, the site was started as a homegrown video sharing site. The site is now owned by Google and is one of the top 5 most visited sites on any given day.

Non-registered users can view almost all videos on the YouTube site, but registered users get added benefits. In addition to being able to post videos, you can comment, rate, bookmark, and create lists of your favorite videos.

  1. Go to www.youtube.com
  2. Click on “Sign Up” in the top right hand corner or “Sign up for a YouTube Account” on the far right.
  3. Fill in the necessary information. I recommend using a dummy email address from Yahoo! or Gmail. Be sure to check or uncheck whether you want others to be able to find you.
  4. Once you have created your account, sign in if it didn’t do it for you automatically.
  5. Now search for a topic you are interested in. If you can’t think of a topic, then do a search for “Digital Ethnography” and click on the link for “A Vision for Students Today.” The video should start on its own.

Congratulations! You have just entered the world of personal videos.

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ADVENTURE 2

Objective: You will comment on a video and also give it a rating.

DIRECTIONS

An important piece of participating in the social aspect of video and media resources is to rate and comment on videos or other digital media that you see. It is also very interesting to see what other people have said about a particular video.

  1. If you haven’t already watched the video “A Vision for Students Today,” then do a search for “Digital Ethnography” and watch “A Vision for Students Today.”
  2. Click on the stares below the video where it says Rate where 1 star is not good and 5 stars is very good.
  3. Now scroll through and look at some of the comments that other people have made on the video.
  4. With this many comments, it is sometimes good to get different areas of comments. Scroll to the bottom and go a couple of pages back to see different comments.
  5. Go all the way to very beginning and read some of the first comments made.
  6. Click on “Post a Text Comment” and add your thoughts about this video.

 

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ADVENTURE 3

Objective: You will setup a playlist of a couple of videos and then share them.

DIRECTIONS

Now that you have the hand of YouTube, it is now time for you to create a playlists of videos and then share them. A playlist is a group of related videos that can then be shared with your students or colleagues. This is a great way for a class or group of people to see a related set of videos.

  1. Do a search in YouTube for videos on a topic that you are interested.
  2. Find a video you like and then click on Playlist below the video.
  3. In the drop down menu that appears, select [New Playlist] and click OK.
  4. Give the playlist a name, a description, and put some descriptive words in the tags section.
  5. Under privacy, choose private and click OK.
  6. Find a couple of more videos related to this topic and add them to the playlist you have created.
  7. Now at the top right of the page, your username should be listed with a down arrow next to it. Click on you name and select playlists.
  8. Now you should see your playlist and the videos in the playlist. You can remove videos from your playlist in addition to playing them all.
  9. Click on Share This Playlist.
  10. In the window that comes up, enter your email address, your name, and a message and click Send. You’ve now just sent your playlist to yourself. You could have easily just sent this to your class.

 

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ADVENTURE 4

Objective: Download a video

DIRECTIONS

Now that you understand how to find videos, it is now time to download a video that you could then use later in class (in case you have trouble getting to the site, etc.), use in a presentation, or include in a mashup. In this adventure, we are going to use a website called KeepVid. KeepVid allows you to enter a URL (web address) and if there is a video there, download it to your machine.

  1. Go back to YouTube and do another search and find a video you like.
  2. Highlight the URL at the top of the browser (begins http://www.youtube.com/ . . .) and hit Ctrl-C to copy the address.
  3. Go to http://keepvid.com/ and paste the URL you copied in to the box labeled URL and click Download.
  4. Once you have clicked Download, you are given 2 options to download the video. FLV is low quality and difficult to use. MP4 will be easier to use and will be high quality. Right click on Download next to the MP4 option, choose Save As, and choose to download the desktop.
  5. You can now play this video at a later time or use it in video editing software.

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ADVENTURE 5

Objective: Investigate other video and media resource websites

DIRECTIONS

There are so many other video and media resource websites out there where you and your teachers can find digital media that you can use in your classes. By no means is this an exhaustive list, but below are a few sites that might be worth investigating. From other video posting sites to appliances that allow you to store, manipulate, and use videos, there is something here for everyone.

Enjoy taking a look!

Snapstream:http://www.snapstream.com/

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