Educational Video Techniques – A Bridge to Technology
By Kimberly Stohlman

So you’re taking the first step into using online tools in your classroom. While it can be very scary drafting up a lesson plan for using technology, it’s not as hard as you think. Have you mastered the use of a video in your classroom? Then you can stop worrying and get back to planning your lesson. If you can use a video or DVD in a classroom setting, then you can use newer technology.

One of the real advantages of using online tools in your classroom is that you have so much more of it available. You really do have the world at your fingertips. No more hunting around catalogs and your school’s audiovisual resources – or your local library – for the perfect video to suit your lesson or trying to get the VCR to record that spot-on program for your unit on, say, the Middle Ages. Using the internet, you can often find video clips that are suitable without much hassle. If you’re only starting out with using the internet in your classroom, online video clips and YouTube are the easiest online resources to create a lesson plan for.

But you don’t have to just stop there. No matter what topic you are creating a lesson plan for, you can find some way to fit just a little bit of the modern tools into it. As a starter, how about these ideas?

• Online presentations. Who says the old-fashioned presentation in front of the class has to be seen by the pupils who are present on that particular day? Why not record the presentation and post it to YouTube or to your class or school website? Often, parents have seen the progress of a big project, and it can be rewarding for them to see the final presentation as well. Of course, you may have to create a lesson plan for teaching presentation skills…
• Have an online discussion. While these won’t ever replace live face-to-face discussions, online discussions can allow more people to join in. If you’re discussing solutions to world poverty in your class, widening this to an online discussion allows you to maybe invite someone working on the frontlines (e.g. someone from an aid agency) to join the discussion and give a unique perspective that isn’t just theoretical. How do you know whom to invite to your online discussion? Well, maybe finding out who’s doing what and whose opinion to invite may be something else you can create a lesson plan for.
• Have an online scavenger hunt. Going online to find interesting and relevant material doesn’t just have to be kept for formal reports and projects. How about using them as a tool for understanding literature? Most unit plans for a novel study have a lesson plan for understanding the setting and the background in them somewhere, and you can use technology for this. How about, in a lesson plan for a Romeo and Juliet study, hunting for as many versions of the balcony scene as possible? Or for a study of Pride and Prejudice, how about finding pictures or even video clips of stately homes, dances, transport and clothing of the setting?

But don’t neglect the good old VCR or DVD player. They still have their place in the classroom and can and should thought of when you lesson plan for technology. However, you have to use them correctly! Mistakes you don’t even know you’re making can be affecting your lesson plan for the worse. Watch this free video for some important information on why and how you should be using school videos and download the expert guide for easy solutions.

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