Audience (Teachers in a cohort setting)

Welcome! You as a teacher are enrolled in an online cohort. You will be able to communicate
and discuss with other members of this group. Your assignments and your participation in
discussion forms will focus on effective educational video making skills that are intended to
benefit your students, yourself as an educator and your teaching colleagues. 

How to create and implementing educational videos in the 21st classroom: Please consider
the criteria below as a guide in creating your final project.

1. Clear purpose: What is your video lesson topic? Is it a screen cast or a recording of yourself
teaching? Is an educational video appropriate for your intended lesson? What advantage will it
bring to your students? What are students doing while watching your tutorial video, what are
students doing after watching the video?

2. Audio and video quality: To ensure an effective video, your final product must convey a clear
understanding from the learner. Audio and video must be effectively used without any
irrelevant on-screen distractions as well as poor video editing. 

3. Appropriate video timing: It would be a good idea to break up your lessons into smaller video
segments, rather than having one long video lesson. This will be beneficial, as students will be
more likely to obtain attention and focus as well as having the ability to navigate to specific
lesson topics as desired. 

4. Language: You are teaching to an inexperienced, young audience. Ensure that language used
is simple and easy for students to understand. Avoid technical language. Afterall, the whole
purpose of your video is to have students to fully understand content. It would be
counterproductive if you are having students asking questions regarding unfamiliar language
and terminology expressed in your video.

5. Organization The planning phase is important: create an outline or list of what your tutorial
will contain and what its structure will be; this will help keep it clear and organized. Go through
the process and take notes that you will use during video creation. Think of the questions and
troubles you had when you went through the process for the first time. Include also the minor
steps that might seem obvious to you as an expert: they are not for someone who is a beginner.

6. Content: Always start each video lesson by giving students an introduction: this should
include a brief explanation of the tutorial’s goals, an on-screen list of what is needed to
complete the project, and an overview of the areas you will cover. This will prepare students
before you get into the heart of your lesson. 
Why use video in the classroom?

The use of video is beneficial in the 21 st century classroom as it allows students to become self-sufficient
with their learning, it increases the potential range of topics that can be studied by the student, creates
an efficient learning environment and teaches students essential life skills that can be transferred in
many scenarios later in students’ futures. Having video as an educational resource in part of a blended
learning environment allows the teacher to facilitate learning in partnership with the student. The
student is self-sufficient, on task and is driven by passion and personal interest. The teacher is no longer
the bearer of all information and the student is actively researching topic information, using video as a
learning aid. Along with students learning about their given topic of interest, they also gain valuable life
skills by researching, problem solving and learning how to be resourceful. These skills will heavily benefit
each student once they are ready to endure career and job-related problem-solving tasks. Whether
videos are developed by the teacher and shared to the student or developed by a third party and
researched by the student, students can access a broad range of knowledge to further answer their
questions.

From the teacher’s perspective, incorporating video in the classroom can be a great tool to maximize the
efficiency of student learning. As mentioned, the teacher is no longer the bearer of all information
meaning that students will be accessing video to meet their learning needs. The teacher is now checking
in with each student or group of students, guiding them towards the desired result. Also, if a student is
absent for instance; a video can be watched multiple times and there is no major consequence from a
learning perspective when students miss class or forget content delivered by the teacher. Information
can be accessed at any time with video use, even when not in the classroom. When all put to practice,
video use in 21st century learning can assist students in meeting their learning needs, maximize learning
efficiency and help students become more resourceful in general which will benefit them in their
futures.