Videosharing

The world of YouTube and social media is one in which our students are so familiar with and has now become part of young people’s culture. How did we get to this point, and what does it mean for education? (Soloman & Schrum, 2007)

Reflections of The Process    

 Being the digital dabbler that I am, I already had a YouTube account and have uploaded videos to it before. I have never felt compelled to share what I have created with the world and chose to keep my channel somewhat private. I know this defeats the purpose of videosharing, but I am not at the point that I feel comfortable broadcasting myself so that the whole world can see. Perhaps I should rethink this choice, especially after Justin Beiber became famous from a YouTube video. Maybe I too could become famous by simply putting myself out there? I did upload an Animoto video to YouTube this summer, but I haven’t had any calls from agents. If you know of any can you please pass this on?






Reflections on the Process of Learning About the Tool

Since I had already dabbled with YouTube, TeacherTube, Animoto, Windows Movie Maker, Adobe Premier elements, and imovie, and various screencasting tools, I decided to explore some of the other moviemaking and moviesharing tools available on the internet. As always I looked to my favourite Technology Blogging guru, Richard Bryne, for ideas. I decided to try a few of his suggested movie making tools that appeared in his “Making Videos On the Web-A Guide For Teachers.”

Open publication - Free publishing

The first one I tried was Masher, which is a free tool for creating video mash-ups. Masher allows you to upload your own music, images, and videos, and offers a wide variety of themes through the masher library. The tool itself was pretty easy to use at first because of the simple drag and drop interface but as I continued to add some of the different features others disappeared and I was quite frustrated as there was no “undo” button and I could not figure out what I was doing wrong.

The video clips that I chose from the masher library had a set time allotted to them and it was too long. Unfortunately I don’t have any movie making equipment of my own to test out how Masher works if you are uploading your own work. I will have to try another time as I think this is another potential tool for students to use.

I also tried Photopeach which is another free tool that allows you to upload images from your computer, Picassa, Flickr, or Facebook to create an audio slideshow. Photopeach allows you to add text and music, and you are able to determine the order of appearance of your photos, but you can’t import any video. Photopeach does not have all of the bells and whistles that other video creation tools do, but sometimes less is more.

New York 2010 on PhotoPeach



Even though I am quite content with Jing as my number one screencasting tool I thought I would explore what other tools are available. Screentoaster would do in a pinch if you were desperate to share and record what was happening on your screen. Unfortunately, it records with this image in the middle of your screen. To me, this defeats the purpose because you can’t see what is actually happening on the screen.

Videosharing and My Personal Life

I find myself, on the first week-end in October, feeling a sort of calmness. Or is it more a sense of normalcy in my life? After a month of getting into the swing of things I feel like I am figuring out a routine of balancing my teacher-librarian work, my teaching, my own school work, and my extra-curricular activities. Does this mean that my life is no longer chaotic? No, I am now accepting it as the norm. I think after a month and a bit I am getting better at managing and scheduling my time, after all I did spend many hours hashing out a color coded schedule for myself on my outlook calendar trying to get organized.

With this new sense of calmness, I spent the earlier part of the morning sipping on a cappuccino in my sunny front room while delving into a new YA novel that I am reviewing for our SYRCA Willows Book Awards. Even though I am reading for pleasure, because YA books are my favourite, I still have a purpose for reading and specific criteria to keep in mind as I read. As I revisited general criteria for reviewing books I had an “aha” moment. Why don’t I develop criteria for reviewing the web 2.0 tools that we are exploring this term? I started brainstorming what the criteria would look like and interestingly enough I discovered that the same criteria such as: audience, value, noteworthiness, purpose, applicability, and overall recommendations, for reviewing books could apply to reviewing web 2.0 tools.

Audience: Me

Value: A few years ago my husband taught himself to whistle through his fingers by watching a “how to” Youtube Video and it worked. Even though I primarily use YouTube as a learning tool for educational purposes there have been times that it has come in handy. We don’t own a video camera or a flipcam and the only video we have is on our smart phones and we don’t use that feature too often. Youtube and other videosharing tools are great for my job as a TL and teacher but in my personal life I seem to be more of a consumer of videosharing tools than a creator.

Noteworthy Features: I have a few friends that live overseas and we use Skype to talk to each other on a regular basis and we really enjoy having the video feature available. I can show my friend in Australia how much snow we got by simply taking my laptop outside.

Would I recommend videosharing?: I don’t use it very often in my personal life so it is difficult to recommend something that I don’t use. Although, there are times when my friends, or my husband and I share videos that we come across that are interesting, or applicable to our lives.  The other day my husband sent the following video as he thought it was quite clever. Even though we may not be creating the videos we are still connecting to them, and being a consumer of them.


Bottle from Kirsten Lepore on Vimeo.


Purpose: I know of some young parents that record their child’s first steps and other significant moments and share them with the proud grandparents via the internet. Maybe when I get to that point in my life I may choose to do the same. The purpose for videosharing in my personal life is striclty for entertainment.

Applicable? Despite not being a creator of videos, I consume and enjoy watching them. I will continue to save, and pass on videas that I think friends and family would enjoy.

Overall Recommendation?  Videosharing tools can be entertaining, purposeful, and informative. Don't forget to use them as a resource the next time you need to learn how to change a tire.  

Videosharing and Teaching

Audience: K-8 students at my school, teachers, and teacher-librarians.

Value: The Saskatchewan Ministry of Education is currently renewing curricula from K-12 and the new curricula emphasizes the importance of developing an inquiry stance to instruction and fostering "inquiring habits of mind that lead to deeper understanding of their world and human experience. (Saskatchewan Ministry of Education, 2009).  Shifts in education are occuring around the world and the "bottom line is that the changing nature of information and communications and how students are making sense of the world demands that we develop new strategies for teaching and learning" (Berger &Trexler, 2010, p.7). So, why not teach with the tools that the students are using?  In the 21st century we must strive to move beyond simply teaching our students to learn how to use technology tools, but more importantly to consider how the tools may enable our students to be more creative, to communicate and collaborate globally, and how to manage and organize the massive amounts of information that they have access to.

Videosharing tools such as Skype provide all of our students from K-12  with an opportunity to connect with experts around the world, and to communicate with, and learn from students from other countries and cultures. During my research this past week I came across the Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration website that has been created for educators around the world to post potential collaborative learning opportunities. I e-mailed six or seven educators that were looking for schools to collaborate with and I am excited to see if any of the teachers reply. This would be an excellent opportunity for our students learning to move beyond the four walls of the classroom. YouTube, and other social media sites have the ability to push our students thinking forward. A few years ago I had my grade 11 English class create digital stories about a significant moment in their life. The process took them quite some time as they began with the writing process, moved into storyboarding, considered what media they were going to use, found copyright free images and music to express their new knowledge and understanding. In the past this lesson only required them to think  in a linear fashion and only encompassed one type of literacy rather than multiple literacies.

In the library I can see videosharing playing a key role. As you know, I am new to the role of teacher-librarianship and I am working towards creating a participatory culture in my library. A space where the students can come to create, connect, share, contribute, and converse with others. Buffy Hamilton talks about ways in which teacher-librarians can acheive this in her slideshare presentation "Beyond Balance: Participatory Librarianship for creating, connecting, conversing, and contributing"

Beyond Balance: Participatory Librarianship for Creating, Connecting, Conversing, and Contributing

View more presentations from Buffy Hamilton.

I gleaned a lot of useful information from this presentation and I firmly beleive that videosharing and other web 2.0 tools are the key to giving our students a voice in the library. One of the ways in which I hope to create this culture is by creating a learning commons blog where I can highlight students work, and have the students contribute their thoughts and ideas. This year I am hoping to have our very own Book Teasers Awards, similar to the School Library Journal Trailee Awards. I have already started talking to other schools to see if this is something we could all collaborate together on.

Noteworthy: Projects can be easily edited, and peers can provide feedback with most photosharing tools.

Purpose: Supports and extends students learning beyond the four walls of the classroom. Videosharing can be used to invite and engage our students to participate in making the library their own.

Would I recommend it? Absolutely. As we move forward in the 21st century we will continue to see tremendous shifts in the information and communication landscapes, and this will continue to impact and transform the way our students read, write, learn, and contribue to society. I beleive that video-sharing has the ability to teach our students to: inquire, think critically, share knowledge, participate ethically and productively, communicate and collaborate globally, and to pursue personal and aesthetic growth. These skills reflect the AASL's Standards for the 21st Century Learner and are essential to allow our students to develop the skills and knowledge to be successful contributing members of society.

References
Berger, Pam & Sally Trexler (2010). Choosing Web 2.0 Tools for Learning and Teaching in a Digital World. Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited.

Solomon, Gwen & Schrum Lynn (2007). Web 2.0 new tools, for new schools. Washington, DC: International Society for Technology in Education.

Brooks-Young, Susan (2010). Teaching with the tools kids really use. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin a Sage Company.