Colleagues,
If you – or adult education teachers or tutors you know – are interested in sharing on video what you do in your adult education (basic literacy, ABE, ASE, ESOL/ESL, or transition to higher ed) classes, you may earn fame and glory, have a video of your teaching that is useful for job applications and/or in applying for a teaching credential, and – - if you are seen as a good teacher – you may get many, many public thanks from adult learners.
Here’s an example. About a year ago I uploaded to YouTube a video that my Media Library of Teaching Skills colleague and I made of a Massachusetts GED® preparation class on how to write a five-paragraph essay. The video was designed for professional development purposes, but once we posted it on YouTube, adult learners also found it. As of today there have been over 46,000 views, and many appreciative comments from students and other teachers. You can see the YouTube version of the video and comments about it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djqpUAmrWuE . You can see many adult education professional development videos (some that we made, some made by others) at http://mlots.org. (Be sure to look at the others’ videos page at http://mlots.org/Other_video.html .)
If you want to make your own classroom or tutoring video, find someone who knows how to make authentic classroom videos. This could be another teacher, a colleague or a professional videographer. Ideally there will be two cameras and at least two mics, one of which is a lapel mic for you, and the other is for (at least one group of) the students. Expensive equipment is not needed. Make the video in your own classroom. Ask the videographer to pay attention to light and sound issues and also provide her/him with a copy of your lesson plan in advance so s/he can plan where to put the cameras and what to record. Be sure to get written permission from everyone who will be in the video to allow you post the video on the Internet for educational purposes.
The hard part, if you have a long video made with more than one camera, is that this will need editing. There are teachers –-not the faint of heart – who learn and like to do video editing, but for most teachers this is more than they want to take on.
You can ask your videographer to edit the video footage, of course, but this is usually a time-consuming job, so you should expect – even if s/he has volunteered to do the shooting, to pay for her/his editing time.
If you want to make this a larger project, perhaps having teachers trained to do the video recording of each others' classes, and having the editing done by professionals, email me and I can send you a proposal template that explains how to do this and that might help you get the needed funding
If you make a video you like, you can post it on YouTube for free. Please let me – and others here -- know if you do. We might want to link to it on the Media Library of Teaching Skills web site.
David J. Rosen
Djrosen123@gmail.com
Comments
David, this is an exciting proposition! As a former CTE teacher and media enthusiast I would encourage teachers to look to other local resources to help them with the production side of this type of project. Some examples could include:
1. If you have a local ROP (Regional Occupational Program) or CTE (Career Tech Ed) they may offer digital media courses where their final projects could be this type of video.
2. In smaller communities there are often community-based cable or TV stations - they usually run with volunteers, but teachers may find resources there too.
3. If your local high school has any type of multi-media classes or even after-hours clubs, students would appreciate an opportunity to create videos to bolster their own portfolio (or maybe to fullfill a final project too).
I hope teachers will take advantage of their local resources and be willing to share their expertise with fellow teachers, and as you pointed out, all interested learners!
Great suggestions, Penny.
Everyone: Penny and her colleagues at OTAN http://www.otan.us in California are themselves great resources. OTAN was one of the inspirations for the Media Library of Teaching Skills, and we have linked to many of their fine, short classroom videos on integrating technology in the adult education classroom.
Penny, or others at OTAN, I wonder if you would like to comment on your process for making these videos. How do you find such great teachers who are doing so many interesting things with technology? (Do they ever find you?) How do you persuade excellent (but camera-shy) teachers to let you video record their classes? Do you agree that editing the videos is the hardest -- most time-consuming part? Are you aware of state-funded agencies in other states that have made videos of adult education teachers' classrooms?
For that matter, there are others in this CoP who as teachers have made their own classroom videos, and teachers who have been video recorded. Let's year from you. What was that experience like? What tips do you have for other teachers who might want to participate in a project where their classes are video recorded?
David J. Rosen
djrosen123@gmail.com
Colleagues who are interested in using or making instructional videos,
Another useful resource is the Adult Literacy Education Wiki. In the Technology area, you will find this page of links and resources devoted to using video with adult learners http://wiki.literacytent.org/index.php/Using_Video_with_Adult_Learners_-_Links_%26_Resources
Topics include:
How to Create Videos
Video-Making Tools
How to Incorporate Videos in Class
Video Streaming
Ready-made Video Resources
Instructional Videos Useful for Adult Learners
Blogs
Samples of Student Created Videos
David J. Rosen
Djrosen123@gmail.com