Paperslide Videos! Easy Student-Made Video Content

Kids like videos. They like watching videos. They like making videos. Videos engage students. Teachers like engaged students. Therefore, teachers should like using videos during instruction.

That's a great concept. In the not-so-distant past, using video in the classroom meant either pushing the play button for a 2 hour sit and stare time or planning out the 2 week computer lab lesson where the teacher had to learn advanced skills and live stressed during the whole project.

This morning, Austin teachers participated in Discovery Education's Virtual Conference and heard Dr. Lodge McCammon of the Friday Institute share the simple Paperslide Video concept in an online webinar. The paperslide video is merely the idea that students create graphic representations on paper that slide across the table below a video camera. No faces on screen, no names given, and the whole process can take less than 25 minutes.

Do you know what 'integers' are?  Watch this student-made video and see if you learn anything.

On Dr. Lodge's website, he discusses  the Why and How to differentiate your instruction in the classroom using these quick one-take videos.  He had over 30 free to use songs on Discovery Streaming in many different curriculum disciplines.  All students have to do is apply the lesson content to their one-page graphics and let their Multiple Intelligences engage them in their learning process.

- Video on "How To Make A Paperslide Video"
- Video and printables describing the successful "No Lecture Classroom"

Teachers using classroom technology, like the standard document camera on the Innovation Station, can easily capture student work in a video and in less than a single class period, they can have students create and publish their work online to be shared with peers and parents! Use the document camera creatively to capture students showing understanding of concepts. It WILL pay off in the classroom.

Quick Classroom-made Videos!

So you are getting used to using a document camera during your instruction.  Are you taking advantage of the video capture capabilities? The AISD Innovation Station's document camera will capture video onto the SD memory card that came with it. Many other brands of document cameras will also capture video.  Try capturing project directions on video and putting it out there for the students to review on the school shared network or your online classroom website.

But can the students also use the video capture?  Sure they can!  We have middle school Language Arts teachers capturing student book report presentations on video. We have student math demonstrations in high school being captured as a group reteach resource. I've been in discussions with elementary teachers about using captured video clips in a student's digital portfolio that travels with him from grade to grade.

Dr. Lodge McCammon, demonstrates how 'paper slide videos' are easily made in the classroom. These are videos with a mounted camera, like the doc cam, and students create their visuals on separate pieces of paper. Sometimes the content is student-created graphics that illustrate an educational song (many cool tunes available on DiscoveryEducation.com that cover high school-level economics through elementary science) or videos like the example here which is a simple voice-over with graphics.




Don't be afraid to try something new or different.  Remember, our digital natives are often looking for reasons to come to school in the first place. With an already-made audio, your doc cam or digital video camera, and warm student body, a teacher can spend half a class period making a video that could stick in their heads the rest of the week. (Believe me. I still have the sublimate song stuck from 3 weeks ago!)

What is a Mashup?

Sounds like 7:30am on Hwy 35, but a Mashup is actually the product of combining two or more web content creations into one digital product.  It can be as simple as using a Wordle picture in your Picnik picture or more complex like having your Blabberize character narrate a YouTube video from within a Google Earth flyover tour.  (Sounds like fun, huh!)

There are many ways to do this, but finding good turorials about mixing web 2.0 media sources can be challenging.  Our friends at Discovery Education presenting "Media Mashups" this summer and have just put up some of their turorials and examples onto the Discovery Education blog.  Hall Davidson posted this with lots of links to their downloadable instructions and online examples. It's really an incredible resource.

This video is from Hall and Steve Dembo, from Discovery Education, and it gives a great example of a high-level mashup as well as good background about Web 2.0.  This comes from a six part video series for educators about Web 2.0. 

--Instructional?--

Our Innovation Stations can not only display the products that the students create, but the document camera can help capture stills and videos that can be used in these products. The Discovery blog linked to above gives tips for making green screen videos. For a large flat green screen, how about making a chromakey-green slide in Powerpoint and projecting it on the screen?

How else could you use your IS to make a Mashup?