As part of Task 16 I will talk a bit about some video-making tools that are currently available at a reasonable price.
One interesting video-making tool is Animoto, which enables us to create video slideshows based on music, photos and video clips. I explored Jing, Screen-O-Matic and Camtasia also. There are plenty of practical examples of how to use these tools. Admittedly, I am a newbie in video-making – used to think that this was the territory of the professional movie-makers. We still need the professionals to create good videos but the lower-end/amateur videos can now be made by the ordinary person on the street. Cheers for digital technology, which has lowered entry barriers for video creators.
Although video-making is not my thing, it is something worth trying in the classroom for the upcoming academic year in September 2015. Video presentations are good for introducing a subject to students who are not fond of hearing my voice. I’ll just let the video and background music do the job. To this end, it also helps me retain more energy for other activities in class since I can talk less. For big classes, the videos are excellent substitutes for board work – it is easier to see video content than someone’s handwriting. Moreover, video content can leave a deeper and more lasting impression on students – a great aid to the learning process! The downside is that it takes up a good deal of time to prepare the videos – time is not usually on our side here as the teaching hours usually exceed 20 hrs per week.
Nouveau Economie 