Week 4: Video

Evaluating a "found" video



I teach 7th through 12th grade alternative education students but most of them are in high school. The school has really been pushing us to get the students ready for the SAT since they are going to be testing 9th and 10th graders on the PSAT while the 11th graders, and any 12th graders that need to as well, will be taking the SAT in March (1 more month). My students complete all of their daily assignments on the computer and like to take "breaks" and watch videos on sites like YouTube. A lot of my students are not used to "studying" in a traditional sense because their work is done on the computer, it is self-paced, and they do not have homework. I thought this short video would introduce them to some simple study skills that would help them as they prepare to take the PSAT/SAT tests.

I like this video because it meets almost all of the 10 factors to consider when evaluating a podcast and the design principles for multimedia. The content is definitely appropriate for learning about study skills. This video would enhance a lesson on how to study by giving them tips of things to do, and not to do, when studying for test. We can then use these tips, and ideas, for a larger class discussion on studying and what works for them, and what doesn't work, and have them share ideas that have helped them to study for, and do well on, tests in the past. This video meets the standards for acceptable use in our school and is well organized and easy to follow. The audio is clear and easy to understand and I think it would hold my students attention because it is filmed in a high school setting with high school students and is narrated by a high school student. My students are able to use YouTube to view videos on their computer, so formatting of this video is not a problem. As far as credibility, I think every students is different and every student studies differently. This video would be explained as a way to give us some ideas of things we can do to help us study for the SAT. Listening and viewing this video online is the best method for my students because that is what they are used to doing. I did not see any additional online content present in this video, but this video is just one video in a whole series of videos created to help students get better grades. I was able to find this video on several different educational websites and it does not have a license attached to it. Therefore, the YouTube version of the video follows the standard YouTube license.


My video

SAT Study Strategies


Here is the link if the video above doesn't work: https://www.powtoon.com/online-presentation/e1BC0ywMcbH/sat-study-strategies/#/

Use in the classroom:

I intend to use this for all of my students that have to take the PSAT or the SAT in March. This would be a quick video for them to reference if they are wondering what they should study or how to study for the test. I would then try and incorporate this video making into one of their assignments because I think they would really enjoy it and have fun creating one. If they can successfully create a video about their specific assignment then that would show me that they know how to use the technology. Incorporating creativity will give my students something new and different to do during the day, rather than their usual computer education program that they use everyday and all day. This will allow my students to be creative and show their creativity while still learning things at the same time. I would have to consider how to give my students credit, or a grade, for their creativity because if they are not getting credit for it, or if they know that it is not required in order for them to graduate, they will not complete it!

Application:

I tried to use several design principles for instructional multimedia by using the signaling principle. Keeping the video text simple and creating more of an outline helps not overwhelm the student with information. When considering the redundancy principle I decided to use text and not narration when giving the information to the students. I figured this way they would be able to go back and read material as needed to gather the information. I also used the spatial and temporal contiguity with graphics and text combined per slide throughout the video. This supports creativity because students can see that there are several different way of convey the same information. They will be able to use text or speech when creating their own videos for their assignment.

Reflection:

I loved working on this video this week. I thought that is was really fun and I kept thinking about my students and how much fun they would have creating their own videos like this. I have never created anything like this and didn't know about this technology, so learning this new technology is really exciting for me and I cannot wait to show it to my students and let them try it as well!