Using video for flexibility

Image: New camera :) woo by chegs on Flickr

Videos and flexible learningIn the face-to-face session today we had a bit of a discussion about creating teaching videos and how this can be included in a Flexible learning Plan. There are some great examples to look at:

• Horticulture videos at: http://wikieducator.org/Horticulture
• Chainsaw maintenance: http://wikieducator.org/Maintain_a_chainsaw
• Cookery blog: http://otagocookeryl4.blogspot.com/

If you wish to create videos for your teaching and learning and include this approach in your flexible learning plan, the emphasis is on what sort of videos you would create and why they will increase flexibility for your students' learning and for your teaching. You also need to build in time to search for material which is already avaialble on the web - Youtube, blip.tv etc - a general Google search for video on your topic of choice will bring up a lot of material I am sure.

Considerations to include in your plan - remember you do not have to create them for this course just make a plan for how to create them and why you have chosen the approach and what you need to do to make it happen.

Also think about how the use of videos in your teaching and learning environment will address:
* access & equity - format of the videos and where they will be stored, who will access them and how etc,
* cultural sensitivity/diversity - learning preferences of your students, universal design etc;
* sustainability - cost of producing - resourcing, time, equipment (departmental capex can be used for development to pay a design student for example who can help with production and editing), your time - also think about the place they will be stored and how easy this is to do, ease of linking to them.

Storage
Should the videos be stored on an open website such as Youtube, Blip.tv or on a passworded site such as Unitube or Moodle where they are not as accessible but more secure. However they may get "locked away causing problems later on when people try and find them to reuse them. They may even end up re-creating them again. Is this sustainable in the long term?

This is just the tip of the iceberg cos there are other options as well such as vodcasting/podcasting - broadcasting video clips to which students can subscribe. They can do this if you put them on a blog or on blip.tv or Youtube by subscribing to your vids. You could also create video clips on your mobile and send them directly to a web site.

The bonus is that if using video and uploading them to blip.tv or Youtube, students could subscribe to your videos and download them directly from there to an ipod or other portable player for viewing in the field. How cool is that!?

Examples
a couple of vids by Leigh Blackall to look at explaining how to do this.

1. Mobile videos-Youtube, web-based editing Kaltura
2. adding videos to WikiEducator using RSS (this is how Horticulture ones are done): http://blip.tv/file/978335/


Have fun and I would love to hear your ideas about using video in teaching. Or if you don't want to go that far, how about audio podcasts? ....that is another story for another day.