"Video Killed the Radio Star"

"Video killed the radio Star"--The Buggles circa 1980

If there's one thing that's constant it's change. As teachers this has been a big year for change. Many of us have made more youtube videos than we ever thought we would, or wanted to, ha! I know that I personally did.

The main way that I made videos for students was through Screencastify to record myself, while drawing on my Surface Pro to explain a concept. I would then publish those videos to YouTube, after which I could embed them in other sites for the students to access. I know many teachers used similar methods. These videos helped us to survive distance learning, and were the best option that many of us had to provide instruction to our students.

For example: I put the homework assignments on Edulastic and would embed video instructions, going through the steps of how to complete them. The video below came from the Math 2, 2.8 Set, from the Open Up Resources High School Mathematics curriculum.

However, I wonder how well received they were. If students were not watching them, and engaged with them, then they were not learning from them. I think of the studies that have been done that document the changes in brain functioning of children that grow up with cellphones and tablets. Their findings typically show that children's attention spans are greatly diminished. Due to this, this new generation of children need things to look more like the apps and games they are used to interacting with.

To that end, I always try to keep a good list of videos that go above and beyond my skill level, to create interesting and entertaining explanations of key concepts. Any of these videos can then be shared or assigned through Edpuzzle.

Here are some links to my playlists:

Integrated Math 1

Integrated Math 2

Also, for comparison, here is a video lesson on Edpuzzle from one of my favorite creators, Mashup Math. It covers the same skill as my video above, Factoring by Grouping.

Which one do you think that students would engage with the most?

Comments

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